Purdue Auxiliaries to
hold rehearsal for
Bulls game
By Julie Glaser
Staff
Writer
The six-time world champion Chicago Bulls have
invited Purdue’s very own All-American Marching Band Auxiliaries
to perform a half-time show at Wednesday’s game vs. the Los Angeles
Clippers.
The Purdue Auxiliaries are comprised of 42 women;18
are Goldusters, 15 are members of the Flag Corps, five are on the
Twirling Line and four are solo twirlers — the Golden Girl, Girl
in Black and the Silver Twins.
The auxiliaries will hold a full dress rehearsal
from 8 to 9 p.m. Tuesday in Mackey Arena. The rehearsal is free and
open to the public.
This is the first time the Purdue Auxiliaries
have been invited to represent Purdue at the United Center.
"The more people that can come to the dress
rehearsal, the better, because it will give the girls the experience
of performing the routine in front of a real audience," said
Alisha Kuckartz, the auxiliary director for the band.
The performance will be almost nine minutes of
pageantry, featuring each individual group and ending with a performance
by all four groups to a traditional Purdue medley.
This is one of just a few times that the Bulls
have invited a college marching band auxiliary group to perform a
half-time show — they usually only invite dance teams.
Purdue's dance team has performed once a year
at the games for the past four years.
"It is one of my goals to find places for
the girls to perform off campus," said Kuckartz. "It is fun to
see the performances develop and it is also a payoff for all the hard
work that the girls put into practicing."
"For me, it's really exciting to perform
at a Bulls game because I am from Crown Point, Ind., and I grew up
watching the Bulls," said Ashley Highsmith, a senior in the School
of Management and a Golduster captain. "We are trying to teach the
new girls the routine from last year that we will be performing at
the game. We only have four practices to get it perfected and to make
it as good as it was last year."
Kuckartz said the women are dedicated and have
had to work to budget their time. For example, the morning of the
Bulls game, the women will perform for 2,500 elementary students in
the Elliott Hall of Music. Then they will go to classes before rushing
to the bus which will take them to the game.
One member of the Auxilaries will even have to
let Kuckartz proctor an exam for her so she can take it on the bus.
"They have two huge performances in one
day, and won’t be back until late that night and are still expected
to be at their 7:30 a.m. classes," said Kuckartz. "The girls
are very hard workers."
