The History and Evolution of Majorette Dance
Majorette dance is a high energy style of dance, combining unique choreography, precision, athleticism, musicality, and performance. While today it is closely associated with HBCU’s and strong connection to marching bands, its earlier traditions were closely connected to marching, baton twirling, and the use of props such as flags. Over time, majorette dance has developed into something much more centered around choreographed field-show routines and “counts”, also known as catch-ons, where dancers follow a captain or lead dancer’s movements in sync with the band’s music. Today, the style can not only be seen at HBCU’s, but also through community dance teams who compete using these collegiate dancers as inspiration. Although majorette continues to evolve, it’s important to understand the history, as it helps to explain the now very diverse style of dance.
To know what a majorette is, it helps to first know the different roles in a band. There are band members then there are drum majors who often serve as “leaders” who “use a mace to direct the movements to the band and maintain the beat” (Hash 38). This leadership role in the band originated from military traditions. Bands maintain a military-style organization as “the military system of organization probably resulted from the strong connection between bands and ROTC training programs” (Hash 38). As baton twirling became more popular, the role began to expand beyond the drum majors. In the late 1930’s, directors began adding female majorettes to bands. Unlike drum majors who used larger maces, the majorettes used shorter and lighter batons to perform more complex routines with the music (Hash 38). This agenda begin to expand beyond just directing the band. Over time, majorettes began performing synchronized routines involving the twirling of these batons and flags.
