Masking Krewe of New Orleans BabyDoll Ladies' Mardi Gras Soirée & Benefit

EVENT DESCRIPTION: The New Orleans Society of Dance "Krewe of Baby Doll Ladies" cordially invites you to share in a historical experience coined "Green with Envy: Inspiring Greatness, Gratitude and Growth," commemorating the organizaations 20-year anniversary, as well as the debut of its 2026 Auxiliary, Company & Junior BDL roster.

Enjoy an opulent buffet, wine bar & special presentations by The Baby Doll Ladies.

ATTIRE: Semi-Formal Dress Code (i.e., Dinner Jackets with Ties & Cocktail dresses)

Proceeds benefit The New Orleans Society of Dance's k-12 school, youth & young adult programs.

MISSION: The New Orleans Society of Dance embodies, encourages, and exposes the cultural footprint of women's masking and jazz dance traditions in Louisiana. As the main community practitioner, and historic preservationist society, NOSD is the state's most comprehensive source and artifact proprietor devoted to anthropologically at-risk doll masquerading practices. As a community-centered dance company, NOSD identifies, develops, and enriches burgeoning performing artists, broadening our city and state's creative and cultural arts sector.

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW: scholarly research notes a pioneer group of "Baby Doll" masqueraders formed their first Mardi Gras celebration in 1912 as a form of competitive pageantry and money garnering (LA State Museum). Hailing from the Treme neighborhood, the Batiste family formed the Golden Slipper Baby Dolls (Ca. 1930), imitating and innovating on the Baby Doll masking tradition by adding the family's Dirty Dozen Kazoo band to their version of the practice. The Original Babydoll, Miriam Batiste's love of family traditions and dance inspired her to form a community-aid club called "The Happy House" and its traditional babydoll group (Ca. 1970), breathing new meaning into the practice and cultivating the Batiste Baby Dolls of St. Philip Street beyond the shadows of Mardi Gras and St. Joseph's Night. In a customary show of solidarity and support, post Hurricane Katrina 2005, Elder doll Miriam Batiste Reed, along with her late brother and musician, "Uncle Lionel" Batiste, and the former "K-Doe Babydolls" co-founders Geannie Thomas Tee Eva Perry, dedicated their blessings, precious heirloom artifacts, and untold legacies to Millisia White's New Orleans Baby Doll Ladies aka The Official New Orleans Baby Dolls, at the helm and paradigm shift of the doll-masking and Jass dance traditions today.

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Host or Publisher The New Orleans Society Of Dance, LLC.