| The amount of planning and preparation given
to a new Disney parade is always entirely unprecedented, and Disney’s Once
Upon a Dream Parade was certainly no different. In planning for at
least two years and in the minds of those who created it for many more, the
parade was designed exclusively for Disneyland Park and, for the very first
time, exclusively in France. Directing the
Dreams Putting together a new daytime parade is
almost like trying to complete endless jigsaws of thousands of pieces, all
at the same time. From the float design to costumes, music to
lighting, confetti to characters, choreography and more, the size and scale
of the project is almost inconceivable. Staying with Disney’s vision
of parades as real-life, 3D films, then, the production needs a Director to
hold it all together and make the key decisions in the creation process. For Disney’s Once Upon a Dream Parade, this
job falls to Katy Harris, Cast Member at the resort since 1993 and already
well-known for her work on The Legend Of The Lion King and Kids Carnival,
Katy received the awesome task of making ‘Once Upon a Dream’ a grand
reality. Artistic director Kat de Blois and vice president of
entertainment Fran�ois Leroux were also involved throughout the production. Tasked with conceiving a new Disneyland Park
parade for the 15th Anniversary, Katy Harris and her team set to work on
drawing up the ultimate collection of Disney characters and films. She
eventually presented the parade concept to Jay Rasulo (head of Walt Disney
Parks & Resorts) in the United States and got the greenlight for the project
in January 2006.  Katy Harris Show Director at Disneyland Resort Paris, Katy Harris
was before most famous for
her work on the spectacularly creative Kids Carnival seasons in 2005
and 2006. Katy’s work on directing the conception of Disney’s Once
Upon a Dream Parade is undoubtedly her largest project to date, coming
almost fifteen years after she joined the resort herself. Katy began her
career at Disneyland Resort Paris in 1993, performing in the ‘Beauty and the
Beast’ show at Videopolis Theatre. After then performing in every
production at the park, she became an assistant show director and produced
various spectacles for small events and business conferences. In 2001, she became a full show director, and
has an established list of credits to her name. Choreographer with Craig Revel Horwood (as seen on BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing) on
The
Legend Of The Lion King in 2004, she then conceived and directed the Kids
Carnival in 2005 as well as adapting
Winnie the Pooh and Friends, Too for the Fantasy Festival Stage in 2006. Creating the
Dreams   Disney’s Once Upon a Dream Parade features
eight brand new floats spanning seven different, themed “Dreams” and over 18
different Disney classics. The whole design process was conducted
entirely in France for the first time, though inspiration from recent
productions at other Disney resorts was still taken. Most notably,
Walt Disney’s Parade of Dreams – the 50th Anniversary parade of Disneyland
in California, which also features floats named after dreams such as “Dream
of Adventure”. The French name of the parade, “La Parade des R�ves
Disney” is also almost identical to its Californian cousin. Whilst the majority of the parade is brand
new and unique to the European park, certain successful performance
elements, such as the Pinocchio bungee dancers and large puppets for
characters such as Pumbaa and Ursula, were also thrown into the mix to
create a varied and fresh parade for Disneyland Resort Paris. A new
and vital element in the design, differing greatly to the Californian
parade, is that seven of the eight floats feature more than one Disney film
– a first for Paris, and never before taken to such an lavish extent in
terms of themed, intertwined decor for each film. 
 In addition to the floats, brand new costumes
for every character, performer and dancer were created from scratch.
Even characters such as the Disney princesses, with their trademark ball
gowns, received sparkling new costumes for the parade, which comprises
around 105 different roles in total. Due to absence and days off,
however, each role requires four performers and costumes in several
different sizes. However, performers of similar height are cast in the
same role where possible, decreasing the amount of different costumes
required. All costumes were created in-house at the resort’s very own
Costuming Workshop in the ImagiNations building – which can be seen from
Studio Tram Tour. Building the
Dreams   The floats were mainly constructed at
workshops in Monstreuil (Seine-Saint Denis). Seen in these images is
the basic shell of the Dreams of Imagination float with the Alice in
Wonderland section of Dreams of Laughter & Fun. The floats began to
arrive at the resort from around February 2007, with Dreams of Laughter &
Fun reported to be the first float complete.   Last-minute modifications reportedly had to
be made to some floats after it was discovered the large, extravagant, new
costumes of the Disney characters were too large for their positions on the
float. Belle’s gazebo and hot air balloon of Mickey and Minnie in
particular were said to cause problems for the stars during early
rehearsals! Rehearsing the
Dreams Shown below are photos of “Bungee Dance”
tests backstage (for the Pinocchio clock tower on the Dreams of Laughter &
Fun float), as published on the official blog of Disneyland15.com:  First night rehearsals officially began on
26th February 2007, initially without floats and then gradually with more
and more elements of the final parade added together. The rehearsals
took place throughout March 2007 at night, after the park had closed, with
different cast from the several performance groups taking part each night.
Full daytime, public dress rehearsal performances are rumoured to begin from
24th March 2007. Disney’s Once Upon a Dream Parade officially
premieres at 14:45 on 31st March 2007. | 
