BOCAGE COUNTRY CLUB HIGHLAND JEFFERSON TERRACE KENILWORTH PERKINS SOUTHDOWNS UNIVERSITY CLUB
ADVOCATE THE SOUTHSIDE
T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M
Danny Heitman AT RANDOM
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W e d n e s d ay, A p r i l 8, 2026
1GN
“We really try to make this neutral ground. … A lot of these dancers grow up in this store. It’s their place. They may switch studios. They may switch schools, but they grow up here.” LONDYN ATKINSON DAVIS, Toptoe Dancewear owner
In springtime Louisiana, nature often crosses the threshold I didn’t mean to start something when we replaced our roof in January. But our new set of shingles soon pointed us to other things that needed to be fixed: the rotting windowsill, the cracked siding, the lattice along a carport so frayed by the years that it looked like lace nibbled by moths. So we’ve been writing checks to men who arrive in trucks, and they work their magic with lumber, caulk and paint. Looking around our place in these early days of spring, I sometimes feel as if our house is a grand old ship in drydock, getting its seams sealed so we can safely sail through the wet and wind of another Louisiana summer. What’s pleased me most, I guess, was the arrival of our handyman, Bob, to refasten the threshold on our front door. It had finally worked loose after bearing a million footsteps — the back and forth of a family that has never quite decided which is best, going out or coming home. Like most gifted carpenters, Bob loves a level surface and a straight line, and it was a joy to see him plumb up the threshold and secure it, with a perfect grasp of geometry, where it needed to go. He had, with this simple repair, clearly redrawn a boundary between outside and in, and I felt that some small part of my world made sense again. Even so, I’ve lived in Louisiana long enough to know that when spring arrives, the border between outdoors and indoors is easily crossed. That thought came to mind the other day when I spotted a salamander, bright and brown
ä See AT RANDOM, page 2G
The newspaper is reintroducing its Cookie Contest at the Baker Fair from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. April 12 at the Main Library, 7711 Goodwood Blvd., in Baton Rouge. The first-place winner will receive a $100 gift card; second place, $75 gift card; and third place, $50 gift card. The winners and their cookies will be featured in The Advocate’s Living section. For details and to enter the contest, go to ebrpl.co/ advocatecookiecontest.
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How was the name for Lake Providence settled? BY ROBIN MILLER Staff writer
STAFF PHOTOS BY JAVIER GALLEGOS
Store employees Meia Starns, left, and Allye Covington try on pointe shoes at Toptoe Dancewear on March 5.
Put your best foot forward The perfect pointe shoe is found at this Baton Rouge dance store
Think about the fog that sometimes settles just above the Mississippi River’s muddy water. Sometimes it happens in the morning, other times in the evening, and in the early 1800s, it obscured evil lurking behind its thick curtain. Now picture steady traffic of merchant boatmen on keelboats and flatboats transporting their 19th-century wares downriver from Ohio and Pennsylvania. Their adrenal glands had to be working overtime, especially when floating past the infamously labeled Bunch’s Bend in East Carroll Parish, named for a murderous pirate known as Captain Bunch and his gang. Author Georgia Payne Durham Pinkston wrote in her 1977 book, “A Place to Remember: East Carroll Parish, La. 18321976,” that Captain Bunch and his “cut-throats” hid out in the old river cut-off, now known as Bunch’s Bend.
FILE PHOTO
Staff writer
Lake Providence’s port along the Mississippi River during lowwater days in 2012. Merchant boatmen considered the community a safe haven along the river.
hen young 13-year-old ballerina Merci Higdon walked through the doors of Toptoe Dancewear in Baton Rouge, she was greeted by classical music, chandeliers and a professional ballet performance on TV. Higdon, who played Clara in “The Nutcracker — A Tale From The Bayou,” was there for a shoe fitting. Owner Londyn Atkinson Davis, who took over the store in 2024, welcomed her in by name. From pointe shoe fittings to shopping for dance clothes, Toptoe Dancewear has been a dance retail institution in Baton Rouge since 1985, when Shirley Brock opened it. “It’s such a blessing. It’s so fun. And you’re still a part of dance,” said Davis, who was a Golden
“He and his crew would lie in wait for flatboats going down the Mississippi River enroute to New Orleans,” Pinkston wrote. “The pirates boarded the boats, killed the crewmen and took their boats and goods.” The boats were easy pickings, so the boatmen treaded lightly. Bunch’s Bend was located approximately 10 miles north of the town of Lake Providence. Reader Baker Boyd inquired about how the town, which stands across the river from Mississippi just below the Louisiana-Arkansas state line, got its name. “My high school played basketball games in that area,” the Baker reader said. “I’ve always been curious as to how the town got its name.”
BY JOY HOLDEN
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Girl at LSU, of running the store. “But everybody’s happy. They all come in here for the same thing. They want to get dressed up. They want to get their new shoes. This is the fun part.” Toptoe specializes in dance shoe fittings, especially pointe toe shoes, because each shoe fits each dancer’s feet differently.
ä See SHOES, page 2G
Tami ParrinoPassman, left, asks how Merci Higdon’s shoe fits as her mom, Vanessa, watches on at Toptoe Dancewear in Baton Rouge.
ä See CURIOUS, page 2G
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