Using dance to turn a negative into a positive

Traneice Porter says that March 20, 2016 forever changed the lives of many of the members of her family. That was the day that her brother, Lathadius Breon “Bree” Porter, was shot while attempting to break up a fight that had broken out among a group of young men. Porter remembers it as clearly as if it happened yesterday.

“He’d literally just dropped his daughter off to my mom’s and was on his way to get his brakes fixed,” she recalled. “While he was driving, he saw a fight and stopped to try and help.”

Porter said her brother knew, on a personal level, the boys that were involved. He had played football with some of them. They were boys that he considered his friends. His good intent, however, somehow turned tragic.

“Bree was trying to reason with them, but one of the guys walked off and returned with a gun and started shooting,” said Porter. “One of the bullets hit my brother in the spine and it left him paralyzed from the neck down.” Porter went on to share something that might sound surprising to others, but it was of no surprise to her. “All while my brother was going through rehab, he said that if he had to do it all over again knowing that the end result would be that he would get shot and be paralyzed, he’d still do the same thing and try to stop the fight.”

According to Porter, that was the kind of person that her brother was. Putting the happiness and welfare of others first was a part of his character. He was the type of person who could be depended upon. He would do whatever he could to help. If he thought someone needed him, he would be there for them.

“Bree loved football,” his sister noted. “He played football for Hawkinsville High School and he finished up in Wilcox. He was a fan of the Baltimore Ravens. If you didn’t wear purple and gold, he didn’t even want to hear what you had to say,” she added with a laugh. “My mom and dad just told me something a few days ago that I never knew. Bree had received college football scholarship offers, and he turned them down because they were from schools that were hours and hours away. My dad was a part of the coaching staff in Wilcox, and he had been trying to encourage him to go to college and take the scholarship, but as much Bree loved football, he just didn’t think it was a good thing to be that far from his family.

Bree was the father of one daughter, and Porter shared that her brother loved his baby girl. She was only three years old when he died. Bree passed away on March 18, 2018, two days shy of the two-year anniversary of the shooting. Although he had started rehab and was making some progress, it was determined that his death was the result of injuries and complications related to the shooting.

“We were in the process of getting him dressed when he died,” Porter recalled. “He was telling us to hurry up because he was ready to go outside, and then in the middle of us dressing him, he started taking deep breaths, and then there were no breaths at all.”

Even before her brother’s passing, Porter had already begun publicly speaking out against gun violence. She had begun a program where she would speak in surrounding counties and invite families who had loved ones who had been hurt or killed by gun violence.

“I would have them come to a location where I would honor my brother, who, at that time, was a living testimony. This event would give those families the opportunity to speak out publicly about what they’d gone through. It was a way for us to let them know that they weren’t alone. A lot of us were going through the same things. These were our dads, our brothers, our sisters. It was an opportunity for them to cry if they wanted to cry and to receive a hug if they wanted a hug.”

Porter was on the verge of hosting her 2nd annual gun violence event when Bree died. That day, instead, turned into the day that they had to say their goodbyes to him. Ironically, she was putting together a dance team even then. They were supposed to dance at the gun violence event, but never got the opportunity to do so.

“I went through depression after Bree died,” Porter admitted. “I spoke to a doctor about it, but then I decided to do something else. Going to the doctor wasn’t for me. I started asking myself what I could do to help myself overcome the problems I was facing. I relocated here to Warner Robins, and I was inspired to start a cheer squad.”

Restarting a dance team was a result of the girls that were in Porter’s cheer squad. She said the girls wanted to do more. They didn’t want to just be seasonal. They were asking for more, and she just couldn’t let them down.

“I saw they were into TikTok and stuff like that, and that’s when the cheering expanded into dancing as well. That’s how 320 got its start.”

Porter requires that participants complete their homework done before they can take part in the cheering and dancing. She believes it motivates them to get their lessons done on time. According to Porter, some of them do their homework on the bus, because by the time they get home, they want to be able to come and dance.

“The name 320 was taken from the March 20 date that the shooting took place. We’re making something positive out of something negative,” Porter emphasized. “At 320, we accept girls from ages 4 to 18, and we’re breaking them up in groups. We’re even trying to do a big sister mentoring program as a part of it. There’s so much going on in society today,” she pointed out. “There’s a lot of sex trafficking going on. There’s a lot of insecurity. There’s a lot of curiosity. There’s drama. We’ve been young ladies, and we know the different stages that these young girls will enter. My motto is, ‘Prepare for the unexpected so that when it comes, you know how to deal with it.’”

With 320 up and running, Porter said that people from other areas are starting to reach out and express their desire to have her come into their areas to start similar programs.

“I’m interested in that,” she said. “I want to do that at some point. But for now, I just want to focus on building 320 here and making a difference in my own community and honoring Bree’s memory through it.”

An online website is in process of being built for 320. Porter’s desire is to offer virtual classes for parents who would rather their children participate in that manner. The fee to be a part of 320 is $65 per month, which includes training from a personal fitness professional and a dance coordinator. Work is in progress to obtain professional tumbling coaches as well.

“Every night, I want my girls to walk out and be able to tell their moms that they learned something and that they’ve been better because of 320 and because I was a part of their lives. I’m striving to be like Bree was. As long as I’m alive and as long as I’m able to be a part of their lives, I will be here for them. I will never fail these girls.”

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