Drum Corps Associates

Drum Corps Associates
Activity	Drum and Bugle Corps
Founded	1965
No. of corps	31
Country	United States Canada
Current champions	Open Class: Minnesota Brass Class A: Govenaires
Official website	DCACORPS.org

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.

DCA Corps

Corps	Location	Website	Status as of 2011
Alliance	Alpharetta, Georgia	alliancedrumcorps.org	Open Class
Atlanta CorpsVets	Atlanta, Georgia	corpsvets.org	Open Class
Brigadiers	Syracuse, New York	brigadiers.com	Inactive
Buccaneers	Reading, Pennsylvania	readingbuccaneers.org	Open Class
Bushwackers	Harrison, New Jersey	bushwackers.org	Open Class
Caballeros	Hawthorne, New Jersey	cabs.org	Open Class
Carolina Gold	Greensboro, North Carolina	carolinagold.org	Class A
Chops, Inc.	Minneapolis, Minnesota	chopsinc.com	Inactive
Cincinnati Tradition	Cincinnati, Ohio	cincinnatitradition.org	Class A
Crusaders 2	Rochester, New York	rochestercrusaders.org	Inactive
Empire Statesmen	Rochester, New York	statesmen.org	Open Class
Excelsior	Troy, New York	excelsiordrumcorps.org	Class A
Frontier 1	Denton, Texas	frontiercorps.org	Inactive
Fusion Core 1	Morris County, New Jersey	fusioncorenj.homestead.com	Class A
Govenaires 1	St. Peter, Minnesota	govenaires.org	Class A
Grenadiers	Kingston, Ontario	kingstongrenadiers.com	Inactive
Gulf Coast Sound 2	Houston, Texas	gulfcoastsound.org	Inactive
High Country Brass	Golden, Colorado	highcountrybrass.org	Class A
Hurricanes	Seymour, Connecticut	cthurricanes.org	Open Class
Kidsgrove Scouts 3	Kidsgrove, England	kidsgrovescouts.com	Active, did not attend DCA
Kilties 1	Racine, Wisconsin	kilties.com	Open Class
Lakeshoremen	Troy, Michigan	lakeshoremen.org	Inactive
Minnesota Brass	Saint Paul, Minnesota	mnbrass.org	Open Class
Music City Legend 2	Nashville, Tennessee	musiccitylegend.org	Inactive
New York Skyliners	New York, New York	nyskyliners.org	Inactive
Renegades	San Francisco, California	renegades.org	Open Class
Shenandoah Sound 2	Manassas Park, Virginia	shenandoahsound.org	Class A
SoCal Dream 1	Lake Forest, California	socaldream.org	Active, did not attend DCA
Sun Devils	North Port, Florida	sundevilscorps.org	Inactive
Sunrisers	Long Island, New York	sunrisers.com	Class A
Tampa Bay Thunder	Tampa, Florida	tampabaythunder.org	Open Class
Vigilantes	Richardson, Texas	vigilantescorps.org	Inactive
White Sabers 2	Dansville, New York	whitesabers.org	Class A
Windsor Regiment	West Windsor, New Jersey	windsor-regiment.org	Class A

¹ Associate member of DCA
² Affiliate of DCA
³ Touring from the UK for the 2010 season.

External links

• Drum Corps Associates