If you think baton twirlers do nothing more than march down Main Street on the Fourth of July and throw a baton up in the air, take a closer look. That's exactly what Laurel's Kristi Alford made her friends do.
"They used to make fun of me all the time," says Alford, the 1996 Miss Majorette of America. "They had no idea what twirling was all about, so I made them come to a competition."
Now nobody makes fun of Alford, who began twirling at age 3.
In the Alford household on the Howard County side of Laurel, twirling is a family affair. Kristi's sisters, Deena and Stacey, also have been twirlers - not surprising in that their mother, Linda, is the founder, director and coach of the fast-stepping, high-tossing, baton-twirling group known as the Dynamics.
The Columbia-based group consists of 32 girls and young women from 4 to 22 who are the reigning world champions in both junior dance and senior twirl divisions, and the reigning national champions in junior and senior smalls (made up of eight twirlers) and junior and senior larges (11 twirlers).
The teams will defend their titles at the national championships, sponsored by the National Baton Twirling Association, beginning July 23 at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind. The world championships are contested every three years. The Dynamics won last year in Birmingham, England; the next event will be in 2003 in Marseilles, France.
Linda Alford, who in her "other life" is an information management specialist with the Howard County public school system, started twirling at age 12. "I just fell in love with it," she said.
For eight years, Alford was in the Bladensburg Bladettes and was on the 1965 national championship team that performed at the New York's World Fair. In 1975, she put together the original Dynamics team with eight girls; that number soon jumped to more than 50. For about 10 years, the team marched in parades and competed in color-guard events, but then Alford decided to become more competitive.
Today, the Dynamics have teams in dance (done to music, combining twirling and dance) and twirl (using basic march music and focusing on twirling techniques, such as exchanges and rolls).
For the dance teams, Alford said she tries "to tell a little story."
"I like to pull the feelings out of the audience," she said. For the nationals, the dance teams will perform to selections from Sister Act, West Side Story and Beetle-juice.
