Est, March 2005, The New Orleans Society of Dance (NOSD) is a community-centered dance-company. Its signature ensemble known as Millisia White's New Orleans Baby Doll Ladies is the premier culture bearer of Louisiana's century-old doll-masking and Jazz dance traditions (ca. 1912). During Hurricane Katrina's devastation to the Gulf Coast in late August 2005, the failed federally-constructed levees caused New Orleans to flood massively and force its residents to evacuate the city for at least six weeks. In the aftermath, the dance-company members coined their initial collaborative mission "New Orleans Resurrection." They began advocating for the renewal of the city's cultural arts landscape. In 2007, NOSD debuted its signature ensemble as one of the city's first artistic restorations of its kind, contributing to New Orleans' endearing traditions of Mardi Gras dancers.

Louisiana history records that a group of free-spirited women from the early Jazz days formed a club, becoming the first women's street masking practice in the United States. Scholarly research also notes that New Orleans street dance and doll-masking rituals are prominent features of the twentieth century's early "Jass" music phenomena. In a competitive show of pageantry, the shake dancers hailing New Orleans' Uptown district or "Back o' Town" neighborhood costumed themselves as doll babies in bold and risqué style regalia. They paraded on Mardi Gras Day, essentially forming a celebration of their own, namely for women of color. The tradition gained popularity thru the eras as African American social aid clubs, and family groups began to adopt the practice as a form of identity (Ca.1930-1970). For more than twenty years, the en masse "Mardi Gras dolls" tradition grew dormant (Ca.1980-2000).

The tradition has made a significant comeback in recent years, primarily buoyed by the New Orleans Baby Doll Ladies' resurrection efforts and its female empowerment underpinnings. For more than a decade, The New Orleans Society of Dance is proud to help continue and elevate its masking and dancing heritage. We bring joy into people's hearts through performance-arts, arts-integrated workshops and engage communities by selecting partnerships geared towards women's studies and civic missions, all while preserving New Orleans Mardi Gras history.

As the premier culture bearer of New Orleans' doll-masking community, Millisia White's New Orleans Baby Doll Ladies is the chosen keeper of heirloom artifacts handed down from pioneer doll-revelers, including Joycelyn Askew (heir of the late masker Olivia Green, Ca. 1927), Mrs. Miriam Batiste-Reed and her brother, the late "Uncle Lionel" Batiste (son & daughter of the late Alma Trepaignier-Batiste's Dirty Dozen Kazoo Band c.1930), Geannie Thomas, and Tee-Eva Perry of the former K-Doe dolls (Ca. 2004-2006). 

In 2013, the Presbytere, Louisiana State Museum mounted its watershed exhibition, "Baby Dolls: Living Tradition and History," co-curated by community scholar, Millisia White, co-sponsored the NOSD. Since appearing in the 2014 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, the New Orleans Society of Dance, in cooperation with the City of New Orleans Economic Preservation Office, commemorated The Baby Doll Ladies 2016 inaugural (now annual) Mardi-Gras Day, Dance-Parade. Further cultivating this significant faction of Mardi Gras, the Baby Doll Ladies historic dance-parade event marks the first and only established Carnival procession to date in honor of its doll-masking cultural legacy and Nola dance tradition.

Historical Overview:

 Excerpt from the book: Krewe of New Orleans Baby Doll Ladies' Homecoming

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