Local dancers to perform in Thanksgiving Day Parade

This year, the much-loved Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will feature 19 local high school dance students from the Armstrong School of Dance. Dancers from Armstrong have been participating in the parade every three years since 2008, and this year’s dancers come from Ithaca, Newfield, Lansing, Moravia, Dryden and Trumansburg school districts.

According to Armstrong Director Karen Armstrong Gorsky, her high school dancers were first invited to perform with the Spirit of America Performance Dance Team in New York City 14 years ago.

“We went down to New York City — we go down every year for competition,” she said. “That particular year, there was a scout there at the competition that I had no idea was there. And after the competition, I received an invitation in the mail for any of our high-school-age dancers to perform in the parade.”

Armstrong Gorsky said that the school sent just three dancers for its first performance because it is an expensive trip, but even still, the dancers had a great time.

“It was such a positive experience,” she said. “They loved it.”

After that first performance, Armstrong Gorsky and her dancers decided that every three years was the best schedule for the school, allowing every high schooler at Armstrong at least one opportunity to participate before graduation and giving them enough time to prepare, practice and fundraise for the trip.

As for their routine, this year, the Spirit of America dancers — Armstrong included — will perform “Run, Run, Rudolph,” which Armstrong Gorsky said likely means the dancers will be on TV starting around 11 a.m. and be placed just before Santa and Mrs. Claus at the very end of the parade. Armstrong Gorsky said that they won’t know their exact placement until the morning of the performance.

Over the past few weeks, the Armstrong dancers have been diligently practicing for their performance. Armstrong Gorsky said the dancers are “over the moon excited,” and that excitement was palpable in Tomkins Weekly’s interviews with some of the dancers.

“I first found out I was quite young, so I knew I had to wait a while,” said Anna Hibbard, who’s been attending Armstrong for over a decade. “Every year, I would watch the Spirit of America dancers, specifically the Armstrong dancers that went, and finally this year, being able to sign up and get my package was just so exciting.”

Ella Goggan, who’s also been with Armstrong for over 10 years, shared a similar elation.

“I’ve known that this was an opportunity for pretty much as long as I can remember, as long as I’ve been going to the studio, but for it to finally be my turn is really crazy and surreal,” she said. “I’m most looking forward to one, performing mostly, but also for the bonding time that I’m going to get with my teammates and all the other 600 dancers around. It’s going to be really informative and interesting.”

Greta Sanford has been dancing with Armstrong since she was 3 years old, and she said she’s long looked forward to performing with Spirit of America.

“I’m really excited because every year, I sit down with my family to watch the parade,” she said. “And I’ve always gotten super excited when the Spirit of America dancers come on, and especially when people from Armstrong are there too. And I’ve been on a team with people that have been in it and waited for my turn, and now, it’s finally here.”

Other Armstrong dancers shared what the practicing experience has been like for the past month.

“We all got sent the video from the Spirit of America, and we were in charge of learning it for ourselves,” said Elena Lauzun, who’s been with Armstrong 11 years. “But then the fun part was actually coming together as a team on Fridays and Saturdays for the past couple of weeks and just running it together and trying to make sure we’re all doing the same thing.”

Kassidy Payne said that while the costumes took some getting used to — especially with bells on all the dancers’ elbows — it’s been a rewarding experience preparing for the show.

“It really tests our patience,” said Payne, who’s been with Armstrong for 15 years. “Knowing when we sign up multiple months ago that we would have all these experiences coming towards us, waiting for our boxes with our costumes and everything to come in, waiting for choreography, waiting to figure out rooming and see our schedule for when we’re down there has been a real test of our patience. But now that we’re so close, it’s really becoming surreal and awesome.”

The reception from the community and loved ones on the dancers’ upcoming performance has been immense, everyone interviewed agreed.

“A lot of my friends are very excited for me because they’re like, ‘Oh, my goodness, this is something I watch with my family every year,’” said Kiya Conners, who’s been with Armstrong for over 10 years. “A lot of them come see me perform just in Ithaca, but also just to be on TV, and I can tell my family and my friends, ‘I’m on TV,’ that is so cool. And I get to share this experience with so many other people. My family’s been nothing but supportive. And all my friends’ families have been nothing but sending good wishes.”

Paige Morse, who’s been with Armstrong for eight years, said that the upcoming performance is a “dream come true” for her, and her loved ones are very excited for her.

“They think it’s an amazing opportunity,” she said. “You don’t hear many people local being a part of such a huge event like this. So, they’re all very excited for both me and the entire dance team. And they’re looking forward to seeing it too and cheering us on supporting us.”

Armstrong Gorsky expressed her own excitement for the dancers’ performance and said that she’s glad that the timing for Armstrong’s Thanksgiving performances the past four years fell rather conveniently before and then significantly after the pandemic hit. She said that during the pandemic, the school had to adapt quite a bit, including teaching over Zoom and implementing alternating schedules to keep the dancers properly separated.

“Our families supported us, and the kids kept us going, and we kept them going,” she said. “Now that we’ve been able to fully open back up, it was well worth it. We persevered through it.”

Be sure to tune into the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on Nov. 24 to see these and other Armstrong dancers perform!

Jessica Wickham is the managing editor of Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@VizellaMedia.com.