Majorettes

Still going in my local area (near Glasgow) but its called Baton class now, and is offered alongside other dance styles like cheer, acro, street etc. Its quite popular and you can do exams in it as well.

Only a couple of weeks ago my friend and I were wondering if morris dancing is still a thing as they are bringing back the annual gala in our Lancashire town. Pronounced gay-la. You could hear them jingling streets away.

I was so desperate to be a majorette,I used to practice in the garden with wooden spoons instead on batons.

They still exist in the south west.

I went, very briefly, very young, in 80s, not in Glasgow but not far away.

I remember having a baton, and arguing with the girl from across the road about the correct way to twirl it. We were chanting "chocolate, strawberry, chocolate, strawberry" as we dipped each end of the baton in imaginary food 🤣.

I went for a bit in the early 90s. Then they changed the time and for some reason we didn’t get the message so I turned up halfway through the class one week and was so embarrassed and sad that nobody had told me I never went back. Core memory

I was never in them (80s kid) but they brought back the carnival in my local town and revived the majorettes troup- my DD did it last year and was marching in the carnival. Great fun and good exercise!

We knew a little girl 10 years ago who went to cheerleading, if that’s the same thing?

Yeah, town carnivals always had them when I was a kid (1980s, south-east England). There'd be several troupes of them.

I only ever knew one girl who actually did it, though, and her mum ran the troupe and was one of those very bossy, overbearing types who took it all very seriously.

My memory of seeing majorette troupes marching is that usually, there was one at the front who was a teenager doing all the fancy stuff tossing the baton in the air, and the others were just trotting along behind and usually not quite in time with each other and doing some fairly minimal baton twirling. There were usually some very little ones who were just kind of toddling around hopelessly at the back.

Dont know about majorettes but steering wheel locks are still deffo a thing.

I remember mums being expected to sew things. My Infant school in the 70s required mums to sew a shoe bag to a particular pattern. The mums also made long party dresses. I remember my mum buying the fabric. Black with pink roses on it. I loved it.
I was surprised that when dd1 started Reception in 2008, we were asked to provide a painting apron made from a man's shirt. A bought one was not wanted. I think that had stopped by the time dd2 started in 2011.

Interesting about it being a south west thing. I grew up in Dorset and there were loads of troops. Now live in Yorkshire and there isn’t any in our small town. (But there is a cheer squad).

I remember this from the 80s - never had any interest in being one, but they'd always be in the town carnival (remember those?!). We were S/E based.

I have gen-Z relatives (male and female) who compete internationally 🤷

Not majorettes, but Morris dancing in the 70s in Lancashire. White pumps with silver bells and ribbons, crepe paper pompom poms, short dresses and bows at the back of your hair. I was in one of the best troupes, we won loads of trophies and had dozens of medals. It was great exercise and i made a lot of friends. Happy memories.

We had them in Kent. I was fascinated by them in the local carnival but I knew I'd be hopeless at it. Did get the sense that if you were middle-class you went to ballet and if you weren't, you did majorettes. Brownies was good (apart from all the God stuff) because it was much more mixed.

I never was one but desperately wanted to be! I went to a fancy dress thing as one and my mum painted my wellies white to wear and made me a hat! This was in the 1980's.

In the 80s I really wanted to do majorettes. I never did though, although my friend showed me how to do the basic twirls.

I grew up not far from Glasgow in the 1970s and all the dance schools had majorettes. I taught myself to do simple baton twirling out of curiosity because it looked like magic, but there was never any suggestion that I should do a class. I was an uncoordinated little girl, and there wasn't the money for lessons and my mum didn't have time to sew badges on my Brownie uniform let alone make an entire dance outfit.

Yes I was North West. There were carnivals in all the local towns in late spring/early summer so they’d travel to them all.
There wasn’t a troupe in our little town so I didn’t know anyone in one so they seemed very fancy. We just had brownies and tap dancing.

It was a thing in Scotland in the 70s. I didn’t do it but I remember a few girls from school doing it

There are loads of them on TikTok. Search for majorettes (with the baton twirling) or morris dancing (no batons)

My mum was one in the 70s/80s. I was born in the 90s and have never seen them around anywhere. It doesn’t seem like something Gen Z’s would be into tbf.