The History of Chocolate Express Dance Ensemble
Our Beginning
Once upon a time circa 1978 a group of Washington DC teenage friends, who had known each other for several years, with some even knowing each other since elementary school, decided to start an official dance group. Most of us had been making up dances on our own to the electrifying R&B and funk music of the ‘70s to perform together in school, community talent shows and just to have fun. All of us can trace our friendship back to Backus Jr. High School (or earlier) where each of us attended.
Our Dancers
We started with 8 (eight) dancers: Velda Carrington (deceased), Linda Chandler, Cathy Hanford (retired), Glenda Magruder, Patricia McClenon, Linda Stancil, Sandy Waters and Kothia Worsley. Later there were those who dropped out and others who joined our group. Roxanne Cooper was our scheduler until she became one of the dancers, replacing Cathy Hanford.
Early Performances
While we had started out dancing at school performances, under the direction of Mrs. Nellie Stancil, our business manager, we began getting more outside gigs and our favorite DC club to dance at was the former Northwest Gardens, where we performed several times. We decided we needed to come up with a name for the group once we started performing at various places in the DMV area. We sat down and brainstormed for a while and decided on the name, Chocolate Express Dance Ensemble. The name celebrated our native Chocolate City (Washington, DC) upbringing and we took the word 'Express’ from the R&B group, BT Express, who was very popular at the time with their hit songs, “Express” and “Do It Till You’re Satisfied.”
Opening Acts
We also danced at the Worsley family-owned night club, Triple Oaks Night Club in Whitakers, NC, where we opened up for The Manhattans, R&B group. We even danced at the historic Howard Theater in Washington, DC during one of the many times they were considering reopening the famous club. The Howard Theater had once been considered Black Broadway where many famous Blacks performed during segregation, such as Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Cab Calloway, Lena Horne, James Brown, The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, and Marvin Gaye. It was dubbed “The Theatre for the People,” The Howard was the country’s first and largest theater for black audiences when it opened its doors in 1910 – a fact that would shape The Howard’s legacy and cement its place as an iconic cultural institution in the heart of the Nation’s Capital. Chocolate Express signed our names on the Wall of Fame amongst the other performers who signed their names over the years.
