"Who Is This Babydoll and why is she referred to as such?..."
-Robert McKinney; ca. 1940, WPA Federal Writer's Project
More than anything else, the New Orleans Baby Doll Ladies & Company is an authentic sisterhood of smart, talented women from different walks of life with a common ground in the dance arts. We provide girls and women between the ages of fifteen and sixty a safe place to get phys
ically active, enrich their lives, and make connections. As a community-centered dance company, we are incredibly proud to bourgeon as a beloved culture purveyor and Carnival staple in New Orleans while striving to inspire others in the process. Est. 2005, The New Orleans Society Of Dance "Baby Doll Ladies" is chosen keepers of the largest collection of heirloom artifacts and untold stories (i.e. Askew-Green family (Ca. 1927), Batiste family (Ca. 1930) & Ernie K-Doe Dolls Ca. 2003) ) the Baby Doll Ladies "Resurrection" efforts and contributions to the doll-masking culture includes:
More than a decade of ambassadorship, documentation & research, city/state endorsed Commemoration of the 100th Centennial-Year Anniversary of the "Babydolls" (2012), incorporating school & youth arts-integrated programs, co-curatorship of The LA State Museum's 100 years of New Orleans Baby Dolls Exhibit (2013-14) and the officially sanctioned, annual Baby Doll Ladies Mardi-Gras Day Walking Parade. Scholarly research documents that dance is instrumental to the development of New Orleans Jazz and its "Babydolls" customs, which is one of the first women's street masking practices in the U.S. The very first group of pioneer Babydolls formed their own Mardi Gras celebration in the year 1912, combining African exuberance and rhythm with French Creole style and toy dollish regalia. New Orleans Babydolls gained popularity thru the eras as social aide clubs, musical and family groups began to adopt doll-masquerading as a form of their own identity. The New Orleans Baby Doll Ladies carry on this endearing Mardi-Gras tradition of doll-masking AND dancing with an elevated sense of aesthetics and purpose, performing year-round. Production credits & choreographic works include: The 88th Annual Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade, The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (2009, 2012, 2016, 2018), National Geographic/Nat-Geo and the cultural legacy cabaret series "OH, Those Baby Doll Ladies" to name a few.
