The Rockettes
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The Rockettes are a well-known precision dance company, stationed out of the Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan, New York City. The Rockettes women have performed 4 shows a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year for more than 50 years.
The Radio City Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall and numerous other American and Canadian cities is the most-watched live show in the USA, with more than 2.1 million spectators annually.
The Rockettes have performed annually at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (since 1957), The Columbus Day Parade, and America's Thanksgiving Parade in Detroit. The NBC Rockefeller Center Tree-Lighting Ceremony also traditionally includes a performance by the dance troupe.
The Rockettes have also kicked off the announcements for new product lines launched by such diverse companies as McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Oldsmobile, L'eggs hosiery, Mannington Floors, and Honda's 50th Anniversary show.
Their famous kick line started with 16 women and now has 36. They are all between 5′6″ and 5′10 1/2″ and are arranged tallest in the middle and shortest on the ends.
[edit] History
The group was started by Russell Markert in 1925 in St. Louis, Missouri as the "Missouri Rockets". In 1927, Samuel Roxy Rothafel discovered them and brought them to New York City. They in many ways took over what the Ziegfeld Follies had been before Flo Ziegfeld's death. Their NYC debut was in Rothafel's own Roxy Theater on 50th and 7th, and under the name "Roxyettes". Rothafel moved them to their current stead, opening of the Radio City Music Hall on December 27, 1932. In 1936, the troupe won the grand prize at the "Paris Exposition de Dance." During World War II, the troupe was a mainstay of the USO Tours.
The Rockettes did not allow blacks into the dance line until 1987 [1]. The justification for the policy against hiring blacks was that blacks would distract from the consistent look of the dance group. [2]
During the halftime show of Super Bowl XXII in 1988, the Rockettes were seen by a television audience of 150 million viewers. President Bush's 2001 Presidential Inauguration Ceremony featured the leggy performers prancing down the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
In November 2005, the Christmas Spectacular's musicians and stagehands went on strike, although the show decided to go on, with the Rockettes dancing to recorded music. The strike was eventually settled, and everybody went back to work.
The oldest living Rockette is Jeanette Heller, 95, living in Toronto, Canada.
[edit] Quotes on the Rockettes
- "The Rockettes are as precise and talented as ever, and their bright smiles and unison dancing evoke cheers and applause in old favorites like the "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers". The overwhelming appeal of the Rockettes is undeniable." -- The New York Times
- "I had seen the John Tiller girls in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1922," Russell Markert once reminisced. "If I ever got a chance to get a group of American girls who would be taller and have longer legs and could do really complicated tap routines and eye-high kicks... they'd knock your socks off!"
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