They’ve watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade year after year, admiring the dancers, and now, becoming them. Tedi Gould, Kyra Hamblen, Olivia Hopkins, Abigail Houp, Annika Mankin, Sofia Mankin, and Julia Ordway have danced from a range of five to fifteen years. This year, they get the chance to dance among five hundred dancers on November 25.
The juniors and seniors who attend Gorham High School are enthusiastic as they prepare to travel alongside dancers headed to New York City from all over the US. The group has been practicing their routine for only a few weeks, but they have been preparing and fundraising for the trip for a couple years now, after COVID canceled their plans last year. The 16- and 17-year-olds were selected specifically by Danielle Drouin to be a part of a twenty-one person group that will dance in the parade.
Photo credit Danielle DrouinDrouin Dance Center dancers preparing for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
The seven Gorham students put in 5-20 hours a week of dancing on top of their busy schedules, as most of them work, have normal rehearsals for the studio, take advanced classes, and are involved in other extracurricular activities. The long nights and booked plans have finally paid off.
The studio plans to go down to New York before the parade takes place so they can practice with the entire group. “We learn all the routines, or at least most of what we are doing through videos, and then a week before the parade we go to New York and we all rehearse together and then they make changes,” says Sofia Mankin, junior.
As the group prepares to head down to New York, they expressed their eagerness for this opportunity to perform. From being in the city during the holidays, shopping, eating out, and seeing performances like the Rockettes and a Broadway performance of “Six”, they can’t wait to be in the big city and walk from 88th to 30th Street in the parade itself.
