Majorettes

[Spudthespanner]

Remember this? In the 90s there was always a couple of wee lassies in your class that went to majorettes. What happened to majorettes? Vanished like steering wheel locks. Just gone from society.

We didn't have them at all when I was in school.

I remember it but don't think we had it where I lived. I remember seeing it in girls' comics though

We didn't have them when i was at school but we have loads of them near me now. I always assumed it was a local thing as i don't live near where i grew up.

It wasn't where we lived. But there was always a couple of girls in the caravan park talent show twirling batons when we were kids.
Did cheerleading take over?

It was big where I lived. I wanted to join but already did Brownies.

We had a majorettes club near us which I was vaguely interested in for a little while in 1983 or 4. I also think that majorettes was replaced by cheerleading (and in my area, street dance).

Very much still a thing here, both traditional majorettes and more modern baton twirling troupes

I did it back in the late 70s/early 80s. I would practice my baton twirling for hours.

Our mothers sewed us crisp white dresses with blue piping. You couldn’t buy them in a shop, they just told your mother the pattern number and fabric to buy. Oh and we made pom-poms for our boots with yarn.

I used to be a majorette, I do wonder how regional it is as friends of mine from different parts of the country had never heard of it until they moved here (South West). I still see quite a few troupes at the carnival each year though so they're definitely still about!

Maybe regional? They used to feature in traditional carnivals in area I was from up north in early 80s. Marching along and thigh slapping.

They're all tumbling now

I was desperate to be a majorette!
But I’m chronically clumsy and we were too poor for the 50p a week to join. So when I grew up I bought a batton and gave myself a black eye practising with it. 😂

DD was a twirler in the noughties, I’ve just googled the troupe and they are still very much active in our one horse town. I used to spend many an hour on a Sunday at competitions across the Pennines around the NW area.

I'm glad they’re still going as it was a very cheap club for some of the less well off kids in the area.

I used to be a majorette in the late 80s/early 90s. As a previous poster said, I think it must have been more popular in certain regions. I was South West and spent my Sundays at competitions for several years. I remember it very fondly and still sometimes think of buying a baton, even though I'd look a fool using it.

Amazed it’s still going in some places. I remember it being a thing in the 90s in Glasgow. Never hear of it anymore.

It’s funny how you’ve not thought of something for 40 yrs and it floods back.
It was the comment about the handsewn uniforms. They also used to have bright white plimsolls.

I went to majorettes for a while. I’m from Glasgow too. I was very young and I had no coordination and it wasn’t really for me but I did love the shoes and baton.

Exactly this. It popped up in my brain last night for no reason whatsoever. My brain just said “majorettes!” What the hell. I didn’t even go to majorettes.

I thought they’d disappeared too, very much a North West carnival thing but came across a troupe in the North East at an event couple of years ago. Very nostalgic for me, complete with thigh slapping, kazoos, walking on tiptoes and pompoms

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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