Trix on Tour (7): The Division II Prelims

Beatrix Drum & Bugle Corps is on tour in the United States to take part in the DCI competition. Episode 7: Working towards the exciting day of the Division II Prelims.

Monday, August 2
After a long journey a tough day lays ahead of us. A whole day of rehearsals. There is a beautiful field next to the school that we can use.

From the beginning on there are supporters from The Netherlands and Germany watching us. They are all very anxious to see the product that we will put on the field for the Division II Preliminaries. This qualification is planned for tomorrow and will be one of the most important performances of this tour. If Beatrix reaches top 9, we will go on to Division II Finals next Thursday. There are ten corps in our Division and currently Beatrix is in 8th place, so everything is still possible. With the run through at the end of the day, there is a real 'Finals feeling'. Tension on the field among all, because this next show means much to the members.

After the rehearsal, everybody gets time to relax and travel to the mall in the evening. The cooking staff made a good snack at the end of the day, and after that everybody is off to sleep, to be completely rested at the start of the big day tomorrow.

Tuesday, August 3
The big day is finally here: will Beatrix succeed in reaching the top 9 and go on to Thursday Finals? To prepare us as good as possible, the morning rehearsal is used to repeat the most difficult parts of the program. Before the last run through, the three members that compete in the Individuals and Ensembles play their part for the rest of the corps.

It is very special to see that there are several members who can compete with the best in the individuals circuit. Although participating is of course more important than winning, it seems our people can do very well. But we will have to wait for the results one more day.

After the closing run through, everybody can prepare themselves in an easy way for the qualifying performance. At 14.00 hours, the busses leave for the All City Stadium in Denver. Everybody is very eager to perform, the 'Finals-feeling' is definitely there. The warming up is interrupted for 15 minutes because of heavy showers. But the show must go on, so we continue to be at our best when we enter the field.

The show goes well, the field is nice, the crowd enthousiastic and afterwards it's raining big compliments. Now we have to wait for the points, to see if we made top 9. In the meantime pictures are made of the full corps and the different sections. Then our score is announced: 81.650. Unfortunately this is not enough to be in Finals on Thursday, and so this was Beatrix' last performance in the USA for this tour. Some disappointment can be seen on many faces, but there is also relief that an end has come to such a fantastic series of performances.