03/04/03’s illustrious band:

National Coalition for the Advancement of Baton Twirling

Brought to you by a blurb in a recent edition of the Media Headquarters company newsletter.

In the newsletter, under “Achievements,” a male employee is listed as having placed second in recreational baton throwing and twirling in the All-Midwest Baton Twirling Invitational in Council Bluffs, IA. Of course, I did not believe this. I sincerely doubted that baton twirling, that stereotypical avenue of female oppression, had survived into the 21st century. And I certainly was not convinced that a male, let alone an adult male, let alone an adult Midwestern male, would not only admit to but actually brag about having taken part in this, uh, sport. In a public forum, no less! So I had to look up twirling online.

When I entered “baton twirling” in a search engine, I got over 38,000 hits. I appears that baton twirling is not merely an activity for little girls in spangled swimsuits, but a sport complete with associations, coalitions, competitions, athletes, coaches, teams, squads, judges, scoring systems -- and guys! Not many, but a few. A good twirler has to be many things: dancer, gymnast, juggler, endurance athlete. A good routine these days contains as many splits, leaps and cartwheels as sequins, all while keeping the baton moving.

Twirlers may accompany marching bands and dance lines, but they also compete in individual and team contests, including the grandmommy of them all, Twirl Mania, held at Disney World. Twirling even made the front page of the Life section of USA Today on Feb. 17, 2003. (Click here to read the article.) Some take their talent onstage in beauty -- ahem, scholarship -- pageants.

Available products include baton shafts (in various lengths) and tips (in various shapes and sizes), novelty batons with hollow shafts, glow cartridges for use with same, metallic tape and streamers for decorating the baton, “action ribbons” and rosin. And that’s just the props! For costumes, expect to see anything you’d find on a dancer or figure skater, including leotards and shimmery tights, hair pulled back into super-tight buns and big, shiny smiles.

So I stand corrected. Baton twirling is alive and kicking, spinning around parade routes across the land. It may not be hip, but it is kinda cool.

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