Newtown Student To Sing And Dance In Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

By Eliza Hallabeck

Instead of watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade this year, one Newtown student will be dancing and singing in the finale on November 27.

Victoria Madden, a sixth grade student at Reed Intermediate School, will join 300 children from 22 states to dance and sing in the finale. She is one of eight students from Connecticut who will be joining the performance, and she is the only one from Newtown who will be there.

“I think it is going to be a great experience to dance with all these people in front of the cameras with all the big balloons around me,” said Victoria.

She said this is the largest performance for her since she started dancing.

“I just think it is going to be a lot of fun,” she said, “and I am really excited.”

This year marks the 82nd Annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and it will be the seventh year that Camp Broadway, the group Victoria will be dancing in, has been involved.

Victoria said she heard about Camp Broadway from a friend she dances with who participated in last year’s performance. She sent in an audition tape of her dancing and singing, and when she received the news that she would be dancing this year, she said she started singing around her house.

Her entire family has been supportive of her dancing career since she was little, but she said the person who has helped her the most is her mother.

“She’s taught me a lot about dancing,” said Victoria, “and to always have fun.”

Christine Madden, Victoria’s mother, said Victoria was at home on stage from the beginning of her dancing career.

“She actually started singing before she talked,” said Ms Madden. “She did.”

Ms Madden said she was driving when she heard Victoria humming from the backseat, and realized she was humming the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

The 11-year-old Victoria has performed in different performances in the area, which include Seussical The Musical with Sabrina’s Encore Productions, High School Musical at Reed Intermediate School, The Toy Shop Ballet, An Adaptation of Coppelia with the Newtown Centre Of Classical Ballet, The Nutcracker Ballet with the Danbury Music Centre and many more.

The closing performance for this year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will have Camp Broadway’s 300 dancers and singers performing “I believe in Santa Claus” with Kermit The Frog, and Father Christmas is also scheduled to make an appearance during the song.

 Ms Madden said Victoria dances five to six days a week between dance classes at Just Dance School of Performing Arts in Danbury and the Newtown Centre of Classical Ballet. Victoria is also practicing for Danbury Music Centre’s performance of Nutcracker Ballet, Malenkee Ballet Repertoire Company’s Nutcracker Suite Ballet, which will be performed during the Newtown Holiday Festival held next month at Edmond Town Hall, and she has started practicing for Cinderella with Sabrina’s Encore Productions, which will debut February 6 and 7 at Edmond Town Hall.

Ms Madden said Victoria loves to dance, and as long as she maintains excellent grades in school, Victoria’s father and herself will support her dancing and singing commitments. Ms Madden said Victoria is an A student.

“I’m so excited to meet Kermit, because I loved him when I was little,” said Victoria. “And now I get to sing and dance with him.”

The practices for Camp Broadway will be held over a period of five days. Ms Madden said she will be driving Victoria back and forth to the city so she will only miss about one day of school. The family also plans on being in the city for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade this year.

“We’ve always wanted to go to the parade,” said Ms Madden. “So this is a good reason for us to go.”

The finale of the parade is scheduled to happen around noon, according to Ms Madden.