Click here to see a slideshow on the marching band's performance during halftime of the game between the Indianapolis Colts and the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday.INDIANAPOLIS - As Colts and Jaguars players ran back to the locker rooms at the end of the first half of the Colts' home opener at Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday, members of Ball State University's Pride of Mid-America band marched to take the field amid cheering football fans, most clad in blue and white.
For some in the crowd, hearing the first few notes of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" was all it took to get on their feet to dance and sing along with the halftime performers.
Unlike what he does with most other halftime performances, sophomore alto saxophone player Andrew Despersio took note of the near-capacity crowd's reaction throughout the six-minute show.
"It's usually a blur," he said. "This show is an exception. The crowd really went crazy and they really reacted to it positively."
In a post-performance huddle, band director Dan Kalantarian acknowledged the feedback from the audience.
"This is one of the biggest reactions to a college band that's performed here [at Lucas Oil Stadium]," he said, as band members cheered around him in affirmation.
Pieces from Jackson's 1982 "Thriller" album - "Billie Jean," "Beat It" and "Thriller" - constituted the halftime entertainment, and some band members took a break from playing instruments in the middle of the show for a choreographed "Thriller" dance sequence.
Kalantarian said the theme for the show was determined before the singer's untimely death. As with previous marching band seasons, the shows this year were planned at the end of the Spring Semester and written during the summer.
"We just so happened on our own to pick Michael Jackson when we were deciding what to perform at the beginning of the year," he said.
Other themes for the remainder of the band season include a tribute to Earth, Wind and Fire, "Dance Craze" and a show based on well-known television superheroes.
Kalantarian said Sunday's performance was special because it is usually difficult to get performances during Colts halftime shows.
"They were really happy with what we did last year, so it paid off. It's an honor for the students to have that day," he said.
Above all else, Kalantarian said, the show and the marching band program is all about the students.
From atop a podium at Friday's rehearsal, Kalantarian told band members and guard members to turn into monsters.
"This is a rockin' show, and it looks like they're loving what they're doing," he said. "That's what we want to translate - that they're having fun and have the audience react to that."
The band and color guard left Ball State around 6 a.m. and arrived in Indianapolis at 8 a.m. At that time they warmed up and practiced on the field for 45 minutes.
Between practicing and the actual performance the band and guard were able to go shopping at Circle Centre Mall, walk around Indianapolis or just wait in the ballroom to which they were assigned. As soon as it was time to play, everybody lined up in an air-locked room and ran onto the field.
Becca Carter, freshman bass drum player, said despite the long weekend and performing at the home football game the night before, she looked forward to performing to a wider audience outside of Scheumann Stadium.
"It's pretty pumped. I get into it, running out onto the field," she said.
Depersio said he watched instructional videos in preparation for the show's choreography outside of the band's regular rehearsal time. It took him about 10 times to master the "Thriller" moves before practicing the dance sequence with the rest of the band, he said.
Junior alto saxophone player Eric Linville said he is a Michael Jackson fan by way of his parents' influence in the early '90s and remembers watching the "Thriller" music video with his brother when he was little.
"It was a lot scarier back then," he said.
Linville performed at a Colts halftime show with the Ball State band last year and said the open roof at Lucas Oil Stadium provided better acoustics than at the RCA Dome, the former home of the Colts.
He agreed that learning the choreography for this season's show was at first difficult, but the more he practiced it the more it became second nature.
"In my head [during the performance], it was like dead space then an automatic show," he said. "I went through the motions and wasn't really thinking too much about it."
A self-proclaimed "huge Colts fan," Linville sat with other members of the band in front of a high-definition television to catch the last few minutes of the first quarter - all part of his strategy to stay calm and focused before he took to the field, he said.
"It's a dream," he said. "I never thought we'd get to do this."
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