But after she came to understand that education was a priority, her mother gave her permission to enroll at Southern.When she’d finally enrolled in fall 1995, she’d missed tryouts by two days. Exclusive playlist for our coverage of the Southern University Dancing Dolls. I would be a stereotype,” she said. They began performing at Southern and in Scotlandville, an African American community in Baton Rouge, at debutante balls, sorority and fraternity pageants and other society events.Over the next 40-plus years, the teams along with the band gained popularity, performing at the Rose Bowl, Perkins says she and Greggs, who died in 2014, didn’t imagine the Dancing Dolls would grow into the historic institution it is today. She brought the program from zero to 100 in a matter of months.“Everything they did was with class, from when they walked out on the field to the time they took their capes off,” he said. They became fast friends.“She was the one who kept us together and kept us in line,” said Lagarde, also a former competitive gymnast. We learned a lot from her, and she gave us great experiences.”Molizone-Morgan and her dance teams, though not affiliated with a university, continued to compete nationally, even performing in the Rose Bowl in 2007 and a dance-intensive program hosted by performing arts icon and actress Debbie Allen.Molizone-Morgan went on to become a Dolls’ adviser for two years as a volunteer, coaching and advising teams while continuing to work in higher education in other roles, completing her master’s degree in public administration in 2007.From left to right: Monique Molizone-Morgan with daughters Mackenzie and Peyton and husband Jabari, a former Southern University band percussionist.Now two decades later, as she recalls her own life, she credits exposure — pursuing postsecondary education, and through that, becoming a Dancing Doll, for changing her life.“If it weren’t for influences on my life, where would I be? Raised around the Dancing Dolls much of her life, she says despite her proximity to them, she was still in awe of them.“I know that I had a different privilege that most little girls don’t get, but I was just as shocked as every other little girl watching them,” Greggs said. The marching band then was all-male, so the young women would add excitement to the field shows and provide another form of entertainment to the crowd.Greggs and Perkins knew exactly what they wanted and their focus on style and precision would continue to set the Dolls apart from other HBCU teams. Starting as an inner-city student, escaping a rocky home life to follow her dreams from college to adulthood, she continues to give back to the young people in whom she sees herself.Recently, she and more than 100 of her Forever Doll sisters from every era got to relive some of their dancing days during the Dancing Dolls 50th anniversary celebration for Southern’s homecoming against Alabama A&M University.“My dissertation focus is on how administrators engage with the LGBQT, but I wanted to look into a disenfranchised population within the black community from a student services perspective,” she said.As Molizone-Morgan recalls her own life, she credits exposure — pursuing postsecondary education, and through that, becoming a Dancing Doll, for changing her life.Jeffrey Holmes, a Los Angeles-based educational administrator and mentor, says Molizone-Morgan has transcended her circumstances by being spiritually grounded, which helps her connect with the people she serves through her work. Under his leadership, the band grew in popularity and established a distinctive identity. “I was coming from an inner-city family — full of love, but I didn’t know we were poor because my family was just loving like that.“When I got to Southern and got in that Dancing Doll room, and I was with families who looked like the Cosbys and girls who had really good relationships with their fathers, girls who grew up with professionals in their families. She ultimately ended up at a local community college, just miles away from her home.After a first semester of heavy partying, she flunked out of community college. The inaugural game was hosted in 1974 and broadcast on NBC from 1991-2014 until it was moved NBC Sports Network in 2015.Over the last 50 years, the Dolls’ style has evolved to incorporate more complex choreography, ballet and jazz, using their signature white gloves and parasols in routines, a nod to the New Orleans second line while keeping the tradition of beautiful outfits and the kick line, reminiscent of the Radio City Rockettes.In those 50 years, 168 women have been Dolls. All rights reserved. Due to her father’s drug abuse, she and her mother moved from their uptown neighborhood to New Orleans’ 9th Ward to live with her grandmother temporarily in 1993.