inspired by my daughter -- twirlers

[jennyanydots]

doe syour high school have batton twirlers?

we don't. we have cheerleading and a dance team, but no one who works with battons. my dd has a friend who is a twirler, but she belongs to a private organization that enters twirling competitions.

 

[grinningghost]

Nope. No twirlers at DD's high school.

 

[fanofmickey]

No twirlers at our school.

 

[nkjzmom]

Both of our local high schools have majorettes. Where are you guys from? I think it is very popular down south. I have noticed that it is quite a snobby group of girls though....like it's an exclusive club. (Not saying all baton twirlers are...I was a baton twirler in my "former life")

I twirled with a dance school growing up in FL. The high school band director didn't want alot of auxiliaries taking attention from his band so he had only 1 majorette, a small flag corp, and huge dance corp...eventually they all came together as a large dance squad that occasionally used props. When I came to Alabama I didn't even try out for majorette, I enjoyed color guard/flag corp much more.

 

[jennyanydots]

I'm from Long Island. my daughter is a cheerleader. I don't think that's as big a deal here as it is down south. a lot of kids are interested, but a lot of kids would much rather be taking drama and dance than cheerleading or twirling.

 

[Cthia]

Yes the high school has twirlers. I know they march with the band. There are several of them now, when I was in school there was only 2 girls that did it.

 

[Crankyshank]

The HS band has twirlers.
I used to be a twirler, but not in HS. I didn't want to wear the ugly costumes

 

[monkeyboy]

OK another misleading thread

 

[jel0511]

I couldn't tell you about the highschool in my town, because DD is only 6. But I was Head Majorette in my former life. We had approx 12 twirlers on the squad, and I was the one in the sequins twirling the fire during the finale!!! Yep, hard to believe now....... I hope they do, because I had a lot of fun!!!!

 

[aunties]

Another former twirler here. Our hgh school hasn't had twirlers for about 10 years. After thirteen years of teaching them, I retired. Too many cold Thanksgiving mornings! I loved it though and sometimes miss it. The marching band now just has flags. Twirling used to be very popular. I can remember competitions with close to 100 girls in a category when I started. Now, there are very few competitions in the area.

 

[leahannpen]

I twirled baton from the day I could walk until I was almost 14. I took private lesson for all those years and I practiced 4 to 5 days per week, every week. Then the weekends were contests. UGH! LOL!!!!!

I did some twirling for my schools once in a while and I'd do parades for other schools who requested me, but it's not a big thing in this area for twirlers in schools.

Twirling as a whole has really dwindled. It's sad.

Oh, and not all the costumes were ugly! LOL!

 

[NotUrsula]

It's dying. Most bands have dropped it now, and band competitions seldom score for it anymore. You still find school twirlers in the South, but they don't work much in lines now; it's nearly all solo work. How many kids want to try that hard for a solo slot?

Shame, too; it was REALLY good exercise. I still do it for that reason, even get out my torches and sabres once in a while. The neighborhood kids love watching, but most of them think it seems too hard to do.

It never had the social cachet of cheerleading, b/c it never had that reputation of putting you in a good position to date athletes. There are only a very few places where band guys are considered sexy.

There are still a fair number of clubs out there, mostly connected to dance schools. ABC and Star Line are still in business, so the market isn't dead yet.

 

[jimmiej]

Our HS band of 300 has four twirlers.

 

[ptcruisermom]

Oour hs band hasn't had them for about 2 or 3 years no one wanted to do it any longer. I am a former twirler we had 5 of us and probably had around 15 try out. When i was in 10th grade i was with 4 12th graders. Ieven did some twirling with our alumni band about9- 12 yars ago-great way to get back in shape. We would do a few local parades and play in the pre-game at homecoming. The alumni band even marched in the indy 500 parade, but i ddin't get to as I was pregnant with dd 10. We had a lot of fun.

 

[torismom]

My dd 6 belongs to a twirlers club here in town. She loves it. They perform in parades, half time shows for local football games, and other special going ons.

I really hope to find a club for her when we move to fl.

 

[Rock'n Robin]

Yes, they have them (also called Majorettes here) at the HS where I teach (3 of them for a band of 120) and where we live (don't know how many). Most schools I've seen play at our HS have majorettes and some type of flag corps as well. The thing with the girls and fake rifles (forget the name!) isn't very big around here.
Robin M.

 

[Mimi Q]

Our high school has 5 majorettes. The middle school has more than that, but I am not sure of the exact number.