Thanksgiving parade features celebs and music

AT 4 A.M. yesterday, security guards arrived at the bleachers in front of the Art Museum. By 6 a.m., spectators with tickets to the 95th annual 6ABC/Dunkin' Donuts Thanksgiving Day Parade started to fill those seats.

By 7, Mike Avello - the "No. 1 Rocky lookalike in the world," he says - posted himself 100 feet from the original's statue and high-fived fans.

The less-than-2-mile parade route gave onlookers plenty: performances by singer Lance Bass, "American Idol" winner Candice Glover, and fresh-faced Radio Disney and Disney Channel stars, person-pulled giant balloons (an injury to My Little Pony made her a last-minute scratch), and celeb princesses du jour, Anna and Elsa of "Frozen."

The audience near the Art Museum also got the made-for-TV parade, longer by two hours, replete with strongly branded freebies: hot pink pom-poms and pink and orange fleece caps from Dunkin' Donuts.

Buses, RVs, cameras and wires studded the area. So did hundreds of local singers, dancers, their parents and instructors.

Collingdale's Hilary Paskie-Brown got daughter Naiya up at 4 a.m. and bundled her up in four layers so she could join the dozens-strong tap corps in this year's "FanTAPulous."

Harleysville's studio owner Denise Gucwa and most of her tappers spent the pre-parade night in a Center City hotel. Most, but not 30-year veteran dancer Pat Sellers, who joined the group on the wet museum steps for outdoor rehearsal Wednesday night, went home, and awoke at 4:30 a.m. to make it on time.

Sellers was tired and cold. But, she said, "the music, the people, the colorful outfits and flags - we're forgetting about that."

Thirty girls from On Edge Studio had been practicing since Halloween. Instructor Kara Testa had them set their alarms for 2 a.m. so they could get in hair, makeup, Miss Claus mini dresses, double tights, and be on the bus from Oaks by 4:30 a.m.

LaDeva Davis, dance teacher at CAPA since 1978, had a huge behind-the-scenes role. She oversaw 120 dancers in seven separate performances, including Treena Ferebel's "True Colors," and an all-hands-on-deck production dedicated to the "Sound of Philadelphia."

"My dancers practiced tooth and nail," said Davis.

Still, when it comes to getting your kid up on that stage, maybe even on TV, there are no small parts.

Hunting Park resident Rasheeda Odom accompanied 13-year-old daughter Asia Harris, an eighth grader, and her chorus mates from Cook Wissahickon Elementary, part of the youth choir that sang "I'll be Home for Christmas" and "Frozen" hit, "Let It Go."

"I've been up all night," Odom said. "The turkey's in the oven. Doesn't everyone look wonderful?"