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26-470: Rockettes may refer to: The Rockettes , a New York dance company famous for their kickline and eye-high kicks Rockettes (synchronized skating team) , a Finnish synchronized ice skating team Rockette Morton (born 1949), U.S. musician See also [ edit ] Can-can , a music hall dance Rocket (disambiguation) Rockett (disambiguation) Roquette (disambiguation) Topics referred to by

52-813: A medley of Irving Berlin songs at the Inaugural Ball on the evening of January 20. Although the Radio City Christmas Spectacular has been a constant every holiday season since 1979, there have been several attempts to mount a warm-weather show with the Rockettes. In the spring of 2015, Radio City launched the New York Spring Spectacular, and in the summer of 2016, produced the New York Spectacular, in an attempt to draw in audiences outside

78-500: A statement saying that "For a Rockette to be considered for an event, they must voluntarily sign up and are never told they have to perform at a particular event, including the inaugural. It is always their choice. In fact, for the coming inauguration, we had more Rockettes request to participate than we have slots available." Another report suggested that dancers were allowed to "opt-out" if they thought that they would feel uncomfortable performing. Many on social media believed attendance

104-554: A week at no cost. Housing and shoes are provided, and several dancers are often hired to join the company from the group of Conservatory hopefuls. In late 2016, the Madison Square Garden Company , which manages the troupe, agreed to have the Rockettes perform at the inauguration of Donald Trump . According to a report in the New York Daily News , there was an initial "edict" to perform at

130-691: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages The Rockettes The Radio City Rockettes are an American precision dance company . Founded in 1925 in St. Louis , they have, since 1932, performed at Radio City Music Hall in New York City . Until 2015, they also had a touring company. They are best known for starring in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular , an annual Christmas show, and for performing annually since 1957 at

156-590: The American Federation of Actors organized by actress and singer Sophie Tucker and others in the late 1930s, and affiliated with the American Federation of Labor . In 1939 the AFL dissolved the AFA due to financial irregularities, and issued a new charter to AGVA (although some members went to Equity instead). In 2022, AGVA began organizing performers with Medieval Times, leading to a labor strike in 2023 at

182-629: The Buena Park, California , location. However, the strike ended without a labor contract, and in March 2024, facing anti-union backlash, the union announced that they would not be representing Medieval Times employees. AGVA's offices are in New York and Los Angeles. AGVA Entertainer of the Year Awards, or the "Georgie Award" (after George M. Cohan ), for variety performer of the year. Some of

208-671: The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. The Rockettes were originally inspired by the Tiller Girls , a precision dance company of the United Kingdom established by John Tiller in the 1890s. Tiller sent the first troupe of Tiller Girls to perform in the United States in 1900, and eventually there were three lines of them working on Broadway. In 1922, choreographer Russell Markert saw one of these troupes, known as

234-607: The Super Bowl XXII halftime show. The first person with a visible disability hired by the Rockettes (Sydney Mesher, missing a left hand due to symbrachydactyly ) was hired in 2019. From 2002 to 2019, the Rockettes presented a dance training program called the Rockettes Summer Intensive. This weeklong dance education program offered aspiring dancers the opportunity to train with current Radio City Rockettes and choreographers and learn choreography from

260-657: The August 28 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom . Sharing the stage with Martin Luther King Jr. were Ray Charles , Nina Simone , Joe Louis , Johnny Mathis , James Baldwin and The Shirelles . In 1958–59, the actress, singer and tap dancer Penny Singleton became the first woman elected president of an AFL-CIO union. She was active in supporting the 1967 strike of the AGVA-represented Rockettes against Radio City Music Hall , and

286-718: The Missouri Theatre in St. Louis . After the impresario Roxy brought them to New York for his Roxy Theatre , they were called the Roxyettes. They were billed as such when Roxy brought them to Radio City Music Hall for its opening in December 1932. It was only later that the name of the company changed to the Radio City Rockettes. For decades, the schedule of a Radio City Rockette was much different than in

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312-522: The Rockettes repertoire. Now, the Rockettes run their very own Dancer Development Program, a name for their combined efforts to bring more diversity onto the line by reaching out and working with organizations like the Ailey School, teaching classes at Boston Conservatory, and, most notably, their new Conservatory program. Dancers who make it all the way to the end of the audition at Radio City each April are invited to come and study at Radio City for

338-547: The Rockettes. Each Rockette would work for three weeks straight and then have a week off. Russell Markert choreographed kicklines that always featured sixteen eye-high kicks, determining that the crowd usually started applauding between the eighth and the twelfth kick. In 1957, the Radio City Rockettes performed in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade for the very first time, and they have performed there every year since. For decades, they performed exclusively in

364-638: The Tiller Rockets, perform in the Ziegfeld Follies and was inspired to create his own version with American dancers. As Markert would later recall, "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 really knock your socks off." They were originally called the Missouri Rockets, and they began performing in 1925 at

390-410: The dance line until 1987. The justification for this policy was that such women would supposedly distract from the consistent look of the dance group. In 1982, Violet Holmes, the director at the time, insisted that precision was all about uniformity, and having dancers of color would be distracting. The first African American Rockette was Jennifer Jones ; selected in 1987, she made her debut in 1988 at

416-460: The holiday season. Neither show was ever reproduced, citing difficulties with filling up Radio City Music Hall’s nearly 6,000 seats without the nostalgia and tradition that bring audiences in during the holidays. In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Radio City Christmas Spectacular was canceled for the first time in its history. The following year, the 2021 Radio City Christmas Spectacular

442-411: The inaugural. Immediately several Rockettes dissented, including Rockette Phoebe Pearl who complained that she was being forced to perform at the inaugural against her wishes. One Rockette felt reluctant to "perform for this monster", referring to president-elect Donald Trump , and another said she "wouldn't feel comfortable standing near a man like that in our costumes." Madison Square Garden issued

468-430: The modern day. Until 1979, Radio City Music Hall had a movie/show format, in which a movie was shown at the theater four times a day, usually for a week. Rockettes would often have days that started at seven AM and lasted until after ten PM. After each showing of the movie running at the theater, there would be a performance involving variety acts, the former ballet company that existed at Radio City until 1974, and finally

494-603: The parade and at Radio City Music Hall, with the exception of the Paris Exposition in 1937, at which their sixteen-minute piece won the Grand Prix. The Rockettes have long been represented by the American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA). In 1967, they won a month-long strike for better working conditions, which was led by AGVA salaried officer Penny Singleton . In August 2002, contract negotiations for

520-414: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Rockettes . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rockettes&oldid=879564210 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

546-463: The time they moved to Radio City Music Hall, Markert had a line of forty-seven dancers, thirty-six of whom danced at a time. There are currently 84 Rockettes: two casts with thirty-six dancers and twelve "swings." On August 1, 2007, the Rockettes were inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame . The first non-white Rockette, a Japanese-born woman named Setsuko Maruhashi , was not hired until 1985. The Rockettes did not allow dark-skinned dancers into

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572-483: The troupe's veteran members resulted in a buyout by the owners of Radio City Music Hall. Roughly a fourth of the veteran Rockettes were offered retirement options, while the remaining dancers were offered the opportunity to re-audition. One of the Rockettes’ trademarks is their height requirement. I n the earlier years the cutoff was between 5 ft 2 in (1.6 m) and 5 ft 6.5 in (1.7 m), but

598-423: Was between 5 ft 6 in (1.7 m) and 5 ft 10.5 in (1.8 m) until 2022 in stocking feet to give off the illusion of each girl being the same height. In 2022, the Rockettes lowered the minimum height to 5 ft 5 in (1.7 m). Rockettes must be proficient in tap, modern, jazz and ballet. The size of the original Roxyettes troupe was 16 women, but its numbers have grown since 1925. By

624-548: Was canceled in mid-December, only a month into its planned runtime. Too many members of the cast and crew, who were recommended but not required to wear masks or test, caught the virus, leading to the cancellation of the show. [REDACTED] Media related to The Rockettes at Wikimedia Commons American Guild of Variety Artists In 1963, then-AGVA president Joey Adams helped to finance and organize an August 5 variety show in Birmingham, Alabama , to raise funds for

650-402: Was mandatory, including Julissa Sabino, a performer who is part of the union, who tweeted that the issue "breaks my heart" and urged supporters to "help these ladies." Autumn Withers, a former Rockette, supported a boycott, saying "take a knee, ladies!" In December 2016, according to The Atlantic , three of the thirteen full-time dancers had chosen to sit out the event. The company danced to

676-508: Was re-elected to the AGVA presidency in 1969. The most recent executive president was poet, songwriter, composer, and singer Rod McKuen , who held the post for 19 years until his death in 2015. As of the September 2021 vote count, the honorary president was Tommy Tune , the honorary vice-president was Barry Humphries , and the executive president was Judy Little . AGVA was the successor to

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