Drum Corps Associates (DCA) is the governing body for modern senior or all-age drum and bugle corps in North America. It is the counterpart of Drum Corps International (DCI) which governs junior drum corps. DCA was formed in 1965 as the first heir to the modern drum corps activity, breaking from the classic style, and has crowned 49 Open Class World Champions (two ties) and 16 Class A World Champions (one tie) in 47 years of Open Class and 15 years of Class A competitions.
For many years, the corps in DCA were concentrated in the Northeastern United States and Eastern Canada, with the occasional corps from further away (for example, Minnesota Brass).
However, starting in the late 1990s, more all-age corps started up in areas traditionally not known for all-age corps; for example, in the South (examples: Atlanta CorpsVets, Music City Legend, and Carolina Gold) and the state of California (examples: Renegades and SoCal Dream).
In part this can be attributed to the sudden availability of G bugles from DCI corps that switched over from G to B flat instrumentation starting in 2000. DCA adopted any-key brass shortly thereafter. Given that buying an inventory of G bugles prior to the any-key rule would always be very expensive, the adoption of any-key brass greatly aided the almost explosive increase in the number of all-age corps hitting the field.
The "all-age" moniker has taken on additional weight in DCA in recent years. The expense of DCI membership (travel, camp fees, tour fees, tuition, and membership fees) has made membership prohibitive for some performers who are eligible to participate. An additional attraction for DCA performers is that most DCA performances are within a few hours travel from home. DCA corps typically rehearse and perform on the weekends. Likewise, family members can attend most performances, and there is time during the week to meet work and family obligations.
Read more about Drum Corps Associates: DCA Corps
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