As Chicago’s Bud Billiken Parade kicks off this weekend, one dance team is working to put on a special performance to honor their late coach.
LaToya Smith, a coach at Silent Threat Dance Team, is getting her students ready to preform, and she said it’s been tough not having her brother, who died last year, by her side.
“It’s been overwhelming, and there’s time where I’m like, 'How did he do this for all of these years?'" she said. "And then I look to the left, and I look to the right, and I see all these kids. And that’s what keeps you going and keeps you motivated."
Her brother, Verndell Smith, was fatally shot while getting coffee near 74th Street and King Drive, just blocks away from the dance studio.
“I just try to keep living every day and growing and just doing what I know he would want me to continue to do,” she said. “He doesn’t want me to be sad. He wants me to find a way to live.”
The team has been rehearsing day and night to honor their late coach and represent Ultimate Threat Dance Team at the parade.
“It’s hard, I mean, for him not to ... be here,” student Dy’Stiny Brown said. “For him to just like motivate us and just walk through the door and be happy like he used to be and spend time with us, it’s kinda hard. Coach T is here to help us. It is what it is.”
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The kids said they can feel their coach's presence when they dance, while LaToya also said she knows he’ll be watching their big performance this weekend.
“I just hope that he’s proud of all the decisions that I’ve made and he just keeps sending me angels to keep helping me keep the doors open,” she said.
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The dance team is currently trying to raise $3,500 to buy shoes for their performance Saturday.
