[music playing]
DIANNA WILLIAMS: My name is Dianna Williams,
and I'm the head coach and the choreographer
of the Dancing Dolls, one of the top female dance
teams in the South.
Competition this week is in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Y'all's biggest competition is gonna
be the Ladies of Excellence.
I feel like the Ladies of Excellence
have a little bit more of an advantage
because they're from Chattanooga, Tennessee.
At these competitions there are so many different categories,
but the main category that I think everybody loves
is the stand battle, when two teams go
toe-to-toe on the dance floor.
When y'all are with me and y'all are in uniform,
you represent me, and it's a certain
way that I expect for y'all to look, act, and be perceived.
Don't come with fingernail polish on your nails
and on your toes.
Don't come with no nappy weave.
Don't come with no nappy wig.
[boing]
If your hair is not together, you
will be riding all the way to Chattanooga,
Tennessee for no reason.
Here we go.
[music playing]
Ready, full-out.
Bup, bup, head, head, pull, pull.
Y'all are supposed to be sayin' stuff on those,
I don't hear nothin'!
Find your energy!
Push yourselves!
One and two and three and four and five, six and seven, eight.
We having cuts.
Every time y'all get up, we having cuts.
Every single time y'all get up, because for some reason,
I'm not understanding why we're having such an issue.
When I get ready to have cuts, I don't say a word,
I don't make a facial expression.
I'm looking for flawless technique and perfection.
One, two, three, four and five and six and seven, eight.
If you try out for the Dancing Dolls,
there's no guarantees you're gonna perform,
Everybody has to go through the whole cut process.
I'm not gonna put anybody out there that does
not know what they're doing.
OK, Rineesha, your consistency, memory, it's a mess.
To the back.
Shakyla, you're cuttiin' off your moves.
Cut this week.
We go to competition like this, y'all not gonna win.
It's done [inaudible].
Kayla, you're leading the squad.
You gotta to do it.
I mean, serve--
[clapping rhythmically]
--like we at a restaurant, you the waiter.
Here's a menu, take your pick!
Breakfast, lunch, dinner, what you want?
The captain has the most pressure during a stand battle
because if the captain does not throw the stand correctly,
the girls behind her are not going to respond appropriately.
You've gotta do it.
You just got-- OK, I can't even explain it no other way.
You've gotta do it.
Because if you get riled up, they gonna get riled up.
Competition is gonna start in about an hour,
and we have a lot of prep to do.
We still have makeup to do, y'all still have to get ready,
so we have a lot of things that we have to do to make sure
that the show goes over well.
The day of competition, I have tunnel vision.
All I see is the trophies on the table.
I wanna win.
DD4L.
DANCING DOLLS: DD4L!
EMCEE: It is now time for the grandstand battle.
Bring it to the stage, the Dancing Dolls!
[crowd cheering]
Comin' in from Chattanooga, Tennessee,
the Ladies of Excellence!
[crowd cheering]
It is now time to leave it on the floor.
Let's go! [music playing]
Hands up off the wall, yeah if you's a boss, you's a boss.
Get your hands up off the wall, yeah, if you's a boss,
you's a boss.
Come on and dance, dance, dance, we'll make you dance,
dance, dance, ooh.
We can make you move, make your body catch fire,
we can make you sweat, work your body 'til it's tired.
Work, work, work, let's go.
[crowd cheering]
EMCEE: Whoa!
DIANNA WILLIAMS: The other team's stands
were not as detailed and intricate
as what my girls were doing.
Dancing Dolls' dance had more arm movements,
they had more synchronization, they had more energy,
but at the end of the day, just because this
is what I'm thinking, that's not to say
what the judges were thinking.
EMCEE: All right, now we got the stand battle!
[crowd cheering] Was it Dancing Dolls?
[crowd cheering]
Or was it the Ladies of Excellence?
[crowd cheering]
Dancing Dolls!
[crowd cheering]
Ladies and gentlemen, Grand Champion, Dancing Dolls!
DIANNA WILLIAMS: Just because they won Grand Champion
this week, it means absolutely nothing cause
we still have practice next week and I'm
not gonna let up on them.
DD4L!