Shen dance team performs in parade that will air on ABC
Disney’s Christmas Day Parade has been a holiday tradition for 26 years, and this year there will be some local faces in the mix.
The Shenendehowa Dance Team was invited to dance alongside dancers and cheerleaders from across the country and will appear in two separate portions of the event, which airs on ABC Christmas morning. The traveled to Orlando, Fla., for the parade, which is taped weeks in advance.
Coach Amy Preston said the invitation to participate was exciting and rewarding, both for her as a coach and for the 17 dancers. It came about with plenty of hard work.
The dance team took part in a three-day training program over the summer with the National Dance Alliance, which they always do. I had a number of girls earn All American dance awards and then we received this full team invitation to perform in the parade with the National Cheerleaders Association and National Dance Association, said Preston, who said her girls performed alongside about 300 others in two mass performance segments. `They sent us the choreography about two weeks in advance on DVD and we had to learn it. When we got there, they told us that for the opening number we would be dancing with the Jonas Brothers. The main performance was in the parade itself.`
For the opening sequence, the girls danced in street clothes. While most of them were a bit older than typical Jonas Brothers fans, they were still excited to be performing with a famous group of musicians. The team also saw Kelly Ripa, who is hosting this year’s parade, and Nick Cannon.
Preston said that while the experience was exciting and fun, it was also a ton of work. The girls underwent hours of rehearsals and got to see first-hand what it takes to put together a television production. What surprised them was that while the parade looks like it’s one fluid entity on TV, it’s actually taped in several different segments over the course of a few weeks and then put together.
`We participated in numerous practices while we were there and those are very long and lengthy, several hours each. The girls were working really hard, a lot of dancing, strenuous work,` said Preston, who said many of the girls are no stranger to this rigorous schedule. The team has also performed in the PreGame show for the Orange Bowl in Miami. It’s held in the stadium where the Miami Dolphins play and is live in front of thousands of people.
Danielle Bonville is a junior at Shenedehowa High School and has been on the team for three years. She said that the Disney invitation was `very honorable for the team` and a beneficial experience from both a dancing and team bonding standpoint.
`We got to meet 300 other dancers of all different abilities and share this experience with them and make new friends,` she said. `The team got to spend time together learning new dance moves at a higher ability level and also got to go on rides and walk around the parks. It’s always a challenge for us, but we work very hard for it and are very successful and put our best foot forward to try to make it go as smoothly as possible. We look forward to the competition sense of it because it’s always good to push ourselves further. It’s also good that the younger girls could go because it’s good for them to learn how everything works and perform at a higher level than they have before.`
The team left on Wednesday, Dec. 2 and returned on Sunday, Dec. 6. The performances were supposed to be taped on Friday and Saturday mornings, but they were both rained out and ended up being taped Sunday morning. This gave the girls time to explore the parks and take in the sights.
Bonville said that her friends were all very supportive and happy for her because they knew how much it meant to her.
`A lot of my friends are excited to look for us on Christmas day ` they’re interested in it because it’s something watched by a lot of families on Christmas day, so they’re happy to be able to see someone they know on TV that day,` said Bonville.
She said the girls have seen some home footage that Preston’s husband shot in Florida, but will see the actual parade footage at the same time as everyone else.
Bonville is hopeful that the team will be invited back next year.
`As a senior, I would be really excited to goand it’s always nice to be in Florida in the wintertime,` she said.
The girls got to keep the uniforms that they wore in parade and the pom poms as a souvenir. The uniforms were NDA uniforms provided by the parade and were red, white and green for Christmas.
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