She ran to her spot in the second row of the formation, dressed in a hot pink tutu, black overcoat and sparking headpiece.

It was wet, windy and cold. Her jazz shoes were ruined. Her makeup was smeared.

But she was having fun.

Sophomore Elizabeth Charbonneau danced in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York on Nov. 28. She participated in the parade with Spirit of America Productions, after she won the opportunity to participate while competing in a dance camp over the 2023 summer. Charbonneau planned to participate in the 2023 parade, but all the spots were filled, so she decided to dance in the 2024 parade.

“I chose to participate in it because it’s a big opportunity [that] looks good on your records,” Charbonneau said. “I hadn’t actually really heard of the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade before, but when I looked into it, it seemed really fun. I really just wanted to dance with other people.”

Three weeks before the Thanksgiving parade, Charbonneau received a video containing choreography with the music for the performance. She rented a studio for three sessions of two hours, practicing the choreography for a total of six hours.

“When I got there, they were like, ‘Hey, show us what you can do,’ and they set us in formations,” Charbonneau said. “I ended up being second row [out of] 650 dancers, which is pretty awesome. It was crazy being so close to the front.”

Charbonneau traveled to New York with her mom, sister and brother. Spirit of America housed all of the dancers and their families in the Hilton Hotel in Manhattan. Charbonneau was offered a room with other dancers, but she opted to stay with her family. The day of the parade, Elizabeth and her mom, AP Bio teacher Sonia Charbonneau, woke up at 3:30 a.m. in order to get Elizabeth ready for the 6 a.m. call time.

“I was very tired [and] very nervous, because I was like, ‘I might be on TV,’” Charbonneau said.

Dressed in her costume with a full face of makeup, Charbonneau waited in Central Park with the other dancers for their turn to walk in the parade. Sandwiched between the Toys R Us float and Haribo float, the dancers clapped and shouted “Spirit of America” on their way to Macy’s.

“It’s really fun to see how many people come to see you and your cheers,” Charbonneau said. “Being on TV is awesome. You can see me dancing for a few seconds two times.”

The dancers performed their two-minute routine once, when they reached Herald Square. The dance itself was a mix between jazz and hip-hop styles to a medley from Charli XCX’s Brat album. After the performance, the dancers left the parade.

“It was kind of surreal because you have to run to your spot [and] set your formations really quickly,” Charbonneau said. “Then you realize there’s a bunch of cameras pointed at you. It was pretty crazy.”

Charbonneau’s sister and mother attended the parade to watch Charbonneau. However, they faced many difficulties trying to watch Charbonneau perform.

“We tried for at least two hours to get in front of Macy’s to be able to see [Elizabeth perform],” Sonia Charbonneau said. “We went through several roadblocks [and] tried to negotiate our way through [the crowd] to get over there. Ultimately, it did not work. We ran upstairs to the hotel and turned on the TV so that we could watch and [when] we saw her on TV dancing, I filmed it and took pictures.”

Even though she wasn’t able to see her daughter perform in person, Sonia Charbonneau felt the parade was worth it.

“Seeing Elizabeth perform was exciting,” Sonia Charbonneau said. “I thought she did really well, and it’s something we planned for a long time and looked forward to.”

On Dec. 2, Belles director Leisha Kastner announced Charbonneau’s participation in the parade. Charbonneau’s friend and fellow Belle, freshman Ansley Browning, was proud of her.

“I think [being in the parade] is so cool and that’s such an honor to be dancing in such a major parade,” Browning said.

The parade was a proud moment for Charbonneau as well.

“I felt accomplished, because the years I’ve worked on dance and technique got [me] to this point,” Charbonneau said. “It felt really nice to be a part of [the parade]. I felt honored to be a part of something as cool as dancing in the Macy’s Parade. ”