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. During the Christmas season, The Rockettes women have performed five shows a day, seven days a week, for 75 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 U.S., with more than 2.1 million spectators annually, when they are performing.
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.
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[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 New York City 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 at the Radio City Music Hall on December 27, 1932. In 1936, the troupe won the grand prize at the "Paris Exposition de Dance."
The Rockettes did not allow African-Americans into the dance line until 1987.[1] The justification for the policy against hiring African-Americans was that they 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 went on strike, although the show decided to go on, with The Rockettes dancing to recorded music.
The oldest living Rockette is Maxine Demmler Schmidt, age 100, living in Maryville, Illinois. Mrs. Schmidt, along with her sister Diana Demmler, were two of the original 16 Missouri Rockets from 1925, the group that predated the name change to Rockette in 1934. Mrs. Schmidt also worked as a Rockette at Radio City Music Hall, and has been honored by the Rockette Alumnae Association, and Radio City.
[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. | ” |
| “ | I had seen the John Tiller Girls in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1922. 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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—Russell Markert |
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