The Marettes: Owning Your Power Through Dance

At Santa Barbara City College, one student is redefining what performance, presence, and owning your power look like. The Marettes are a majorette dance team founded by SBCC student Chandler Johnson, not only to perform but also to bring a new sense of culture and connectivity to Santa Barbara’s Black community. 

Popularized as halftime performances at historically Black colleges and universities, Majorette dance is a high-energy style that blends jazz, ballet, and hip-hop. After moving to Santa Barbara from the Los Angeles area to study journalism, Johnson realized that the passionate performances, elaborate uniforms, and brazen confidence he had grown accustomed to seeing at sports games were nowhere to be found. 

“I kind of felt like Santa Barbara was kind of missing that historical Black college university player…. The Black population here isn’t too high. I wanted other people who looked like me to connect to the culture,” said Johnson.

During Johnson’s first two months in Santa Barbara, he faced housing insecurity and a sense of isolation as a Black student on SBCC’s campus. Having grown up with a background in dance, the unapologetic presence of Majorette dance called to him as a solution to this sense of isolation.

“It’s a very freeing, very open style of dance,” said Johnson.

SBCC’s Umoja center — a Black and African American resource center that exists on 74 campuses across California — gave Johnson the connection to the community he needed to take the Marettes from idea to reality. 

“It was a place on campus that meant comfort and safety to me, and it spawned a lot of the friendships that I have today.”

Johnson saw the Marettes as an opportunity to bring together Black students on campus who felt a disconnect from their heritage, as well as students from all backgrounds searching for an outlet to fuel them creatively outside the traditional teachings of dance.

“Because I was unhoused, I didn’t know how much time I had left at SBCC, so I wanted to make the most of it for me and for the people who shared my feelings of isolation and uncertainty,” Johnson said.

Getting the Marettes started with no funding or established audience was a struggle. With the faculty members across campus — such as Lelia Richardson, director of Umoja; Julia Hand, cheer coach; Brooke Melton, dance professor; and LaDeane Hansten, Athletics Director — the group found their footing and began performing halftime shows for football and basketball games, which eventually grew into opening and closing acts. 

“Before I knew it, we were being asked to perform for events in and outside of SBCC that had nothing to do with sports; we were even paid for one of our most recent performances at the Santa Barbara Hilton,” Johnson said.

Johnson’s only wish is that after he is long gone, The Marettes will continue in Santa Barbara, giving community to anyone who needs it, regardless of their background in dance. Today, The Marettes stand as a diverse team of 15 boys and girls, and living proof that hope and passion go a long way.

The Marettes welcome all dance levels to an open practice to be hosted March 7 and 8, 3-6 p.m. at ME Sabor Dance Studio (810 E. Gutierrez St.) For more information, find the Marettes on Instagram (@themarettes) or contact the group through themarettes@gmail.com.