DCI Open Class continues to bloom with new corps evaluating
Four organisations from across the United States have applied to participate as Open Class units on the 2016 Drum Corps International Tour. The prospective groups include Shadow of Oregon, Wisconsin, Indy Ignition of Indianapolis, the Battalion of Salt Lake City and Horizon of Odessa, Texas.
The applications of these groups comes at a time when Drum Corps International’s Open Class division has been experiencing year-over-year growth. In the last six years, 17 new or re-emerging corps have performed at DCI Tour events.
Open Class Coordinator David Eddleman credits this continued growth to a number of factors including objectives in Drum Corps International’s business plan to engage students in the drum corps experience in addition to the success of DCI’s SoundSport and DrumLine Battle programs which serve as a low-cost, low-barrier entry points for startup teams. He also acknowledges a strong sense of community among current Open Class corps to provide mentorship and support to first-year groups.
“New corps these days are starting using a number of models”, Eddleman says. “One is as a scholastic organization associated with a high school or university. Another is using equipment borrowed from schools in order to keep initial capital expenditure spending to a minimum. Some groups have started as an outgrowth of a winter guard, drum line or SoundSport team.”
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