
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 30, 1995                   TAG: 9506300094
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SHANNON D. HARRINGTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PAGEANT LOOKS AT CULTURES

As Johmaalya Hicks performed the song ``I Am Changing'' from the Broadway musical ``Dream Girls,'' she may have been thinking back to her college days at James Madison University.

Hicks, who had plenty of practice with the song while performing with JMU's show choir, The Madisonians, won the preliminary talent competition Thursday on the opening night of the 42nd annual Miss Virginia Pageant.

Hicks, Miss Augusta County and a 19-year-old junior at JMU, said the preliminary win will offer a ``great incentive'' as she competes for the crown, pushing her platform of using multiculturalism to cure racism.

Andrea Ballengee, Miss Hampton Newport-News, won the swimsuit preliminaries for her third time in four competitions. She won the preliminaries last year as Miss Amherst County. She competed in her first state pageant when she was 17.

But even with her experience in the pageant, the nervousness never goes away, she said.

``Each year, I'm always still nervous,'' Ballengee said. ``Butterflies are still good, though.''

Ballengee is promoting the education of children to solve many of today's social problems, she said. Her consciousness of this issue was raised two years ago when she and her parents were robbed at gunpoint, she said.

As the pageantry began Thursday night, the reigning Miss Virginia, Cullen Johnson, introduced her theme for the pageant - multiculturalism. The musical performances gave the audience a taste of that theme with sounds from the Caribbean, France and even a bit of country.

``[The performances] give samples of different cultures,'' Johnson said. ``I think it was very successful.''

The pageant will continue tonight at 8 in the Roanoke Civic Center Auditorium with the second round of preliminaries in the talent and swimsuit competitions. Tickets for tonight are $9.50 for reserved seats and $5 for balcony seats. They are available by calling the civic center box office at 981-1201.

Tickets for Saturday night's final competition are $15 for reserved seats and $8.50 for balcony seats.

by CNB