Real Troupers : Children’s Dance Team From Pacoima Housing Project a Musical Stand Against Gangs

Under a canopy of balloons and red-and-white streamers, a dozen or so children from the San Fernando Gardens Housing project in Pacoima got together Saturday afternoon and did what they like to do best.

They danced.

Saturday marked the sixth anniversary of the Project Drill Team, which was started to keep project kids out of trouble and performs its dance routines around the San Fernando Valley. On Saturday, the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People presented the team’s 49 young members, who range in age from 4 to 17, with awards for performing on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.

The awards were nice--they were presented by a police officer in a uniform, badge and sunglasses, after all--but the order of the day was dancing.

At 5, Madonna Jacobs is one of the troupe’s youngest dancers, and while she may not be great at giving interviews to the press, she was plenty comfortable on the dance floor. She easily out-stepped many of her older teammates.

So why does she dance?

“Because it’s fun,” she said, as she kept a watchful eye on the reporter’s notebook, even though she freely admitted she is too young to read.

And why is it fun?

“I like dancing.”

Other members of the team gave similar answers.

As a dozen or so members of the troupe practiced outside the apartment of Bettye Moore--the troupe’s founder and guiding spirit--cars cruised slowly by or stopped altogether to watch. A couple shouted “Happy Birthday” as they passed.

From across the street, little boys, too cool to dance, made loud squishing noises with their hands. The jarring jingle of a passing ice cream truck provided an incongruous accompaniment to the frenetic beat and thunderous rhythm of Raw Bass thumping from the stereo speakers in Moore’s living room.

In the festive atmosphere, it was hard to imagine that at night this area is home to a dangerous gang community. Drugs, police said, are a problem throughout the projects.

Keeping kids out of trouble was the reason Moore, 42, started the troupe in the first place. “Over where I live in the project, it’s just a drug and gang habitat,” she explained.

One of the dancers, Carmen Zuniga, joined the group two years ago.

“Instead of going out on the streets, we’re dancing,” said Zuniga, 11. “We’re safe here.”

To most of the kids, though, the troupe is just something fun to do. Never mind about all the other stuff.

For new member Mark Jacobs, 13, dancing with the group has its practical aspect: learning to dance. “At school dances, I don’t dance. I just watch,” he said.

As the afternoon progressed, the skies clouded and the pomp and circumstance began: The awards were presented with good-natured authority by Officer Ed Guzman of the Los Angeles Police Department.

After the awards ceremony Guzman, who grew up a few doors away from Moore’s place at Lehigh Avenue and Pierce Street, read a poem he wrote about the difference between his childhood and that of those around him.

“I remember when kids could be kids,” the poem began.

And for a while the mood was sober and quiet as Guzman urged the children to stay away from gangs and drugs.

“You be your own person,” he said. “You be an individual.”

The solemn tone did not last for long. Guzman sent the corks of two celebratory bottles of champagne flying across the lawn as the kids vied with each other to catch them. The adults shared a quick toast to the success of the troupe.

The children--and Guzman--drank root beer.