Ten months of rehearsals, fundraising and planning will culminate today in a three-hour performance on the streets of New York for 20 Triangle dancers.
The girls - all from the Holly Springs School of Dance - will perform in the 83rd Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in front of an expected 44 million TV viewers. They'll be joining dancers from across the nation.
Becoming part of the famous parade takes initiative and talent. The school filled out an application online, and students learned a pre-choreographed routine, paid fees and readied themselves to prove parade-worthy at a week's worth of rehearsals before the big day.
It's the dance school's second time at the parade.
"If the dancers are wonderful, you can come back," said Marilyn Chappell, artistic director of the school. "If you're terrible, you can't come back."
Each dancer had to pay $1,700, which includes meals, six nights in a hotel, a Broadway musical, ice skating at Rockefeller Center and a visit to the Empire State Building.
At their first meeting in January, the girls planned months of fundraisers to help defray costs. They made tie-dyedT-shirts, were greeters at McDonald's, sold buttons, made a cookbook and held a car wash.
They raised about $10,000, which gave each dancer $500 toward the trip. The girls also had to pay for their own transportation.
"This is not just something that's handed to you," said Chappell, who plans to space out the trip every few years to give more students and their families a chance to plan for the expense.
The serious part
It's a trip to New York, yes, but it's also a serious dance mission.
The week includes up to six hours of rehearsal a day: three hours in the morning and three at night. "They know they have to work really hard," Chappell said. "It's not just a vacation."
Although the young dancers were feeling pressure to nail their routine -- a fusion jazz number with a space-alien theme -- they were also absolutely giddy before leaving.
"Mostly I'm excited about just the fact of being in New York with other dancers," said Lauren Pavone, 14. She doesn't think she'll be a professional dancer when she grows up, but plans to minor in dance in college.
They all watched an orientation video that outlines rules for the trip: no members of the opposite sex in your room, no late-night parties and absolutely no caffeine the night before the parade.
They have to get up at 5 a.m. to take the subway to take their place at the start of the parade route, on 77th Street.
A big adventure
The parade, which started in 1924 with horse-drawn floats, has become a staple for American families on Thanksgiving morning. Giant balloons, intricate floats and popular entertainers attract miles of bystanders. This year, the parade will feature the cast of "Sesame Street," Gloria Gaynor, Jimmy Fallon and Ziggy Marley, along with top high school and college marching bands, singers and dancers.
To commemorate the event, Chappell bought each dancer a journal with a special message on the back. She told them to write in it as much as possible, to remember their big adventure in New York.
Chappell and her chaperones have a plan to see the girls at the chaotic event, which is notoriously difficult to take in from ground level.
"We'll see them on the street and then run back to the hotel to watch it on TV," she said.
