Natalie plays marimba in her school's indoor drumline. They start rehearsals after Christmas break and then compete from late January until April. She enjoys it, but it takes up a lot of time and we are all usually glad when the last competition is over. This season, Natalie kept herself and the other students amused by chronicling some of their adventures in her art. Here's what she had to say about the above picture and her experience at the first three competitions of the season:
Our first competition this year was quite early in the year--we didn't even have our uniforms yet, so we just wore jeans and our BJD shirts. (Ok--though I myself have never experienced this, I've heard from other students that they get very awkward stares when wearing their BJD shirts outside of school. I've gathered that "BJD" probably stands for something else, though I don't know exactly what...BUT, clearing this up right now, in this case, BJD="Bob Jones Drumline". :l) Well, just T-shirts and jeans isn't much when it's dark outside and the weather's in the lower 30s--darn near freezing! I don't mind cold weather, but only if I'm dressed for the occasion! We the pit were all freezing our fingers off by the time we got inside.
Our second competition was actually hosted by our own school. We had our uniforms by now--however, said uniforms do not include footwear of any kind this year. We were supposed to bring flip-flops to wear for when we went outside, but alas, myself and a few others didn't get the memo in time. Let me tell ya: pushing a marimba across the asphalt in bare feet is NOT fun! For a while I thought I might start leaving footprints of blood or something. Thankfully, I didn't, but it sure felt like I would.
Third and most recent competition was actually just this weekend. Problem: it was raining a bit during lot time...and there were even a few snow flurries. And lots and lots of gusty wind. They let us wear our hoodies to help as well as to make sure that the makeup didn't run off, but that didn't stop the cold from creeping in--especially through the feet. It was hurting to walk by the time it came to start heading down to the arena. Thank goodness I had the flip-flops this time, though!
Last week the drumline traveled to Dayton, Ohio, for their final performance of the year at the WGI Percussion World Championships. Their show is titled "From the Ashes" and is a representation of the story of the phoenix. The first video was taken several weeks ago. Because I took it, it stars Natalie with the rest of the drumline in the background. The second video was taken right before they left for worlds. By that time, they had improved a lot and made some adjustments to the show but, I wasn't the one who filmed it so it gives a better idea of what the show looked like as a whole.
And, just in case you want to see what a really good indoor drumline looks like, this was Natalie's favorite performance at worlds. It is by a professional group from Japan called Aimachi.
1 comment:
Wow- at first I was wondering what kind of school makes it's musicians perform without shoes- or considers flip flops adequate footwear, then I watched the video and it made more sense. But still- is it not good enough to be a musician anymore? They all have to be actors and dancers too? That is just a lot and they did it great!
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