Drum Corps International to hold world competition in Indianapolis

INDIANAPOLIS – Before the Indianapolis Colts kick off their 2008 season in the new Lucas Oil Stadium, thousands of young adults will step on the field first for their own competition. \nDrum Corp International, “marching music’s major league,” is set to move its World Championships to Indianapolis in August 2008, according to its Web site.\nBut before Indianapolis became the home of DCI, the city played host to major regional event “DCI Indianapolis” as part of the 2007 Summer Music Games Tour on Saturday night at the RCA Dome.\nTen division one corps competed to win the regional event.\nThe ten corps, which are each allowed to have a maximum of 128 participants per corps between the ages of 13 and 22, performed an 11-minute routine to be judged out of a maximum 100 points. This year’s winner, the Blue Devils, scored 92.55 points.\nThe routines consisted of musicians and dancers performing physically demanding shows. Many corps had members covering nearly the entire field throughout the routine.\nAdd the physicality to the demanding travel schedule, and you get many physically active DCI participants. But a lot of the training is done on their own, said Adam Wiencken, an IU junior who plays snare drum for The Cavaliers, a corps stationed out of Rosemont, Ill.\n“Most of it is up to us,” Wiencken said. “We have camps once a month in the winter and a two-week training at the beginning of the summer.”\nWhen summer starts, the corps hit the road and perform all over the country, leading up to the World Championships. Wiencken said he joined the Cavaliers this year and has performed with the Madison Scouts for the last four years. He said he enjoys touring despite the demanding schedule.\n“Touring is pretty awesome,” Wienchen said. “Every day is a new day. We rehearse, perform, hang out with the other corps, drive somewhere else and do it all over again.”\nTo keep up with the fast-paced life of DCI, Wiencken has to do a lot of work on his own during the school year.\n“I go to the SRSC to play basketball a lot for cardio,” Wiencken said. “I run around campus at night. Once summer gets close, I cut out pop and watch what I eat more.”\nThe training seems to pay off, as DCI has a network of more than 250,000 fans, many of whom are regular followers.\nOne of these regular fans, IU junior Juliana Musmanno, said she tries to make it to a DCI show every summer and enjoyed the Indianapolis atmosphere.\n“I used to go to the show in Pittsburgh at a high school,” Musmanno said. “It’s really nice to see people enthused (in Indianapolis). Ours isn’t nearly this professional. We don’t even have security.”\nMusmanno learned about DCI through marching band in high school, as did incoming IU freshman Evan Appleman, who marched for Lawrence North High School in Indianapolis. \nAppleman said he has been attending the Indianapolis show for the past three years and enjoys it every year. \n“People are really nice here,” Appleman said. “It’s just a fun experience. I’d love to do a corps, but I just don’t have the time.”