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The Undercurrent is a biweekly news feature show written and produced by students from Michigan State University. Each episode explores multiple stories surrounding one central theme.
88.9, The Impact. You're listening to Undercurrent. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to season 16 episode six of The Undercurrent, which is also the final episode of fall semester here at MSU. On this podcast, I share student stories and unique things going on around campus and in the Lansing community. Last episode, I had the privilege to have on Madison Niro, a candidate who was representing the Northeast for the Miss Earth USA pageant coming up in January.
Speaker 1:This episode, I'm honored to have on the MSU feature twirlers. The twirlers are one of the most exciting parts of the Spartan marching band. With the use of a baton, they perform tricks to complement the marching band and provide a visual aid to fans. They perform at pregame, halftime, and postgame shows at Spartan Stadium and perform in competitions as well. Thank you guys so so much for coming on today.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having us. Oh, of course.
Speaker 3:We're excited. We're so excited to be here.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh. I'm so excited too. So first off, could you guys just go ahead and introduce yourselves and who you guys are?
Speaker 3:Hi, everyone. My name is Riley Schloud. I'm a junior here at Michigan State, and this is my fifteenth year as a twirler.
Speaker 1:Awesome.
Speaker 2:I'm Erin Hudeman. I'm a sophomore here at Michigan State, and I believe this is my thirteenth or fourteenth year as a twirler.
Speaker 4:I'm Madeline Rytkowski. I am also a sophomore here, and I think this is my sixteenth
Speaker 1:year. Oh my gosh. That's a long time. Okay. So I know I said a little bit about what you guys do as a part of the marching band, but could you guys explain, like, a little bit more about your role?
Speaker 3:Yeah. Of course. So like you said, we get to perform with the band at pregame, halftime, and postgame. And you also kind of touched on it too. We are sort of a visual aid.
Speaker 3:In pregame, we're often found alongside the drum majors kind of leading the band in a lot of ways. And we have our same pregame we perform every single time, and it's not really evolved too much over the years. We make little critiques here and there as needed, and we change pregame sometimes. I know a crowd favorite is freaks. We play that sometimes, sometimes we don't.
Speaker 3:And then halftime, our show changes for every game. And there we each get to do our own individual choreography to showcase our strengths and what we like to do most along to the music. And we also will usually do at least one trio every show where we will all twirl together in front of the band, which is a lot of fun. And then post game, the tunes change every time. We always do everybody's everything.
Speaker 3:That's a Spartan marching band staple. And for that, it's also our own choreography. A lot of times it's improv. But yeah. And then we usually do a men's basketball halftime.
Speaker 3:This year, we're performing at the UCLA men's game on February 17. That's awesome. Come watch us if you would like to. But, yeah, we're super excited to have that opportunity like we did the last couple years, and we will hopefully be performing at a women's game too. So stay tuned for maybe an
Speaker 1:hour performance. That sounds super cool. So I know you were talking a little bit about, like, choreography and, like, your coordination with each other. How does this compare to something like like dance or gymnastics? Is it similar?
Speaker 1:Is it different?
Speaker 4:I would say it's similar in some regards. I grew up my home studio is a dance and twirling studio, so I grew up taking a bunch of dance classes there. And it definitely can be very similar. Oftentimes, when we're choreographing our trios, we do incorporate a lot of dance moves to keep the routines entertaining and exciting for us as well as the audience. But I would say probably the biggest similarity is the things that we're doing under our tosses.
Speaker 4:Mhmm. So a lot of times, we'll throw up a high toss and we'll do some sort of dance or gymnastics adjacent move underneath the toss, such as leaps, walkovers, aerials, illusions, things like that.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Sounds like super like multifaceted. So basically, you have to have like a lot of skills like in order to do this as one. That's that's super cool. So how did each of you guys like get started with twirling and what led you to pursue it at this collegiate level?
Speaker 2:So I started in I believe I was in second grade. My mom saw in my hometown, we have like a pretty decently sized team. So they were hosting a summer camp. So my great aunt was actually a baton twirler. So my mom was like, oh, I'll put you in it.
Speaker 2:And then I did that and I kind of fell in love immediately. And then actually my older sister also started twirling. So we did that together. And then I actually did end up quitting for a year because I was also a dancer. So I kinda took that on, but then I came right back and I definitely fell in love with it even more.
Speaker 2:And then all throughout high school, I knew I wanted to twirl in college and I kinda wanted to go somewhere a little bit warmer. But then my senior year, I shadowed here. So I got to have the whole game day experience kind of on the sideline. And I absolutely fell in love with this school. And my band director was also in the marching band here, so he helped me out a lot.
Speaker 2:And then I ended up getting the spot in March and I guess the rest is history. That's awesome.
Speaker 3:My hometown has a very large community ed program for, young kids. And I was at the age where I was kind of trying a lot of different things. So I got signed up for my first class. I believe it was like a mommy and me class for Valentine's Day or something.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:And I same thing as Aaron, I fell in love instantly and have never looked back since. I twirled from my marching band all throughout high school. And like Erin, my, director actually both of my directors were alumni of the Spartan marching band. And our coordinator Sarah was a student of my private coaches. So I had grown up seeing the Michigan State twirlers around a lot and being a fan my whole life, it was kind of a no brainer that I wanted to come here.
Speaker 3:So when I was offered the spot, it just kind of worked out perfectly and
Speaker 1:yeah. Yeah. Awesome.
Speaker 4:So I was in a rec class when I was, like, four years old, and it was a dance class. It's, like, thirty minutes long. But at the end, for the last five, ten minutes, they would give us a baton. Mhmm. And for, like, three weeks in a row, we did the exact same stuff of at the end of every class.
Speaker 4:And after that third class, I went to my mom and I was like, why don't they do more baton this whole time? Why don't they teach us anything new? I'm bored. Like, we're doing the same thing, and I wanna learn more. And fortunately, we had a world renowned twirling studio in my hometown.
Speaker 4:And so my mom looked into classes there and signed me up. Same as them. The rest is history. I fell in love. At the time, my coach's daughter was the golden girl at the University of Iowa, and that really introduced us to the idea of college twirling.
Speaker 4:And once I knew that was a possibility, I knew that from age five, that was something that I wanted in my future.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I love that. Would you say that there's like a large, twirling community in Michigan?
Speaker 2:There's a pretty decently sized one, especially compared to other states. So Maddie's actually from Wisconsin. So there's like throughout the whole Midwest, there's definitely a very strong twirling community. Ohio has quite a few teams and a lot of them do end up being producers of people who end up being on Team USA or their whole teams on Team USA. So it's definitely a pretty established twirling community in the area.
Speaker 1:Yeah. That's awesome. What was the moment you guys found out you would become an MSU feature twirler? And what was that moment like?
Speaker 3:So my audition was a little unconventional because our coach was expecting her second son at the time. So it was very early. Traditionally, college auditions happen between the months of March and April. Gives people time to find out whether or not they're into the school academically and gives them time to prepare their routines and stuff because all of the auditions have quite a different process depending on where you go. So my audition was February 4, which is incredibly early.
Speaker 3:I believe we were only the second audition of the year so far for all of the colleges. And our director, doctor Thornton, was conducting Spartan brass at Madison Square Garden for a basketball game that weekend. So he did not get to be part of my audition. So they told me when I left, okay, we'll talk to Doctor. Thornton when he's done with the game and we'll get back to you in a couple days.
Speaker 3:But I got a call right after leaving campus with my mom in the car and got offered the position and she had to pull over on the side of the road. It was waterworks. But, yeah, it was an awesome moment and I'm glad I got to share it with my mom too.
Speaker 1:Yeah. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So we Maddie and I both auditioned a year after Riley. So we had a little bit more typical of a college tryout experience. But MSU was actually the first school that I tried out at. I think I had two other tryouts lined up, like a week or two after that one, but it was March 4.
Speaker 2:And I remember I walked in and it was like thirty minutes before the audition was supposed to start and they were like, okay, let's get started. So, I tried out one other girl was with me because I guess Maddie will tell you her story but she wasn't at the same audition time as me. So then we were done with the audition by the time the audition was actually supposed to start. Wow. And so we did our interviews and they told me to text my mom to come back.
Speaker 2:She was actually at a church. She was saying some prayers for
Speaker 1:me because she knew this was the
Speaker 2:spot I really wanted. That's sweet. So my mom came back. She was like, what's wrong? Like, did you get hurt or something?
Speaker 2:But, so I did the second interview and the other girl had left. And then after my interview, they brought me out into the big arena and demonstration hall and they told me I got the spot right there. So that was really exciting and they knew I was absolutely going to come there if I got the spot. So it's kind of just a hands down easy yes. Then I got I also got to run out to the car to my mom.
Speaker 2:I threw my bag on the ground and we were screaming jumping up and down and then I called my dad and everything and it was a really exciting experience.
Speaker 4:Aw, that's sweet. So I tried out for three schools. Mhmm. I had one before the MSU tryout and one after. The day of the tryout at MSU, I was giving up my miss Oshkosh's teen title that night
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 4:In Wisconsin. So we had rehearsal Friday night for that in Wisconsin. Then I left at, like, ten. We drove six and a half hours through the night, slept a couple hours. I auditioned at, I think, maybe 07:30, eight in the morning.
Speaker 1:My god.
Speaker 4:And then the that process took maybe thirty minutes at most. And, it was actually my first time on campus and first time really hearing from people who went to the school Mhmm. About it. And I was talking with Riley and the other two outgoing Twirlers Mhmm. And just getting to know them, getting to know the school, the band, the program, all those things.
Speaker 4:And it was a little eye opening for me because going into my tryout, I wasn't really sure that I wanted to come here.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 4:And after talking to them when we got in the car, I told my mom, I said, I would not be upset if I ended up here. I love talking to those girls. They were so welcoming. They made me feel right at home. And so then we drove the six hours home.
Speaker 4:I did my whole title thing. And then the next morning, I got a call from our coach, Sarah, and she informed me that they would be offering me a position. And, yeah. Aw, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:So what does it mean to be a part of the Spartan marching band?
Speaker 3:So the Spartan marching band is the second oldest marching band in the Big Ten, second only to Purdue who founded a lot of the traditions that most college bands celebrate today, like making school logos on the field and stuff. So the marching band is very old. I believe this is season 155 of the Spartan marching band.
Speaker 1:Wow. I didn't know that.
Speaker 3:So it's a very history band. We also are notorious for having on average the largest alumni band attendance or one of the largest alumni band attendances of any collegiate marching band in the country, which is something that I feel is so special about our band. And the twirlers really got started in the SMB after the passing of title nine. One of the first two women in the band was a feature twirler, Beth. She's still our biggest supporter to this day.
Speaker 3:She always comes to games. We absolutely love and adore her and are so appreciative that she still comes around and supports us so much in everything we do. But yeah. So twirling was kind of a really new thing then, but just the rich history behind our band. Our series March is so iconic.
Speaker 3:A lot of people that don't even know MSU understand what the series is because it's become such an iconic tradition among marching bands. But, yeah, we just we love what we do and we love getting to carry on the history and pave the way for future twirlers to continue those traditions that started so long ago.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I love that you mentioned the alumni band because that's something I found out about just this year too and I didn't know like how big it was. And one of my professors mentioned that he was in it and he always tells us every game day to like go look for him at like wherever they are. And I I think that's so cool. It's it's cool to like see all those people come back and like come to be a part of something that's special.
Speaker 1:But, yeah, I'm kind of curious about your guys' training. So what is your guys' what is your training like, especially during football season?
Speaker 4:Well, we have practice with the band Monday through Friday from 04:30 to six. Mhmm. And then on Mondays, we have an additional rehearsal from seven to nine. And then Wednesdays and Fridays, we have sectionals from four to 04:30.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 4:So that's the time that we spend with the band. During that time, you know, we're doing what the band is doing. If the band is running through drill, we're usually doing choreography for our own stuff. Mhmm. But a lot of us well, a lot of us.
Speaker 4:There's only three of us. We all usually spend some time outside of those scheduled rehearsals to either work on choreography, work on new tricks, work on competition routines. Last summer, Erin and I both competed. So throughout fall and spring, we were practicing extra for that. This year, Riley's for sure competing, so she's been practicing extra for that.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. So that does sound like so much, like, almost every day you guys are having, like, multiple practices. What is it like balancing being a performer and also a student?
Speaker 2:Yeah. I actually talk about this a lot. In every job interview, I always tell them one of my best skills is time management. Definitely have to have a way of balancing your schedule. So Maddie and I are both, marketing majors in Broaden.
Speaker 2:We actually have every single class together this semester. Fun. So, we've kind of that's been very beneficial definitely for me, I assume for both of us. But being able to kind of bounce ideas off each other, remind each other when we have quizzes and tests coming up and study together, help each other with homework. But it's definitely a balance.
Speaker 2:And our first year, it was definitely hard to learn how to balance that. But once you get it down, it's just like clockwork and it becomes very easy to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Okay. So how does your guys' like choreography come together? Is it more collaborative or is it put together by one coach or person?
Speaker 3:Like, how does that work? So for halftime, when we're doing our own individual choreography, we just kind of work on that ourselves. We each tend to have some sort of like preset sections that we always like to do, maybe change them up a little bit. And same thing with the tricks. We all, like, especially have really good bodywork and flexibility and can do a lot of different tricks.
Speaker 3:So finding a good variety of things to do to keep it interesting is rather easy. And then our trios, we all just kind of collaborate. We make some set ones sometimes, but we just go with whatever fits the music the most and what we think is fun and super visually appealing. And same thing like with our basketball performance that we're doing, we started our routine within the last couple weeks just to get it set before we all go home. And we just collaborate on that choreography ourselves.
Speaker 3:We know what our strengths are and we know what works best for the three of us. So a lot of times it's really fun to get to work together. And this year, we've had a lot of hit quite a stride with choreography, I would say. And we've been coming up with some really fun trios that are really enjoyable enjoyable to perform. So we're really excited for that basketball game coming up.
Speaker 3:So like I mentioned earlier, UCLA February 17, come out and watch us if you're around.
Speaker 1:Awesome. So with this choreography, like, how is it approaching musicality as a twirler? And how do you, like, match movement to the band's sound, I guess, if that makes sense?
Speaker 4:To be completely honest, it can be very hard
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 4:To choreograph to what the band is playing because a lot of times, we do our choreography outside of hearing the music. Mhmm. So at times, you're just throwing some sections together, putting them in, and hoping that they just make sense. If the music is pretty distinct and has really good moments, a lot of times we'll try to focus on those and make sure we're hitting those. Mhmm.
Speaker 4:But it can also really just depend on the amount of time we have this week or this year. We had a lot of one week shows, so we had to do all of our choreography within a week. Mhmm. And with those time constraints, you can't hit every beat Right. As you would like to.
Speaker 1:Interesting. Is there I know we talked a little bit about, like, performances. Do you guys have a specific performance or even just memory that was your favorite?
Speaker 3:Every year, the College of Music puts on Spartan Spectacular in the Wharton Center on campus. So this is an opportunity for people to come watch not only the marching band, but some ensembles within the College of Music as well. But every year, the band will always play some of our halftime tunes from the season. The drumline does some of their performance pieces and the color guard as well as us get to perform our own routines too. So every year, we always choreograph our own routine.
Speaker 3:Like I said, we kind of do a collaborative effort on our routine just throughout the season when we have off time and we're not working on halftime shows to music of our choice. We always try to keep it instrumental to keep with the concert theme. But that's a really cool opportunity to be in an indoor setting in a much more intimate audience space than being in front of 75,000 people in Spartan Stadium. And it's a really good opportunity for our families to come to if they can make it and get to see us just kind of twirl by ourselves because we are usually within the band. So sometimes it can be hard to see us.
Speaker 3:But, yeah, Spec is always just a really fun experience. Like I said, our families often get to come and it's just always a really cool opportunity to get to interact with people too. Mhmm. Because there's so many people that come without a connection to the band that just love what we do. Mhmm.
Speaker 3:So I know my freshman year, I had a really cool interaction with a couple young kids. They were siblings and they came up to me afterwards and asked me for my autograph.
Speaker 2:And I actually had kind of had
Speaker 3:a horrible performance. I like sort of fell and sprained my foot. So I was just not having a great day. So that just kinda lifted my mood and made me feel like everything that had gone into the season that far had been worth it. And even my whole career, we really do it for those interactions and to be the role models for those young kids.
Speaker 3:So getting to interact with them at stuff like that is really cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah. That's so sweet. So I know there's so much that goes into what you guys do, like, choreography wise. So do either of you guys have, like, a favorite trick or skill to perform?
Speaker 2:I personally love doing anything that has to do with, like, flexibility. I kind of am known for my flexible back. I I'm pretty good at doing some laybacks. So I love doing things with laybacks. I it definitely is a lot about playing to your strengths.
Speaker 2:So Mhmm. I don't love a toss kick, but sometimes we gotta do them. So if I'm doing my own choreography, I usually don't put things like that in there. But I think toss laybacks are very fun, but it's a very different thing.
Speaker 4:Yeah. I really enjoy doing anything with leaps or aerials. I love a good toss aerial. That's probably my go to if I can't think of anything.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I would say similar to Maddie, I love anything with a leap or a jump and anything with front walkovers. It's, yeah, usually my go to. If I can't think of anything, I find some sort of variation of a front walkover to do.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. Yeah. I have one last question for you guys. How do you hope to maybe inspire younger twirlers that are just starting out and do you have any advice for them?
Speaker 2:Yeah. I think my biggest piece of advice is definitely just to keep with it and trust your training. It does get very stressful. I know when I was going into trying out for college, I definitely dealt with a lot of anxiety and you really don't know how it's going to turn out. But you do know that in the end, you're going to end up where you need to be.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. Even if that's not twirling in college, you will find your place wherever you end up going. And in the end of the day, academics are the most important thing. And so if that's not how things line up for you, then it is all going to work out and knowing that definitely has some peace.
Speaker 4:Yeah. At home, we always would do this performance at a like local homeless shelter. They do a Christmas event where they give out gifts and meals and things like that, and they would always invite us to perform. Mhmm. And this was always a really special performance and something that my coach always pushed us to go to and was really excited for because growing up, she came from a very, very large family.
Speaker 4:So they didn't have a lot of extra money to put their kids in extracurriculars and things like that. And a similar event was how she found baton twirling, just being out in the community and watching someone else do it. Mhmm. So for us, a really important thing in the last couple years has been just to try to get out to as many things as possible. Mhmm.
Speaker 4:Because you never know who you can inspire just by being there and showing up and, you know, smiling, maybe doing a tiny little twirl. Just anything like that can make a big difference for some people.
Speaker 1:Yeah. That's so sweet.
Speaker 4:Can I say a little fun fact about our series?
Speaker 1:Absolutely. That'd be amazing.
Speaker 4:Gotta point this out. So like Riley talked about the series, it's a very well known tradition here. And something that most people probably don't know, in some sections of the band, their series changes from year to year. Our series has not changed since 1972 when Beth, the first twirler, created it. Wow.
Speaker 4:And like Riley said, Beth still comes to games and everything. And a little funny thing about her is if she's watching the series and she notices that something's being done a little bit differently than how she did it, she'll actually tell us how she used to do it so that we can make sure we make that correction and do it the same way she was doing it.
Speaker 1:That's so fun. Wait. I love that. It is a fun fact. I love that so much.
Speaker 3:The biggest piece of advice my coach always tried to give me, especially trying going into college auditions, was to just keep an open mind and keep your options open. Twirling in college is never guaranteed because it is on such a rigorous audition process.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:And not all schools have auditions every year. We're one of those schools. We only have auditions when people are graduating. So it really just has to line up perfectly for you to end up where you wanna go. So she always encouraged me to have a lot of options.
Speaker 3:She knew I wanted to go here and I knew I wanted to go here. But there was a point in time where the I was not supposed to be able to audition my senior year. Mhmm. So I started looking into a lot of different schools, but ultimately, I just always ended up coming back to Michigan State and it worked out that there was auditions my year. And I'm sitting here, so obviously, I did end up getting the spot, which I am super grateful for.
Speaker 3:But I feel like that's a really big life lesson too. It's just always keeping an open mind because you never know where you're gonna end up and opportunities may come about that you didn't consider. Kind of like Maddie said, she didn't really know much about Michigan State before her audition, but she came and she fell in love and now she's here. So just always keeping an open mind in life, taking those opportunities that might not have necessarily been your first choice, but it's an opportunity. And sometimes those things that weren't your first choice end up being the best things that could have ever possibly happened to you.
Speaker 1:So Yeah. I love that so much. Thank you, Riley. But, yeah, that was all I had for you guys. So thank you so much for coming on today.
Speaker 1:I loved hearing from you guys. And, yeah, thank you.
Speaker 4:Thank
Speaker 3:you so much.