Old Lyme resident Emily Kramm is one of a group of 140 Stagedoor Manor students from all over the world,  who will sing and dance the opening number for this year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade®. The number – an all-new original song written specifically for the event – will be a special celebration of the famed Parade’s landmark 85th Anniversary.

Following the opening, the students will then make their way to the top of the Parade route and march the entire length of the Parade, eventually escorting Santa Claus into Herald Square for the NBC national telecast’s finale.  This year’s appearance will mark Stagedoor Manor’s third consecutive Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade performance.

Perhaps the most iconic annual event in the history of broadcasting, The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade airs nationally on NBC-TV to an estimated 50 million viewers and is widely considered to be the “official start of the Holiday Season.” It will air from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. (EST) today, Thursday, Nov. 24.

More than four-hundred Stagedoor Manor students apply for the opportunity to participate in the Parade. This year’s participants represent 27 states, as well as Canada, Jamaica, Sweden, and Saudi Arabia.

Participants came together for the first time in New York City just three days before the Parade, and learned the entire routine in a quick 24-hour rehearsal period. Emily is shown at the rehearsal in NYC in the photo at left.

An accomplished dancer, Emily is a student at the Eastern Conecticut Ballet (ECB) in East Lyme when she is at home in Old Lyme.  The ECB is performing its 10th anniversary production of The Nutcracker at the Garde Arts Center on Dec. 10 ad 11.  Emily is celebrating an anniversary of her own in those performances since she will have danced in every one of those 10 years of performances.

Editor’s Note: For tickets to and more information about The Nutcracker, visit tickets.gardearts.org