LI kids performing on float in Thanksgiving parade

Some Long Island high school dancers will hit the national spotlight at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade - performing on the new "Elves Raise the Roof" float.

The students, who were picked from a casting call of 400 kids from across the nation, have crammed in hours of almost nonstop rehearsal to prepare for the national television cameras Thursday.

All of them attended Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center in the Catskill Mountains. Eighty dancers in total were selected from the casting call to perform in the parade.

"Macy's called us," said Konnie Kittrell, production director at Stagedoor, a performing arts camp whose alumni include actors Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Cryer.

"People send in their videos months ahead of time and we get called to do a number. It's a little scary, but we can't wait," she said.

Kelsey McCabe, 17, of Rockville Centre, said this is her second year in the parade. "It's amazing. The fact that we get to be in the Stagedoor atmosphere with our friends and seeing the cameras - it's just surreal because it's something we see on TV and to actually be in it is surreal," McCabe, a senior at Southside High School, said.

Danny Meglio, 17, a student at Northport High School, said, "Right now I am having a good time dancing and getting ready for the holiday season."

Steven Lobman, 15, of Laurel Hollow, a student at Cold Spring Harbor High School who has danced in "The Nutcracker" at Lincoln Center, said being in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade is "the best experience. There is not much time to prepare and learn the steps and if you mess up you have to keep going."