Drill Team Needs Money for Trip

“Listen up and pay attention, Ladies First is on a mission.”

A mission to Louisville, Ky., that is.

As the opening line in one of their dance routines suggests, the young women and men of the Pacoima Community Youth Culture Center’s “Ladies First & II Hype” drill team are going places.

For the second year in a row, the award-winning troupe will travel out of state this summer to compete in a tournament featuring some of the nation’s best drill teams. Last year, the team competed in Las Vegas, returning home with a handful of medals and the determination to do it all again, said Vicki Johnson, the group’s director.

Thirty members of Ladies First, which includes two boys and six adults, will travel to Louisville in August. There, the team of 9- to 21-year-olds will compete in three age categories in a two-day “drill-a-rama.”

Moving to the sounds of both hip-hop and gospel music, Ladies First specializes in a category called “fancy tricks,” Johnson said.

“When you go to the competitions, you see the same routines over and over. We wanted to change it up,” Johnson said. “We have a blindfold act, we get on the floor, we do stunts. The crowd loves it.”

So do the dancers; all are African American and most are teenage girls.

“Except for Nevada, I’ve never been out of California, so I’m really excited about going to Kentucky,” said team captain Chimere Mims, 17, a student at Birmingham High School. “We all love to dance, and this gives us something fun to do.”

The one hitch is that despite a series of fund-raising events, including carwashes and bake sales, the team is still a long way from covering the roughly $14,000 needed to pay for the trip.

“It’s been tough going, but we’re going to keep plucking away at it and eventually we will meet our goal,” said Connie Taylor-Broadous, director of the culture center. “It’s worth it when you see the way these kids shine when they’re performing.”