The historiography of dance is an impossible one to trace. With conjecture, we can assume we first danced about the time we crawled out of the ocean, grew legs, felt the spirit and let it move us. We’ve since danced to summon weather, to heal the sick, to celebrate births and weddings, for salvation, redemption and to mark full moons and bat mitzvahs. We’ve danced in ballrooms, in forest clearings, in empty dive bars in eastern Oregon and in the wallpapered kitchens of our first loves. In whatever way we move our bodies, it is always to release the hounds of our selves in some way — and to conjure the spirit of the moment. Where language fails us, dance is the thing still true.
The origin story of dance teams is a little more definitive, but still borne of this same desire to harness spirit in some corporeal way. Founded in Texas, the first drill teams came around during the Great Depression to bolster morale and positivity in small Texas towns built about their high school football teams. Modeled after the regimented musket-loading formations of the ROTC, the dance drill teams were called “pep squads” and they would perform simple maneuvers for halftime shows.
In 1929, a woman named Gussie Nell Davis, after receiving her Master’s Degree from UCLA, returned to her home state of Texas to teach gym class at Greenville High School and sponsor the school’s pep squad. She added rhythm and dance steps to the precise military routine and sewed matching outfits for the girls.
Before long, Gussie caught the eye of the president of Kilgore College who hired her to train their pep squad — as part of an initiative on the part of Kilgore College president B. E. Masters to encourage more women to attend the school and, more specifically, to exercise and participate in sports. From their first performance in September 12, 1940, The Kilgore Rangerettes stormed the men’s playing fields, high kicking their way into the hearts of East Texas oil towns.
After the success of the Rangerettes, most every high school and college in Texas had a pep squad, and before long Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Iowa, Kansas and Louisiana did too.
Dance teams danced in nationwide competitions, parades and festivals, and quickly evolved into other forms of varsity dance at the intermediate and collegiate levels, including color guard, jazz team and step, which started in the fraternities and sororities of black colleges in the South.
In New Orleans during Carnival Season, high school and university dance teams, drill squads and step teams from all over the South perform up and down Canal Street, often all-women troupes wearing sequins and white-sneakers and accompanied by a full marching band.
This tradition, in the past twenty years, has inspired New Orleanians to start organizing their own all-women dance troupes, with a distinct Louisiania identity. Pink wigs, Doc Martens, lamay hot pants and feathers, the new era of dance troupes are inspired by the female empowerment and camaraderie they witnessed in the high school dance squads. The first New Orleans dance troupe was the Pussyfooters (all women over 30). Then came the Organ Grinders, the Muff-a-lottas, the Bearded Oysters and the Camel Toe Steppers — the only all-lady New Orleanian dance troupe to march with their own brass band.
We were lucky enough to chat with The Camel Toe Lady Steppers about their involvement in Mardi Gras and how they harness the carnival spirit. In their words,
The Camel Toe Lady Steppers are an all-female Mardi Gras dance troupe that embodies the carnivalesque and celebrates the spirit of carnival all year. Borne out of a Halloween costume in 2003, the group has since grown into a 50-member ensemble that showcases both staged and parade-driven performances inspired by the traditions of New Orleans street parades, cabaret, camp, Fosse, and Burlesque. The Camel Toes’ principle appearance each year is the Thursday-night Mardi Gras Krewe of Muses parade, but you can also catch us performing in support of other local acts, businesses and organizations, such as Roots of Music, DJ Soul Sister, Boyfriend, WWOZ and more.
What sets us apart from other dance troupes is that we create a new theme every year that informs both our costumes and dance moves. In years prior, we've been inspired by matadors of Spain, cha-cha, Esther Williams, 1970s female soul singers...the list goes on. You'll have to wait and see what inspired us this year!
The good times are rolling already. See The Camel Toe Lady Steppers and the dance teams that inspired them this year during Mardi Gras Season. Ace Hotel New Orleans is on the parade route. Get a room with code PARADE and we’ll hook you up with a festive rate.
