Portsmouth City Council reverses city group’s decision to exclude dance, cheer groups from Memorial Day Parade

PORTSMOUTH — Keisha Martin’s group of young dancers has been participating in Portsmouth’s annual Memorial Day Parade for at least a decade, but that may all come to an end this year.

Martin was disappointed to learn her group, Glam Kiddz, was rejected by parade organizers. The organization is a Portsmouth-based life skills development nonprofit for youth that focuses on dance, style and beauty.

“They look forward to it,” Martin said. “It’s an exciting day.”

The parade has been a Portsmouth tradition since 1884, making it one of the longest-running in the nation. It is a tribute to U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. Following a two-year hiatus during the pandemic, it returned in 2022 and featured more than 70 marching bands, floats and service members.

Martin’s group is one of a handful of dance and cheer groups who were told they can’t participate in this year’s city-sponsored event following concerns from organizers of “sexually explicit” dancing and side performances they say hold up the parade and go against parade protocol.

But at a May 14 City Council meeting, all but one Council member voted to authorize the city manager to override that decision, with several members taking issue with the specific concerns raised against the dance groups.

Council member Mark Hugel cast the lone vote against. He serves on the Mayor’s Military Affairs Committee, which had the ultimate say on this year’s parade lineup. The committee consists of city officials, senior officers, senior enlisted personnel, public affairs officers, and commanders’ spouses from the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Naval Medical Center, United States Coast Guard – Atlantic & Fifth District Commands, and the Naval Support Activity.

The decision to bar dance groups from the parade was made before new city manager Steven Carter assumed the role in April. But in an email responding to Council concerns on the issue earlier this month, Carter said parade organizers received numerous complaints over the past few years about the cheer and dance groups. He told council members that barring them was “not an easy decision, nor one that was made arbitrarily” by the committee. Carter also said the committee’s guidelines stipulate that each parade participant must incorporate a patriotic theme.

Carter said one of the concerns was that groups were holding up the parade when stopping to perform. Council members said that issue could be addressed when the dance groups are invited to register for the parade and that all participants should be clear on those rules for next time.

Hugel could not be reached for comment. But at the May 14 meeting, he said since appropriateness could be subjective, the decision was made to bar all dance and cheer groups instead of singling out a few who had not abided by the rules.

“We have the rules. We publish them year after year,” Hugel said. “If you follow the rules, no one will be offended by what happens during the parade and the parade will go smoothly without 5-minute interruptions while we’re waiting for some group two blocks away to finish their performance that they were never supposed to be allowed to do according to the rules to begin with.”

Concerns ranged from costumes to dance moves to “unprofessionalism.” Council member De’Andre Barnes said one of the complaints  — that the dancing seemed “sexually explicit” — is a stereotype often levied against young Black girls and women who dance, especially to hip-hop music.

“(They’ve) been a part of the parade for so long, and they bring the crowd, and they have a lot of our little girls doing positive things and staying out of trouble,” Barnes said. “But not only that, they’re teaching them self-confidence. They’re getting them on the right path.”

Barnes also said the requirement for all groups to be patriotic in nature would only apply to a few of the parade participants as the lineup ranges from car clubs to marching bands to churches.

“I think that we need to allow our children every opportunity to express their creativity, and we need to be open to other forms of expression other than what persons think as traditional recognition of the deceased veterans,” said council member Mark Whitaker at the meeting.

It’s unclear whether Glam Kiddz will be part of the parade this year. Martin said her group has not prepared for it since being rejected, but they can always “pull something off” if needed.

This year’s parade is slated to begin at 10 a.m. on Memorial Day and will span from High Street near I.C. Norcom High School to Water Street.

Natalie Anderson, 757-732-1133, natalie.anderson@virginiamedia.com