A volunteer counselor for Girls Rock, Dobbins saw potential in Glass Dolls' music as well as in their bond. After all, Dobbins, a Girls Rock Indianapolis alumna, stayed close to her camp band -- so much so that the teenagers produced an album and even toured.
Girls Rock Indy debuted in 2010 at Park Tudor School, but the day camp quickly outgrew that space. Dobbins, an anthropology major, was a 12-year-old aspiring musician in that first class back in 2010.
"I was able to play music with people my age and with people who were like-minded," recalled Dobbins, who currently plays bass in Lucy Furr and fronts Dana Skully and the Tiger Sharks. "The camp itself is a huge confidence booster. We're not just teaching them music, but also leadership skills."
For the 2017 camp, the School of Engineering and Technology is offering scholarships between $2,000 and $4,000 to older campers who commit to the Music and Arts Technology program. Jordan Munson, senior lecturer and coordinator of undergraduate recruitment, said the program sees significant potential in the camp's students. The goal of the scholarship is to attract more females to the school, which has about a 10 percent female enrollment. Munson also encourages female technology students to volunteer during the Girls Rock camps.
"Our hope is that seeing these young women who are closer to them in age will empower them to pursue their own music or music technology career," he said.
Cathy Hurt, co-director of Girls Rock, said music technology would interest her campers as it would teach mastering their gear; running sound at concerts; and navigating various recording programs and apps like GarageBand, Pro Toolsand Music Studio.
"This is just a natural fit," Hurt said. "I'd like to get more women into technology. If you start them young, they don't have those preconceived notions like 'Oh, only guys run sound, and women don't.' We want it to be that if you go to a concert and see a woman behind the soundboard, it's not surprising."
Meet the Dolls
On Mondays, counselors divide the students into bands, and each camper chooses an instrument: drums, bass, guitar, keyboard, lead vocals. Often, these girls have different personalities and interests. They go to different schools. A passion for music is sometimes the only thing they have in common.
The Glass Dolls represent the Amplifiers program. They are training to be future counselors and leaders of Girls Rock. The program requires a lot of volunteering, as each session takes 45 students through a whirlwind of a week. Along with songwriting, the campers must come up with a band name, logo and biographies while taking workshops on their instruments and societal issues -- "Social Justice and Making Art," "Body Safety," and "Web Safety."
Glass Dolls consists of singer Morrigan Dunlap-Loomis, keyboardist Maeya Geisert, drummer Francesca Taylor, bassist Dacodis Hughes and guitarist Ashley McCord. Dunlap-Loomis drew inspiration from the band name to pen "Marionette," a dark, driving hard-rock song resonant with teen frustration.
Showtime
Glass Dolls and several younger bands made their public debut July 15 in a fourth-floor space in the Campus Center. The teenagers headlined, and the pressure was on. The room was packed with hundreds of family and friends of the Girls Rock campers.
Backstage (which was really a catering kitchen), the girls stretched and jogged in place. The nervous energy was palpable. Taylor listened through the door, waiting for her band's cue. Then it was a rush to the stage, to the sound of thunderous applause. To these girls, this was their Vogue Theatre, their Bankers Life Fieldhouse, their Klipsch Music Center.
The Dolls rocked out "Marionette" with passion, finesse and volume. Hughes and Taylor held down the rhythm while Geisert plucked away a beautiful melody. McCord coolly strummed the chords, and Dunlap-Loomis wailed with much more confidence than just three days prior. The crowd erupted in cheers right before Glass Dolls closed out the evening with the 2017 camp song, assisted by the other 40 campers onstage singing and dancing along.
While glass dolls are breakable, the bond the Glass Dolls formed should result in more music.
"We're going to stay a band," Hughes said. "We've already planned it."
Original Story.
