Following his performance in Kalamazoo, Mich. on Saturday, June 30, 19-year-old Cavaliers mellophone horn player, Cody Martin, talked with DCI.org's Christina Mavroudis about the 2007 season and the different physical challenges of the corps' show. Christina Mavroudis: Are there a lot of visuals in this year's show?

Cody Martin
Cody Martin: Yeah, we work pretty hard on learning the drill forms before we even get a show. We were up to 160 pages at the first competiion, and we have 198 now. Since then, the staff has been adding a lot of visuals. CM: Tell me about some of the new body movements that are in your show. Cody: We've got a lot of gymnastic movements this year; we're doing a ton of rolls. The horn players did an hour of dance block every day for a while, and we had to learn all of the ballet terminology like pli?© and r?©lev?©. Our show has rolls and turns, and we're always big on horn movements. CM: What's your favorite visual in this year's show? Cody: Even though they're all really physically demanding, my favorite is when we hit a company front in the middle of the opener. Half of the horn line falls backward and rolls to the side – I'm a faller, and the other half stands behind us and plays air guitar. Then the color guard comes running through the back line and jumps over the guys on the ground, then we roll back into place and stand up. All that takes place in about 16-24 counts. It's pretty cool. CM: Because of the demand, do you see any injuries at rehearsals? Cody: People sometimes run into each other, especially when we were learning it, so we took things under tempo a lot. Whenever we hit a rehearsal site with potholes, or a baseball field that we turned into a football field, we would sometimes end up with people rolling an ankle and sitting out a rep, then jumping back it. It's amazing how tough these guys are. CM: Tell me about the corps' off season conditioning program. Cody: Randy, a physical trainer, does pilates with us on a regular basis, and it's meant to tear you down physically and build you back up again. It helps out a lot. It strengthens the knees and hips, and all the joints we use, especially the core muscles we use to initiate momentum. CM: Is this show more physically demanding than last year's? Cody: Yes, this year is especially challenging. We are definitely needing all of the extra physical conditioning much more than I expected. But I'm glad we're doing this. It really makes the show a lot better and more fun to perform.