Photo by Miranda Pederson Taylor Nicks (from left), 16, Natasha Fraser, 17, and Erika Wilson, 16, all juniors at Greenwood High School, will perform in New York City on Thursday with the Spirit of America dance team in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

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It’s not Garfield or Santa Claus that will keep Stacey Tarrence glued to her TV screen during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

The Greenwood High School math teacher told three of her students that she will not leave her house for dinner until she sees their smiling faces perform the opening act during the 150th anniversary of the parade.

Juniors Erika Wilson, 16, Taylor Nicks, 16, and Natasha Fraser, 17, have spent the past month memorizing dance moves from a DVD and rehearsing them in their mind every chance they get in preparation for their performance in New York.

And tomorrow hundreds of their friends and family will be scanning the sea of Universal Dance Association dancers featured in the “Spirit of America” performance to see the girls in their bright gold costumes.

Hint - Jan Wilson, Erika Wilson’s mother, said look in the third and fifth row toward the center left of the group to see the homegrown dancers, who are three of the five chosen from Kentucky.

This is the second year Wilson and Fraser will make their way down Broadway after the three were selected by UDA instructors who observed them dancing during a camp in Bowling Green this summer.

The judges selected dancers who were able to learn routines quickly and perform with precision and good expression, Jan Wilson said.

The mother said when she took the girls to New York last year, they were told it was a “once in a lifetime opportunity.” Yet she knew they would be shooting for the Macy’s star again.

“They said ‘this is a once in a lifetime experience,’ and you could just see the wheels turning and I’m thinking, these girls will try it again,” Jan Wilson said.

Last week, the three honors students juggled getting ahead with their homework and daydreaming of the advanced dance moves they’ve been repeating every day in their living rooms for more than a month.

“Even if I’m sitting in school, I’m running over it in my head until one of my teachers says ‘Natasha,’ ” Fraser said. “But they understand. All of our friends know the countdown now and say ‘four more days.’ They all know how excited we are.”

Since arriving in New York on Saturday, the girls have spent about 16 hours rehearsing the three-minute routine in the giant Hilton Hotel ballroom. They said every red pompom and white tennis shoe must move in unison before they take a break to enjoy a Broadway play or do a little shopping.

And while the girls will work hard to help Macy’s celebrate its 150th anniversary, they also planned to carve time from their busy schedule to celebrate Erika Wilson’s 16th birthday, which was Monday.

“It’s pretty exciting, especially because it’s my sweet 16 and we’ll celebrate in New York,” Wilson said last week. “We’ll all try to dress up and go out to eat.”

The dance association sets up a schedule for the girls that includes sightseeing in Times Square, ice skating and a tour of ground zero.

While it’s been a year since the last parade, Wilson said she can still picture the thousands of people lining the streets and looking down from roofs of building tops.

“I remember as we passed the tall buildings you’d look up and see the numbers of kids pressed up against the glass windows and their faces getting happy when you look up and wave to them,” she recalled.

Wilson said after last year’s performance, all the dancers rushed over and gave their pompoms to little girls watching the parade.

“People would say ‘can our daughter get a picture with you?’ ” Fraser said. “I thought, oh my gosh, it’s like they think we’re famous or something.”

Nicks said she remembers seeing the dancers on TV when she was a little girl, and while it will be tough being away from her family on Thanksgiving, she thinks the experience will be worth it.

“I can’t wrap my mind around it,” Nicks said. “As much as they tell me, I know it will be fun. I’m just so excited to see all the people.”