United States
Texas
Dance drill teams evolved from early pep squads and military-style drum and bugle corps that performed in the stands and/or during halftimes at football games.
Gussie Nell Davis, originally from Farmersville, Texas, laid the groundwork for what would eventually become the world famous Kilgore College Rangerettes located in Kilgore, Texas the world‘s first precision drill team when she created the "Flaming Flashes" pep squad at Greenville High School in 1929. Starting with simple marches, stunts, and letter formations, Davis led the Flashes to evolve into a dynamic squad, adding twirling batons, basic dance moves, and ultimately becoming a precision drum and bugle corps with help from a band director in Port Arthur, Texas. This foundational experience shaped her vision, and in 1940, Davis brought her expertise to Kilgore College, where she created the Rangerettes, the first-ever collegiate drill team. The Rangerettes set new standards in precision dance and halftime entertainment, becoming iconic in Texas and beyond, with their influence reaching far beyond high school and college drill teams. [12]
Kay Teer Crawford, a high school cheerleader in the Rio Grande Valley during the early 1930s, had an idea of forming a team from the girls who were not selected for cheerleader. [13] After graduating from college, Kay returned to Edinburg High School to teach physical education and to direct the Sergeanettes in 1936. They marched on the field with a "military swing" style, and eventually evolved into an acclaimed precision dance group. Crawford is equally noted with Gussie Nell Davis as having started the "drill team" concept, but it was Crawford who later started the national dance competition industry.
In 1939, the president of Kilgore College, Dean B.E. Masters, contacted Gussie Nell Davis about coming to Kilgore, Texas, to start a group that would "be interesting and keep the folks in their seats at half-time." They also needed to recruit women to the school since the enrollment was primarily made up of men who were seeking to learn more about the oil business. Dr. Masters was not quite sure what he wanted, but he knew he did not want a traditional drum and bugle corps. He wanted something new, something that did not yet exist, and left the decisions up to Miss Davis. [14]
Miss Davis created the "Rangerettes" to perform at Kilgore College football game halftimes. The Rangerettes almost immediately became the gold standard for all teams, both high school and college, and almost all Texas drill teams now consist of a line of performers with the officers in front of the team leading them in at every game.
In Tyler, Texas, just 30 miles from Kilgore, the second college drill team to be created in Texas was the Tyler Junior College Apache Belles in 1947. [15] A fierce but friendly rivalry between the Apache Belles and the Rangerettes developed quickly, and continues to this day.
Much like Miss Davis, Barbara Tidwell, a former Kilgore College Rangerette, was recruited by Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State University) in 1960 to create the "Strutters", the first drill team at a four-year college.
There are over a thousand high school drill teams in the state of Texas today with over 30,000 students participating every year. The traditional uniform for these teams usually consists of a white hat with white boots. The officers of the teams also typically wear an all white uniform, while the line members wear school colors. Teams perform visual routines, usually in the style of kick, prop, military, or pom, at football games, both in the stands during the game, and on the field at halftime. During the spring, teams often perform at basketball game halftimes, and compete in many different dance styles at competitions sponsored by dance and drill team companies. Also in the Spring, teams put on a "Spring Show," similar to a recital, to showcase all of the dances they competed at competitions to the school and community. The finale consists of a traditional kick routine in their school uniforms.
Traditionally, Texas high school drill teams have been all female, but males have auditioned and been selected to teams in recent years.
California
The first dance-drill teams in California were school affiliated. Teams in California now typically identify as either a pep squad, drill team, dance team, dance-drill team, or dance company. But these affiliations began to widen greatly as parks & recreation programs, independent performing arts programs, and dance studios opened across the state in the late 1980s and developed their own dance-related programs. More traditional drill teams march in parades with school marching bands during the fall/winter, perform field shows (halftime shows) at athletic events, and compete at indoor dance/drill competitions during the late-winter and/or spring seasons.
After moving from Texas to California following her collegiate studies, drill team founder Dr. Kay Teer Crawford eventually started the world's first national precision dance-drill team competition in 1967: Miss Dance Drill Team USA (aka U.S. Nationals & Pageant, MDDTUSA). In 1981, Crawford also created the world's first international dance competition: Miss Dance Drill Team International. The U.S. National dance competition and world championships are now held annually in Southern California.
But there are now numerous drill team & dance team competition circuits in California (i.e. Miss Dance Drill Team USA, Varsity/USA/UDA, CADTD, Sharp International, NRG etc.). And while most current school-affiliated teams do not compete on the festival level, those that do are consistently adjudicated in the following areas as developed by Dr. Kay Teer Crawford (Different competition circuits place different point/percentage weight on the importance of each of the following three areas in determining a final score):
- Routine choreography
- Technical execution
- Showmanship
There are also quite a variety of categories in which a team can compete. Examples are as follows:
- Jazz
- Lyrical
- Contemporary
- Military
- Kick
- Hip Hop
- Pom/songleader
- Character
- Novelty
- Prop
- Dance-drill
- Co-ed dance
- Show production
Unlike other states where schools are placed in separate divisions based on their school attendance size (as associated with state-organized athletic organizations), no such affiliation currently exists in California because dance is not considered an athletic sport. As a result, competition divisions are sub-divided into size of the performance group in a given routine, with teams allowed to compete in as many sizes as they wish:
- Small
- Medium
- Intermediate
- Large
All teams are adjudicated on a point system, with total points deciding ordinal rankings in determining winners.
Washington
In Washington state, the phrase "drill team" usually refers to high school performance/spirit teams that compete in the "drill" and/or "military" category at local, regional and statewide "dance/drill" competitions. Drill routines (sometimes referred to as "drills") typically entail (indeed some argue should entail):
- highly regimented procedures for entering and exiting the stage;
- precise symmetry and/or spacing in the team's formations (a.k.a. line straightness);
- precise transitions between formations that do not compromise line straightness;
- perfect or near-perfect synchronization and sharpness in the teams' marching and other bodily movements; and
- interesting music selection.
- (Many drill teams incorporate kicklines into their routines; many other successful drill routines have been accomplished without them.)
Judging is currently known as ordinal judging and ratings categorized by superior, exceptional, excellent, and good.
The WIAA Dance/Drill competition is the annual championship event for qualified dance and drill teams held annually in the last weekend of March.
A Washington drill team member, or "driller", is not a dancer, but a dancer can be a driller. Since the foci of drill are presentation and spatial precision, drillers do not necessarily need attributes typically ascribed to dancers, such as a high level of flexibility (although this is a large portion of what many teams exhibit in their routines and part of their score) or an aptitude for expressing emotions with the body. This generally allows for larger team sizes, with most teams having about 20 or more members.
Utah
In Utah, most 3A, 4A, 5A, and 6A schools have a drill team. This sport is incredibly competitive in this state, probably due to the high number of dancers. Tryouts are normally held the school year before the performing season during the months of April and May, giving teams the entire summer to work on their technique. During this time, drill teams often attend a dance camp to learn small dances to perform at school events such as sports games and assemblies. Along with these shorter routines, teams also learn longer and more technical competition routines to compete at a few invitational competitions and later a regional competition. The teams that place at the top at region (usually the top 4) go to state to compete against other teams in other regions.
Performed dance styles include military, kick, character, lyrical, hip hop, pom, jazz, and officer, among others.
Every year at region and state competitions, teams compete in military and dance, and every other year, compete in kick or character.
- Dance - Dance routines feature technique and performance above all. Teams are judged on their precision, flexibility, leaps, turns, kicks, and other skills such as projection, facials, vocals, and visuals.
- Military - Military is a unique style and surprising at first. Military routines use intricate formations, walking patterns, arm sequences, kicks, and drop splits, and require the team to appear as one person, every move being incredibly precise and sharp. Facials are typically intense or neutral, and the music is usually instrumental. It is typically part of a marching ensemble, or marching band.
- Kick - A kick routine is all about legs. The majority of the routine is kicking, either in a line, partnership, or alone. Scores are based on the number of kicks in the routine, how together they are, how high they are, and how straight and pointed the legs and feet are.
- Character - Character is about becoming a certain person, thing, or idea and performing as such. Technique is still a priority like in other styles, but it must be done as the character. Teams are judged on how well they fit the persona, use any props, their technique, and their performance as a whole in the way of projection and facials.
