Hollister girl performs in Thanksgiving day parade
When Christina Troia dances, her dark brown hair falls into her
brown eyes and her body looks light. The loud pounding of her feet
on the wooden dance floor is the only sign that her dancing really
is hard work.
Hollister girl performs in Thanksgiving day parade
When Christina Troia dances, her dark brown hair falls into her brown eyes and her body looks light. The loud pounding of her feet on the wooden dance floor is the only sign that her dancing really is hard work.
Troia, 15, has been dancing since she was 4 years old and this Thanksgiving she will have a national audience to watch her movements. The slender girl has been chosen to dance in the opening of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Nov. 22. Troia, who dances at West Coast Music and Dance FX, found out about the audition from her dance teacher Jessica Smiley.
“We videotaped me dancing and mailed it to them,” Troia said. It is the first year the studio has submitted auditions for the parade.
“It’s the first time we heard about it,” Smiley said. “I got an e-mail from other dance teachers.”
Troia’s sister, also a dancer, submitted an audition tape, too.
“Both girls did it and unfortunately Desiree didn’t get picked,” said Vince Troia, the girls’ father.
“At first [Christina] said she didn’t want to go,” said Sandy Troia, her mother. “But her sister said, ‘What are you, stupid? I’d go.'”
Smiley and the other dancers at the studio were also happy when they heard Troia was selected.
“It’s really exciting for Hollister to have someone take the next step,” Smiley said. “For the studio, it’s really fun. The whol studio is going to wake up, watch the show and root for her.”
The family will be leaving next weekend and Troia has a long few days of rehearsal and costume fitting when she arrives. She got a video of part of the dance routine to learn at home and has been practicing with Smiley, but she will need to learn most of the routine when she arrives on the East Coast.
“I’m really excited,” Troia said. “I’m kind of nervous, but more excited.”
Troia will stay in New Jersey and she received the name of another girl who is involved in the program, from Connecticut.
“They take her right from the airport,” Sandy said.
While much of the time leading up to Thanksgiving will be devoted to rehearsals and costume fittings, the kids will do some sightseeing at Rockefeller Plaza and shopping on Fifth Avenue. The program includes teens from bands, color guard and dance troupes around the United States, Sandy said, and there are around 200 students performing in the parade opener.
The morning of the parade, Troia and the other performers will be up early for a 2:30 a.m. practice.
“Thursday will be really fun,” Troia said.
Troia is no stranger to the hard work that goes in before a competition or performance.
“Christina wants to dance and it’s a great opportunity for her to meet other dancers,” Smiley said. “She has a chance to introduce herself to professional dancers.”
Troia and other dancers from West Coast FX have attended conventions including one last weekend in Sacramento, where they work with well-known choreographers. Troia was selected from nearly 200 dancers for a scholarship at the recent convention.
“They have to learn a dance really fast,” Smiley said.
The dance season runs from January to May, and this year the West Coast dance team will compete in six to eight competitions.
“We have four back-to-back weekends this season,” Smiley said. “It is definitely a commitment for the dancers.”
It is a big commitment for the entire family. Sandy usually attends with the girls each weekend and her husband stays home with their son.
Sometimes the dancers have to be prepared for the unexpected.
“We are always supposed to get there an hour before our performance, and one time we got there and they threw us on stage,” Troia said.
She gets nervous backstage before her first dance, but after that she can’t wait to get back out on stage, she said.
“I like performing, whether it’s in front of one person or a whole lot of people,” she said.
Troia has a well-balanced background in dance and has dabbled with ballet, point, tap, jazz and hip-hop. Her favorite type of dance, however, is lyrical, which tries ot tell a story with movement. When she moves, her face looks focused, though the jumps and turns seem effortless.
“At home if I’m not having a good day or something, I can do dance and it takes my mind off what happened,”
