Playing With the Girls

It was almost time for homecoming and we were busy getting ready for the biggest game of the year, besides Thanksgiving. While the band was polishing up the songs in the show, we were putting in extra hours with the dance team. The dance team captain had found a Beyonce song that had a drumline playing in the background, and she wanted us to play the part with them as they danced. We practiced with them a few unsuccessful times in the gym, but the drums echoed off of the concrete walls and metal ceiling, making it impossible for the girls to stay in time and hear the music.

We moved rehearsals outside on to the football field so that the girls could get the feel of dancing on grass instead of linoleum, and so that our drums wouldn't echo as bad. We soon found that our echoing drums may not have been the problem. The dance team was new to the school and contained various levels of dancers. Many of the girls could not stay on time to save their lives. It was frustrating for the line to play with the girls being so off tempo and frustrating for the captain who wanted to do more with the dance, but was stuck teaching the girls how to stay on beat.

As the dancers rehearsed over and over again, the drumline tried to come up with our choreography. " I think that we should each have a chance to dance to dance with a girl," the tenor player said.

"Oh and how're you going to do that with your drum on? And what am I supposed to do?" I asked.

"Shit. I forgot"

"OK, we need to come up with something where she doesn't look gay," the section leader said. "There goes all my ideas."

We ended up doing simple marching movements, but it looked pretty good with the girls all around us, finally able to sort of dance in time. We were satisfied with it and joined up with the band and the baton twirlers to rehearse music for homecoming, and watch the twirlers spin fire.