The 96th Annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will feature some familiar local faces – 19 high school dance students from the Armstrong School of Dance. The Armstrong dancers are from Ithaca, Newfield, Lansing, Moravia, Dryden and Trumansburg school districts.
Director Karen Armstrong Gorsky said the dancers from her studio received their first invitation to perform in 2008 following a New York City Competition and they have been
invited to perform with the Spirit of America Performance Dance Team ever since.
Spirit of America Performance Dance Team are recruited from top dance schools
throughout the U. S. The November 24 parade will be watched by more than 3.5 million
people on the streets of Manhattan and more than 50 million people worldwide.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for these students,” Gorsky said. “They will
spend 6 days preparing in NYC with 600 other dancers from across the nation working
with nationally known choreographers for 6 hours a day. On Thanksgiving, they will
march the 2.5-mile parade route and perform at Herald Square in front of Macy’s
department store.
“For us, this means moving from our small town stage in Ithaca to a very big stage
almost overnight!” This is Armstrong School of Dance’s 6th time participating in the
parade over the course of 14 years.
Gorsky said that the best time to see the dancers is likely to be between 11:00am and
noon on Thanksgiving Day performing to the song Run Run Rudolph! The parade will be broadcast on NBC and via live streaming.
Congratulations to our Newfield dancers Paige Morse and Kassidy Payne. We are so proud of you!
You can read more about this story in this Tompkins Weekly article: https://www.tompkinsweekly.com/articles/local-dancers-to-perform-in-thanksgiving-day-parade/