By Ruth Ann Ruiz
The Post Newspaper Features Editor
“Five, six, seven, eight, and remember, ladies, when you sweep back, it’s elegant, and keep our columns straight,” Jeri directs her ladies who follow her as they step along the concrete.
With berets and bowties, combat boots and smiles, along with a jazzy cabaret style, the ladies began entertaining Galveston County with their first public performance in Santa Fe’s 3-mile-long Christmas parade.
The ladies of Krewe of Les Minous, meaning “Krewe of the Kitties,” rehearse Sunday afternoons in the municipal facilities parking lot on Broadway in Galveston. They’ve been working on their routines since September and have learned about eight different performance routines.
Having formed the krewe purely out of a desire to be part of a dance troupe, the ladies are having a meowing good time.
Five women, Trish, Delynda, Ashley, Star and Jeri form the leadership team and together work on choreographing, planning and pulling together all the elements of an entertaining Krewe of dancing kitty cats. The krewe consists of women who are at least 35 years old. They might let someone younger join, but only if she has a sponsor.
There is no age limit for being a part of the krewe. What’s needed is the will to dance with a troupe in public and good knees. One of the ladies of the leadership team has knees that keep her from dancing, so she’s the lady cat in charge of driving the pickup in front of the krewe, and she keeps the music playing and attends rehearsals cheering on the prancing cats.
About 50 percent of the team of 45 ladies are didis, memaws, grammies or nanas. In other words, about 50 percent have grandchildren, and a whole bunch of the other dancing kitties are moms.
Many of them are former high school cheerleaders or drill team members.
“It reminds me of when I was a high school cheerleader, but we don’t have to do the pyramid,” meowed one of the dancing kitty cats.
One of the dancing cats, Alicia, is living with stage four breast cancer, and she finds participating in the krewe to be a great way to exercise and feel good about life.
After rehearsal the ladies gather like best friends — smiling, talking, and seeming to enjoy themselves.
When I asked why the members do this, the driving motivation they gave for joining the krewe and practicing every Sunday was a resounding, “Because it’s fun!”
The Krewe of Les Minous will be strutting and prancing through the streets of Texas City for that city’s annual Mardi Gras parade and will be part of Galveston’s Krewe of Gambrinus Parade.
Beyond dancing on the streets, the ladies have plans for sharing their outgoing and happy spirits through community outreach programs. Recently, they volunteered as assistants for the young queens at The Dash Gordon Foundation’s A Night to Remember beauty pageant.
If you’d like to follow the krewe’s schedule, you can find it at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555962135372
Keep your eyes and ears tuned for these kitties. If you miss Mardi Gras, they will be strutting someplace in a Galveston County parade in the future. The ladies plan to be out on the streets of the county for many years to come.
