Published: November 25, 2009 09:27 am      

Bellettes face their biggest audience yet at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade

Instead of enjoying turkey and pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving, St. Anthony High School Bellettes Taylor Oltman, Courtney Kabbes, Makenzie Weshiar and Brailey Dietzen will be dancing in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City.

The four girls will be performing in a large team sponsored by the United Dance Association. Other high school dancers from around the country will also learn the four to five minute routine, which is choreographed to American themed music such as The Guess Who’s “American Woman” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Born In The USA.”

Their plane left Saturday, and until today when parents and siblings arrive to see the parade on Thanksgiving, the two juniors and two seniors have had New York City to themselves.

They were a little nervous about leaving without their families, but the one thing on their mind wasn’t the performance in front of thousands of people, or even thousands more on broadcast television. Their biggest concern was getting in their shopping time — and finding someplace to get pumpkin pie.

“That’s what I’m going to miss the most on Thanksgiving Day — pumpkin pie,” Kabbes said.

“Yeah, forget the turkey,” Oltman said, “all I want is that pie!”

Weshiar was a little nervous about finding the comforts of being home for the holidays in New York City, saying she’s imagining “the Chinese restaurant and the duck in the movie ‘A Christmas Story’” as her option for Thanksgiving.

Along with training from a New York City choreographer for three-hour rehearsals Sunday through today, sightseeing is also in their itenary. The girls will see the Statue of Liberty, watch West Side Story on Broadway, see the Rockettes perform at Radio City Music Hall, and much more is on their to-do list for the five days they’re away from home.

But when asked what they’re most excited to do in New York City, in unision all four girls looked at each other and said, “Shopping!”

When St. Anthony’s bellette team, coached by Lynn Vogel, attended Illinois State University’s dance camp this past summer, some of the girls received All-Star awards. This qualified them for a chance to perform in Rome, but it “wasn’t realistic for our parents’ budgets,” Weshiar said.

So four of the six girls who qualified agreed New York City was the next best thing after plane tickets, hotel rooms, meal coupons and uniforms were paid for.

But Friday afternoon, unlike their strict dance routine for the parade, the girls were improvising their time. Only one of them had packed for the five-day trip, and none of them had a straight answer as to what city they were flying out of.

“We’re not worrried,” Kabbes said, “we want to do our performance and shop!”

Macy’s 83rd Thanksgiving Day Parade will be broadcast on NBC Thursday morning beginning at 9 a.m.

Samantha Newburn may be reached at 217-347-7151 ext. 131 or samantha.newburn@effinghamdailynews.com.