South Side dance company returns to honor members killed in crash: 'We gonna keep it going for both of them'

For just the second time in as many weeks, kids streamed into a basement room at Hamilton Park field house in Englewood.

The Empiire Dance Company is a renowned group, best known locally for its repeated appearances at the city’s annual Bud Billiken parade. They generally practice twice a week, sometimes double that if a big event is on the horizon.

But Wednesday night, they rehearsed for a performance at group member Isaiah “Bo” Flemister’s “final curtain call” after he and another core member of the dance company died in a crash on the Bishop Ford last month.

This weekend, the group plans to dance in sync with a video of Flemister's footwork routine, filmed two days before the crash.

“It’ll be like he’s dancing with us,” said Latisha Waters, co-CEO of Empiire Dance Company.

A vehicle carrying five members of the dance group flipped in the inbound lanes near 111th Street early in the morning of Feb. 19, authorities say. Flemister, 17, and Lazarus “Hollywood” Gonzalez, 25, were both killed. Three others in the vehicle were injured. One of them is “still fighting for her life in the hospital,” Waters said.

The group hadn’t practiced since the crash — until Monday.

Waters said she was late for that practice after struggling to get out of bed. Wednesday was better, she said, after younger members of the group — which has dancers aged 4 to 37 — brought a positive energy. Coming together was what they needed, and what Flemister and Gonzales would have wanted, she said.

The group is a family, Waters said. The 26-year-old dance group has taught the children of former students.

“We do everything from Thanksgiving dinners, Christmases, graduations, proms, birthdays, parent-teacher conferences,” Waters said. “We’re tight knit, we’re always together. … We needed to come back in here and be around each other.”

Flemister and Gonzales made a name for themselves in their eight years in the group. Members have felt their absence.

Flemister was a “sponge” with a knack for quickly picking up choreography, according to Dwayne Moore, the other co-CEO of Empiire Dance Company. Moore said he stunned competitors with his quick footwork.

Gonzales was a talented rapper who wrote about his queer identity, despite being discriminated for it, Moore said.

Lanayna "GNYY" Williams, an elite dancer with Empiire Dance Company, said the group intends to keep doing majorette in Gonzalez' unique “Hollywood way.” Williams said she admired his dedication. When Gonzalez was shot several years ago, he was kept from dancing for only a few weeks, she said.

Flemister memorial is set for noon Saturday at the Harold Washington Cultural Center, 4701 S. King Dr.

Services for Gonzalez are tentatively scheduled for March 20. One of the group’s biggest competitions of the year will happen one day later.

“It’s definitely going to be hard,” said Moore’s younger brother Shamar "Tek Shala,” a floor instructor with the group. “But it helps seeing the smiles on these kids' faces.”

“They definitely gonna live through me,” Williams, 22, said. “We gonna keep it going for both of them.”