This Yellowknife dance company is getting ready to perform on Broadway

Sayumnee Panapiti's dream of visiting New York City will come true later this month when she travels there to perform on Broadway and in Times Square with her dance team. 

The 13-year-old is one of 38 dancers from Yellowknife's Bella Dance Academy who have been hard at work preparing two dance numbers.

The first is set to Disney's Hercules soundtrack under the lights of the New Amsterdam Theatre, one of Broadway's oldest stages. 

Phoenix Smith, the studio owner and director of the Bella Dance Academy, choreographed it. 

"There's a lot of personality in that song and it gives everybody a chance to sort of show off what they can do," she said. "There's some musical theatre bits, there's some jazz, some ballet." 

For their second number, the team will join other studios for a public performance.

"It kind of is going to look like a flash mob and they will be performing that Saturday night in Times Square," Smith said. 

The trip packs in five days' worth of dance activities. 

Larah Peters, 15, has been dancing for 10 years. She said what she's most looking forward to on the trip is the dancing and "definitely the workshops."

The trip is part of a summer program called Dance The World Broadway, offered by educational travel company WolrdStrides.

The team will attend master classes and workshops with professional Broadway performers from Hamilton and Dear Evan Hansen, as well as one of Taylor Swift's backup dancers.

The dancers auditioned to be part of the Broadway team all the way back in September. 

"We got to see all these people, especially new dancers, come in, express how much fun they wanted to have," said Ava Nystrom, 18, a longtime dancer. "It was really nice to see that."

They started rehearsing in January, but the trip has been in the works since last April.

Smith said she realized some families may have developed mixed feelings about travelling to the United States since then.

She said they were given the opportunity to make their own decisions about whether they still wanted to go in light of the political climate south of the border.

Sayumnee will be accompanied by some family members, like others on the team who will all get to stay in Times Square for the duration. 

She said she is most looking forward to dancing in the city and sightseeing. 

"I am very, very excited," she said.