Tuesday, May 7, 2024
The Granbury High School Stowaways were filled with Christmas spirit and cheer as they danced the morning away during their third-year performance in the Dallas Holiday Parade Dec. 2.
The drill and dance team had already been invited to perform in the parade for the last two years, but then on Oct. 19, news regarding a third performance in the Dallas Holiday Parade was officially revealed to the Stowaways.
Presented by HTEDance, the Dallas Holiday Parade is the city’s largest one-day, outdoor event, according to the event’s website. Full of larger-than-life floats and spirited marching bands, the festive parade travels through the streets of downtown Dallas with over 450,000 onlookers, making it one of the largest parades in the country, according to visitdallas.com.
GHS Stowaways Director Shelby Sargent told the HCN Dec. 7 that this years' parade was “really magical.”
A last-minute float change, however, served as a fun challenge for the team when the girls had to quickly adapt and learn new choreography.
“Our float ended up changing the last 10 minutes before we stepped off for the parade and so the girls had to adjust all of their choreography last-minute,” Sargent said. “I say that because they're such professionals and I'm so proud of them for how they handled the situation.”
Sargent explained that once a drill team is invited to perform in the parade, HTEDance sends out a choreographer to each school to teach the team specific dance moves for the parade. Each team is also assigned a holiday theme complete with costumes to accompany a float.
The first year, the Stowaways performed as candy cane girls, and last year, they were toy soldiers. This year, the girls performed as birthday cake accessories to go along with their birthday float.
Sargent said before the last-minute float change, the girls had planned to dance to a pre-recorded “Jingle Bell Rock” song, but then a live vocal artist was asked to perform “The Man with the Bag,” on top of the float.
"It was a good change,” she said. “We were dancing to her music, and it was really cool to have that collaboration with the vocal artist on our float, and the girls just really enjoyed the experience and soaked it in.”
She explained that a similar experience happened to Sargent herself when she was a performer and stressed how important it was for her team to prepare for a last-minute change.
"We actually trained for scenarios like that during the practices,” Sargent said. “It's a life skill. How do you handle pressure? How do you adapt quickly? And how do you make things work for the performance aspect of it? We practiced for those types of scenarios, so they were able to adapt quickly and that's an aspect of showbiz that people don't always see.”
Sargent previously told the HCN she was most excited about the 11 new Stowaways team members getting to share in a unique experience together for the first time — especially as they learn how to dance through televised areas.
"It's very different than just walking in a parade," she previously told the HCN. “The parade stops and starts because you have performances in the televised areas, and you have to know when you're coming up to the televised section.”
But Sargent also explained that the girls are professionals and they handled the challenges “like champs.”
"They were amazing. You would have thought they'd been on TV a million times before,” she said. “I am amazed every year at them. Sometimes that can be stressful, but they just performed, they smiled and they were eating it up. They were just really feeding off the crowd and enjoying their energy and putting that into their performance.”
Sargent added she hopes the team gets invited to perform in the parade for a fourth time.
“We won't know if we are invited back until probably August, but I'm gonna go ahead and put it on the calendar as a tentative date, so that way we can start planning for it — but fingers crossed we get asked back again,” she said. “The girls just really enjoy it every year. It’s something really special that they love being a part of.”
