The Radio City Rockettes have been high-kicking their way through the holidays since 1925.
Today, that means two casts totaling 84 dancers performing as many as five shows a day, seven days a week.
“We like to say they’re athletes dripping in diamonds, which they really are, because they have to be in such incredible shape,” said Julie Branam, director and choreographer, who started her career as a Rockette in 1988.
“It is very intense, and the show is really rigorous,” she added.
But the group wasn’t always as big as it is today. A photo of the original troupe — the Missouri Rockets — founded by choreographer Russell Markert in St. Louis in 1925 shows just eight dancers.
Markert was inspired by the English troupe the Tiller Girls. He equated the sharp, clean sound of the word “rocket” with the sharp, clean lines and kicks of the dancing.
In an undated quote attributed to Markert, he once said: “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!”
“The kickline was was one thing that was very famous, and I think they really were hoofers, really tapping,” Branam said. “They were really great tappers.”
After a couple years in Missouri, Markert’s dancers went on tour in a road show and appeared in the film “King of Jazz” in 1930.
About a year later, the group relocated to New York, where, now owned by the Rockefellers, they settled on a new name — the Radio City Rockettes. Their new home? The brand new Radio City Music Hall.
The Rockettes in 1937 (Photo courtesy MSG Entertainment)
“I remember my first step on that stage,” said Samantha Noto, whose in her first season with the Rockettes. “It was thrilling. It’s a unforgettable feeling.
“I always knew I wanted to be a Rockette,” she added. “Just seeing the line of women, the strength, the athleticism, the passion for dance, I knew that’s definitely where I belonged.”
Noto also happens to be from Missouri.
“Being a part of something that is from where I grew up, it’s so special, and I just feel honored to be here,” she said.
The Radio City Rockettes perform the Parade of the Wooden Soldiers dance during the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall in New York, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
Now one of the most famous dance troupes in the world, the Radio City Rockettes are not without controversy.
Markert, wanting uniformity, famously excluded women of color. But they began to turn the page in 1985 with the addition of the group’s first Asian American dancer, and in 1987 with its first Black dancer.
“I think the Rockettes are so iconic, not only in New York but all over,” Branam said. “And they should represent the world, and that’s really what how the company feels, and it’s how I feel.”
A special ceremony ahead of last month’s opening night ushered in the group’s centennial season.
Branam said it is “truly amazing” to be part of such a legacy.
“For me, it’s the Rockettes, it’s the crew, it’s the orchestra, it’s everybody coming together to make the magic at Radio City,” she said.
Magic that’s on track to continue for another 100 years.
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