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November 27, 2014

Final Project

Rockettes Precision Dance

The definition of precision dance is A group chorus movement whose main appeal is

exactness of performance, precision dancing employs simple steps because the emphasis is on

the overall geometric effect of the dancing rather than the individual dancer

(http://www.oxfordreference.com)

The Rockettes are a celebrated precision dance company that has been known for their

legendary kick-lines and eye-high kicks. M any would title them as New Yorks most well-

known and beloved icons. The Rockettes pride themselves on their ability to stay secure in the

ever-changing entertainment business, which they find very rare to do. The dancers believe with

the mixture of talent and passion the dance company displays that they have become part of The

American Dream.

When the company is asked, Who are the Radio City Rockettes? their response is, A

celebrated world-class precision dance company that exemplifies extraordinary talent,

athleticism, teamwork, and self-confidence. Captivating New York City and beyond through the

Radio City Christmas Spectacular, the Rockettes prove that if you dream big together, you

achieve together. When this sisterhood comes together as a team, magic happens.

(http://www.rockettes.com/)
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There are certain requirements to be a Rockette. You must be between 56 and 5101/2

tall. M easurements are taken at the auditions in stocking feet. The Rockettes may appear to be

the same height, but this is just an optical allusion. The tallest girl goes in the center and then it

goes down to the least tall girl at the end. Being the shortest girl has been known as one of the

hardest roles, because that is the swing girl who will put in the most effort to get the kick line to

swing in a straight formation since they are on the end. You must be proficient in ballet, jazz

modern, and tap. In order to audition the women must be at least eighteen years old, and there is

no cut off age limit for this company. The auditions are an open-call process, so anyone can

show up to audition. The audition process takes two full days to complete. The first day the

women are taught basic combination, although they are expected to learn it extremely quick and

know every detail since the Rockettes are a precision team. After a small amount of time to

perfect the combination the women are divided into groups of three to perform in front of judges.

After this there a numerous cuts, and the women who are left learn a more difficult combination,

which is usually a tap routine. After the more difficult combination is performed more cuts are

made. Then the few women remaining return the next day for even more choreography.

In the first round cuts are made if the dancers dont have sufficient basic technique. Then

the second round of cuts is made in tap abilities and kick are not strong enough. The judges

main concern for finding a Rockette out of the remaining women is if they can learn material

quick enough and strong enough personalities while performing. Once a Rockette you must still

audition each year for a spot on the famous kick-line. The auditions are held every summer in

New York.
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Their original precision dance company was founded in 1925, by Russell M arket, in St,

Louis, M issouri, far from their current home, New York City. The original woman were

performing as M issouri Rockets. As the grouped continued to perform, Samuel Roxy Rothafel

brought the group to the theater he owned, Roxy Theatre, in New York City. Once they started to

perform there, Rothafel renamed the group the Roxyettes. Rothafel later left the Roxy Theatre

in order to open Radio City M usic Hall, and he had the dance company move along with him.

After this move the woman became known as the Rockettes.

It was in 1933, when the company joined with Radio City M usic Hall in M anhattan, New

York City, they put together what is now known as the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. They

are most known for their work in New York, including their performances at the M acys

Thanksgiving Day Parade, the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, and NBCs Rockefeller Center

Tree-Lighting Ceremony. There was once an Easter show the Rockettes would put on each year

including the Rockette Bunny and the Rockette flower choreography. The Rockettes stopped

performing this show, but recently its making a comeback in a limited seven week show of the

New York Spring Spectacular in spring 2015. Besides their work in New York that has been

seen by over two-million people annually, and showed in more than sixty cities across North

America, they have performed in many other pieces of entertainment. Some include appearances

on Dancing with the Stars, the Tony Awards, Super Bowl Halftime Shows, Presidential

Inaugurations, and TV commercials to promote companies and products.

The Radio City Christmas Spectacular is the Rockettes most well-known show that

debuted in 1933. One of the advertisements for the show says its, A M AGICAL LINE-UP

Every year, the Rockettes push themselves further to put on a show thats more dynamic, more
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challenging and more magical than the last. Take in cherished moments and create new

memories (http://www.rockettes.com/). The rehearsals for this show starts in September and

run M onday through Friday every day from 10 am to 6pm. While rehearsing the Rockettes are

taught that they are not allowed to touch each other in the eye-high kicks. They gently rest their

hands on the fabric of anothers girls costume, and they are not allowed to hang on each other.

There is no linking of arms, instead they just rely on core strength to keep them upright. The

Rockettes practice inside a church. The rehearsal space at the church looks exactly like the stage

will look so the dance know exactly how everything works. The Rockettes have claimed that if

the rehearsal space was off just a couple of inches that it would jeopardize their performance

once on the real stage, because it makes a significant difference once in the actual performance

space at the same time.

In the Christmas show the dancers perform for about 6000 people each show, and there

have been typically five shows a day. This means the dancers perform for about 30,000 people a

day. There are a total of eighty Rockettes in the company, and they split into casts of thirty-six

woman. There is a total of thirty-six Rockettes in each show, meaning there is a total of seventy -

two legs performing those famous eye-high kicks. There is a total of one-thousand three hundred

costumes that come onstage during this show. The Rockettes are given approximately a total of

seventy-eight seconds to change from one costume to the next in order for the show to run

smoothly. M ost of the costume changes are done right in the wings of the stage. The Rockettes

do their own hair and makeup and the only requirements the woman are told is to wear are a red

lip, fake lashes, and a French twist hair style.

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The Rockettes claim the highlights of the show include, Parade of the Wooden Soldier

and Christmas in New York. Two of the dances performed in the original production are still

performed each year in the show. One is The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers, and the

choreography is virtually unchanged since the original piece was performed. This dance includes

the Rockettes dressed as wooden soldiers that perform their dance in military -like precision and

formations, and the famous cannon shot that knocks each dancer over like a line of dominoes.

The dancers are trained extensively on how to be knocked over by the cannon so as each dancer

sits down they do not injure the dancer behind them. Rockettes M organ Hartley and Audrey

Thelemann claim the tall black hats for this number need a makeover. Hartley once said in an

interview, "They all have to look the same so they all have to sit flat on our heads. Its kind of

like having a visor on, you can only really see about 4 to 5 feet in front of

you" (http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2013/12/02/top-10-things-didnt-know-about-rockettes/).

The rosy checks for this dance are made out of material and stay put on the dancer face by using

double sided tape. The Rockettes also go through about fifteen-thousand rosy check pieces every

season.

The second preserved performance is The Living Nativity. This piece features live

animals, including sheep donkeys and camels that help to recreate the Christmas Story of Jesus

birthday onstage. The animals from this piece live right inside Radio City M usic Hall during the

holiday season. Another number in the show involve the heaviest Rockette costume. It is the

Santa Suit This costume weighs fourth pounds, and this is one of the only numbers the woman

get to dance in flats. The number has about fifty dancers in it. There are the thirty -six Rockettes

from a certain cast and then the rest are ensemble members. Although this number has a pretty

quick costume change, exclaims the Rockettes, because the costume is just a big z ipper, a belt,
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and inside a fat suit. For the Twelve days of Christmas dance, the Rockettes wear microphones

in their shoes to magnify the tap sounds while dancing. There is a whole entire crew team to

make sure the taps and microphones work for the dancers. During the whole show Rockettes do

about three-hundred eye-high kicks. This means since there are about five shows a day, the

dancers are doing a total of one-thousand five-hundred kicks a day.

There are also many injuries that come with being a dancer in the Rockette Company.

Elaine Winslow is a former Rockette that tuned into the companies athletic trainer, and she says

she after a show she keeps two large basins of water chilled to about forty -five degrees. The

dancers will use them to ice down their swollen and sore bodies. There are frequent knee

injuries, but recently neck injuries have become a main concern as well. The reason for this is

when the dancers started to wear the tight and heavy hat with reindeer antlers that light up

attached for one of their dances.

Rockettes are members of the Union, the American Guild of Variety Artists, and are paid

by what their contract with AGVA states. Primarily Rockettes earn from $1,4OO to $1,500

weekly, and $78,000 annually, if they worked the full fifty-two week schedule. Although a full

fifty-two week schedule is not popular with Rockettes. Their performance season fits into several

short months. Therefore the average Rockette makes $36,000 to $39,000, with their health

insurance and other benefits paid year around. This is why many Rockettes claim to work other

jobs during the Rockette off-season. M any are dance or fitness instructors, choreographers,

models, thespians, etc.

These are the many reasons the Rockettes have become a celebrated precision dance

company. From there legendary kick-lines with eye-high kicks to their spectacular performances
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with dazzling costumes covered head to toe in rhinestones. The lifestyle of a Rockette during

their performance season is demanding but worth the benefit of being known world-wide and

one of New York Citys prized possessions.

I choose the Rockettes because they have been a prized possession at my studio back

home for many years. M y dance teacher auditioned for them more than fifty years ago and came

very close, until they asked the girls to remove their high heels and they realized my dance

teacher was stuffing her high heels with padding to be taller. He was not the correct height to be

a Rockette, just very hopeful. Since then she has required older dancers to take classes with the

Rockettes in New York City, and I got the opportunity to do this. About sixteen years ago my

dance teacher choreographed our very own Rockette dance inspired from all of the information

we have gathered over the years. The dance was performed originally with about forty of our

dancers in M agic Kingdom in Disney World. T hen the next year during Christmas time the

M ayor of the city where our studio is asked the girls to perform the number at the Downtown

tree lighting ceremony. The original forty girls did their dance in front of the tree in the snow on

cobblestone.

In recent years our accommodations have been at bit easier, but we still continue to

perform this number every year. The dance is very flexible for our team. Sometimes its

performed with forty girls and sometimes with only five or six. To be chosen to be in this dance

takes years and years of practice and is such an honor once you are chosen. The costumes for this

dance are the same design as the original number that was performed. When you are chosen you

order your own Rockette costume, and we are still able to order the same costume because the
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costume company keeps the costumes around because they know every couple of years we have

a few new Rockettes to replace the retired ones.

I officially retired from this number this year because I am away at college but I am still

welcomed back from time to time to be an alumni Rockette for our dance school. Especially

because as of last year I was the oldest on the dance team and I had been doing to number the

longest out of the girls left on the team who were eligible to be a Rockette for our studio. The

same choreography must be passed down from year to year so occasionally they have an old

Rockette come back to the studio to teach the new girls. Now I will be sharing this choreography

with our FYS class.

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Works Cited

http://www.radiocitychristmas.com/explore-the-show.html#sthash.8OJhxxFV.dpuf

http://1000words1000days.com/2013/07/day-570-the-crown-jewels-of-cinemas/#more-7008

http://www.rockettes.com/

http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2013/12/02/top-10-things-didnt-know-about-rockettes/

http://www.collegexpress.com/interests/performing-and-visual-arts/blog/how-become-rockette-
do-you-have-what-it-takes/

http://www.radiocity.com/AuditionTour.html

http://www.chicagoparent.com/magazines/going-places/2012-winter/on-stage/rockettes

http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/salary-radio-city-rockette-7246.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/20/arts/dance/20domi.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100342553