Dancelines – High School and Collegate Marching Band Chorus Lines?

Imagine you are watching a football game, cheering your favorite college, university, or high school. When halftime rolls around, the marching band enters the field to perform their show. They play as they form letters and other patterns, the majorettes twirl their batons, and their color guards twirl their technicolor flags and rifles. Suddenly, you see a group of girls in fringed leotards and white boots, dancing on one spot on the field. They form a beeline and do a kick routine that reminds you of a Broadway show. You know that they are not part of the baton twirling/majorette squad, since they don’t twirl batons. What is that group of girls who kick along with the band? Are they making each marching band performance a Broadway-style spectacular? Are they making their halftime shows theatrical? What kind of group forms such a chorus line as their school’s marching band plays?

The New Brockton High Marching Boxers Danceline from Alabama (note kick routine, and fringed hoops)

My friends, the group of girls is known as a danceline.

Also sometimes known as a drill team, dance team, dance squad, or kickline, the group of girls can either be separate from or part of the collegiate or high school marching band. (those in high schools, colleges, and universities with a mainly-black population are a different story.) Their purpose is not only to provide a theatrical element by incorporating a dance performance and a kickline number to the band, but they also promote school spirit. As well as performing with the band at each halftime of a football game, they sometimes compete with others in district, state, and national competitions. Any high school, college, or university regardless of state can have a danceline, with those in Texas (where they are known as drill teams) and Alabama being notable examples.

Uniforms vary from group to group, state to state. In Texas, their high school drill teams usually don costumes based of cowgirl outfits – a short-skirted dress or fringed leotard and a Western-style vest with boots. For most others who also want the girls to show off their legs, they wear either the fringed leotards, short skirts, or dresses with either boots or jazz shoes. For those who want more modesty, they wear something as simple as a fitted top with jazz pants and dance sneakers.

The dance routines vary depending on the situation, namely the halftime show or the competition. sometimes for the former, they use props ranging from pom poms commonly associated with cheerleaders, fringed hoops, to ribbons. In some cases, such as in the context of most marching band programs in Alabama, they also twirl their flags alongside their color guard friends. They also do a jazz dance routine – with or without poms – with pirouettes, leaps, and kicks galore. The major component of a majority of dancelines is the kick routine, where the girls form a line and do high kicks to the music, just as a group of girls kick in a Broadway show.

Scottsboro High Marching Wildcats from Alabama

Are dancelines a mere auxiliary unit or a showy component of any high school or collegiate marching band? While they don’t add a smidgen much visuals as the color guard does, they add an appeal that makes any marching band entertaining. They are troupes of dancers accompanied by winds and percussion, but they are much more than merely junior chorus lines.

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