Archive: Around Town

If you were watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC and knew exactly where to look, you saw Lansing dancer Ashley Burt (14) performing in Herald Square in front of Macy's.  Burt was part of the Spirit of America Dance team, and the reason it may have been hard to pick her out is that the team included 650 dancers from all over the United States.  Burt says that marching and dancing in the parade was a great experience.

"It was a lot of fun," she says.  "I waved a lot.  Some people were throwing confetti.  Because of our circus theme we were with all the clowns.  There were clowns in front of us, and clowns behind us, and clown floats all around."

In addition to the fun, it was a lot of work.  Burt was one of nine dancers from Ithaca's Armstrong School of Dance who were chosen to be part of the Spirit of America team.  This year was the second time a group from the Armstrong School of Dance participated, but it was the first time for Burt.  Each year performers are selected by Spirit of America Productions of Frisco, Texas.

The girls rehearsed for three weeks, getting the moves from a video from Spirit of America Productions.  Then they arrived in New York City  six days before the parade for an intense week of rehearsal.

"They had sent a video and you were supposed to learn the choreography," Burt says.  "My studio spent three weeks watching it and learning the moves so we could be solid on it.  But when we got there they changed the whole thing!"

The 650 dancers plus another 650 Varsity Spirit Team performers stayed at the Stayed at the Hilton New York.  Rehearsals were held in an enormous ballroom where choreographers Afton Fox and Jennifer Baker could watch from a balcony.  There were so many dancers that they were broken into groups to learn the moves from assistant choreographers.


It wasn't all work and no play for the dancers.  Rehearsals were held five out of the six days, but they had a free day during which they saw the Broadway show 'Sister Act' and the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular, and had time to shop and see the sights.  On the Monday Dress rehearsal night they got to meet Disney celebrity China Anne McLean.  Another highlight was a Wednesday night concer that included a performance by Justin Beiber.  That event was filmed at Rockefeller Center as part of the annual lighting of the Christmas Tree television special.

For the Monday night dress rehearsal the troupe danced at the actual location in front of Macy's.  More last minute changes were made as NBC producers told dancers where to look, and adjusted the piece to favor the cameras.

"I really enjoyed Monday night," Burt says.  "It was out on the street.  We did it and the producers told us what they liked.  They told us what they didn't like.  We made changes.  It was a little confusing because our choreographer Afton would tell us what to do and then NBC would say 'no, that's not what we want'."

The big stage area that you see on TV is a giant sticker that can be applied to the street very quickly.  Workers pulled off the backing and stuck it to the street, the center section first, then the right side and then the left.  Balloons were inflated Wednesday over a seven hour period at two locations.  The floats, balloons and performers all come together early Thanksgiving morning.


The dancers got up at 4:30 on parade day to get into costumes and apply makeup.  They congregated near the Museum of Natural History where the parade route begins at 77th Street and Central Park West.  Then they had to wait for two hours before they began marching.

"It was 20 degrees outside," Burt says.  "It was freezing.  We were in these little costumes, and we couldn't have a coat.  They wouldn't let us go inside."

They got into their places before the parade started, then marched about two and a half miles to Herald Square.  The Parade routes south on Central Park West At the bottom of Central Park the parade jogs over to 7th Avenue, and when it gets to Times Square it jogs east again to 6th Avenue.  At 34th Street it jogs west to Herald Square and Macy's where the performances are shown on television.  Once there they performed the dance then had 15 seconds to get out of camera range.

"It was a big rush," Burt says.  "As soon as we got to Herald Square we did the dance and then they told us to just run.  We kept running until we got to the subway and went back to the hotel."



The Spirit of America dance team has performed in the Macy's parade for 26 years.  While not all 50 states were represented this year, dancers from all 50 have participated over the years.  For 75% of the performers it was their first visit to New York.  Surprisingly, Burt's group was the only one from New York State.

"Most of the people were from Texas," she says.  "Everybody was saying 'y'all' and 'yes ma'am'.  I met so many people.  I became close with one girl named Chloe from Florida.  She reminded me a lot of my friend Charlotte.  We became really close.  It was nice to meet new people."


When she got home she could see the dance from a different perspective on a recorded video.  While most of the Ithaca girls were placed in the center of the troupe, she was mainly stage right (on the left side of your television screen).  But she could pick herself out as the choreography took her back and forth across the stage.

"I thought it went well," she says.  "A lot of my friends were like, 'I messed up,' but I thought I did amazing.  It went really well."

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