A Childhood Dream Come True Dancing Across the Pond

HUNTSVILLE - When Morgan Breland auditioned at a Uni­versal Dance Association dance camp last month in Walla Walla, she was hoping she might get to join a group performing in the Ma­cy's Thanksgiving Parade in New York City this year. She didn't.

But the next day she was offered the opportunity to travel even farther: to the New Year's Day Parade in London, England.

Morgan, 15, along with her mother, Cara Watts, will fly from Seattle to London on December 26, and return home on January 2. She and about 200 other dancers will represent the United States in the parade as part of the UDA's Varsity Tour. Morgan will join a group of 15 dancers in Seattle who will travel together with an instructor.

Morgan and her family live in Huntsville. She will be a sopho­more at Walla Walla High School this year, and is a member of the Wa-Hi Dance Team. It was at a camp for the dance team that she auditioned for the trip.

"I had to perform a routine that I mostly choreographed my­self," Morgan said of her audition. It came at the end of a long three days of working with instructors during the camp. She was one of three camp participants offered the trip and the only one who will be going.

This was Morgan's second audition for a chance to join a na­tional UDA dance team. Last year she attended their dance camp in Seattle. "I was so nervous, I think I kind of froze," she said of the performance in front of a group of more than 500. "This year I knew what to expect, so I felt better."

The dance routine for the parade will last 3 ½ to four minutes. The group will perform it several times over the two-mile parade route. "They'll send me a video showing the dance routine I need to learn about two weeks before we leave," Morgan said. "Then we'll rehearse every day while we're there."

The trip won't be all work though. It will include tours to such sights as Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guard, Hous­es of Parliament and the Big Ben clock tower, St. Paul's Cathedral and a cruise on the River Thames. The group will also attend a show at London's West End.

They will have two days to sightsee on their own as well. Watts says she hopes the pair will be able to take a quick trip on the bullet train through the Channel Tunnel for lunch in Paris on one of those days. They'll have to return for evening rehearsal however. "They said it's about two-and-a-half hours each way," Watts said.

The trip is expected to cost Morgan and her mom each about $4,000, and they're already busy raising money. Watts and her mother, Vicky Beckmeyer, operate Crofts floral and Gifts in Day­ton. In mid-August they held a special tent sale at the store, with proceeds going to the trip. Morgan and some family and friends also held a car wash in Waitsburg on Satur- day. She is selling raffle tick- ets for a cord of firewood and she has also held a yard sale.

"I'm trying to work to earn as much of the money as I can," Morgan said. She will be doing housecleaning for some families in her church in Waitsburg.

Morgan's dance career was launched at age three when she took tap dancing lessons at the Waitsburg Christian Church. "A lady from Pomeroy came down every week," said Watts. "I started taking Morgan and she loved it."

At age five, Morgan be- gan taking jazz dancing les- sons with instructor Nancy Wells in Walla Walla. A year later she signed up with instructor Idalee Hutson-Fish, who operates The Dance Center in Walla Walla.

Nearly every weekday she attended classes in ballet, modern, jazz, contemporary, pom and hip-hop dancing. At age eight, Morgan attended the JUMP dance camp in Seattle. At age nine, she started doing "pointe".

"I had to see a doctor to check my ankles and feet before I could do Pointe," she said.

"Those pointe shoes are not cheap," her mother add- ed. "And she grew out of the first pair quickly."

At age 12, Morgan joined a group of Hutson-Fish's dancers when they per- formed with the Eugene Ballet Company at Whitman College.

Morgan attended elemen- tary and junior high schools in Waitsburg, but transferred to Wa-Hi before her fresh- man year after she was ac- cepted into the Wa-Hi dance team.

Beginning next week, the Wa-Hi Dance Team will re- hearse four days a week, and perform at football games and other sports events. The team will also take part in dance competitions with schools throughout Wash- ington.

Morgan has kept up a 4.0 grade point average in high school and plans to keep it that way. She also plans to at- tend Running Start at Walla Walla Community College during her junior and senior years.

"I want to eventually go to medical school and study women's health," Morgan said. At this point she has her eye on the University of Colorado.

Morgan and her family will welcome any contribu- tions or ideas for fundraisers for the trip to London. Any- one who would like to help Morgan and Cara with their expenses should contact Crofts Floral and Gifts at (509) 382-2565.