MILWAUKEE, Wis. — The Milwaukee Dancing Grannies returned to the spotlight Saturday, performing in their first parade since a deadly crash killed three members and wounded a volunteer during the Waukesha Christmas Parade four months ago.
“It felt so right, just to be back. We’re back. We’re back,” Jan Kwiatkowski, the group’s co-leader, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The Dancing Grannies are back!! 💜 @SpectrumNews1WI pic.twitter.com/7lpyCVWjeN
— Katarina Velazquez (@katarinav9) March 12, 2022
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Grannies members Virginia “Ginny” Sorenson, Tamara Durand and Leanna Owen, along with William Hospel, the husband of another Grannie, died when police said Darrell Brooks Jr. intentionally drove an SUV into the Nov. 21 procession in Waukesha.
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Two others struck by the SUV also died: 52-year-old Jane Kulich, who was marching with her employer, Citizens Bank, and 8-year-old Jackson Sparks, marching with his baseball team, the Journal Sentinel reported.
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Since the November tragedy, the surviving members of the dance troupe have brought on nearly 20 new “Grannies in Training,” and the entire clan gathered before Saturday’s parade to toast their fallen fellow dancers, WISN reported.
Dancing Grannies make a toast to those they lost before they step out onto the parade route to perform @WISN12News pic.twitter.com/NFoG7Hycsu
— Courtney Sisk (@Courtney_SiskTV) March 12, 2022
Dave Sorenson, husband of Ginny Sorenson, told the TV station that his late wife would be “proud of the whole group.”
“It’s tough losing her, but I’m sure she’s happy and maybe she’s dancing with Jackson... She’s teaching him how to dance now in heaven with the other Dancing Grannies,” Dave Sorenson said, referencing the child killed in the Christmas parade attack.
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Ginny Sorenson choreographed two of the Irish routines performed Saturday, but she never got to see them performed publicly, WISN reported, noting that two of her granddaughters held the troupe’s banner in front during the parade and wore necklaces with her ashes around their necks.
The Dancing Grannies will perform on March 19 in the Racine St. Patrick’s Day parade next.
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