After her husband, Damien Banks, founded the Banks Collage Basketball Association, a men’s summer basketball league, in Charlottesville in 2010, Shawna Banks was inspired to create an all-women hip-hop team to perform during halftime at the league’s games in 2014. Receiving an overwhelming amount of interest, Banks also started a BCBA hip-hop team for young girls. By the following year, the growing dance program had transformed into an all-girls team, featuring dancers ages 9 through 18.
In 2018, the newly renamed Elite Empire team transitioned to performing hip-hop majorette, a high-energy and unique dance style combining lyrical, West African, jazz, contemporary, and hip-hop choreography. Since the 1960s, hip-hop majorette troupes have performed alongside marching bands at historically Black colleges and universities.
Elite Empire performs original choreography at hip-hop majorette competitions across the region, and has brought home over 20 awards. Dancers also put on community performances and participate in team-building activities, strengthening their self-confidence and leadership.
“We want the dancers to know how important it is to love themselves as they are, as well as everyone around them,” says Banks. “We encourage them to uplift and motivate one another and to be good role models to anyone who may be watching them.”
Elite Empire currently has six coaches and around two dozen members, and expects to grow significantly within the next year at its new dance studio—before the pandemic, it had as many as 40 members. Starting in August, the team will hold auditions for new members, open to children of all backgrounds.