“Blum, ca-cat, cat, blum, ca-cat, cat,” said Jordan Henry, 32, the drill instructor for Vegas New Edition Drill Team, during an upbeat practice filled with captivating sounds that move the spirit.
It’s five days before the 41st Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade — or, for this group, “hell week,” Henry said.
The intergenerational group launched in 2010 after branching off from the Las Vegas Hi Steppers, a staple in the Black community in Southern Nevada, to expand the region’s drill team legacy. After taking a brief hiatus the last two years, the group is eager to compete in front of the community again.
Unlike choreographed dancing, members perform West African-rooted drill routines that are called out by the captain and can include marching, militarized arm formations and hip swinging — to the distinct rhythm of loud smacking drums and bell sounds created by the drum squad.
Vegas New Edition was started by 40-year drill team veteran Felicia Day-Weathers, 51, a former Hi Stepper and former member of the Las Vegas Westernette Drill Team, and Jason Boyd, 36, a former Hi Stepper who is widely known and held in high regard for performing at the Martin Luther King Jr. parade and other competitions for more than two decades.
“It’s been nothing but fun,” Boyd said about starting the team.
He said he always wanted to launch his own drill squad, and it happened organically in 2010.
He was working that year on building an adult squad for the Las Vegas Hi Steppers, which did not have adults at the time. But after a misunderstanding regarding the practice schedule, he said he realized he already had a team and took it from there.
“This is a big family, and anybody can be a part of it,” Boyd said.
The drill team includes a drum squad and groups based on age including “peewees,” who are 5 to 11 years old, “juniors,” who are 10 to 15 years old, “seniors,” who are 16 to 18 years old and adults, who are 18 years old and up.
Boyd said the team quickly grew, with 150 children, and they won every competition for the first few years, but membership has since dropped somewhat. He attributed the shrinkage to individual life struggles that members experienced.
Day-Weathers said people join drill squads as a hobby and that there are no paid members of Vegas New Edition.
“It’s a passion,” she said. “It gets us away from everything … It’s like we’re in a zone … It’s like we’re free.”
Henry, the drill training instructor, said there are different styles of “drill” across the country and that some teams focus on a band type of sound and others, like Vegas New Edition, are carried by “street drumming.” He also said routines in the South often put an emphasis on dancing and tap, while on the West Coast, the style is heavily based on precision.
Experts have described such performance groups in Black communities as “cultural resources” rooted in Africanisms. In the 1996 book, Steppin’ on the blues: The visible rhythms of African American dance, Harvard University dance historian and former dancer Jacqui Malone said dance, music-making and performance has been one of the “most important means of cultural survival” in the Black community.
Vegas New Edition is known for routines with sharp, quick movements and fast drumming. One of the main movements is called “march time march,” which is a foot movement that keeps the drill team moving in between routines.
“I always make sure that the training starts with the basics over here,” Boyd said. “You have to learn the basics.”
Boyd said discipline plays a role too, and once members are in uniform, they are expected to follow the direction of the captain and behave professionally.
“To sit back and watch a lot of kids that you train go out and perform, whether they win or not, is…
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