Gotta Dance: The Rockettes and "The Madcracker"

The Radio City Music Hall Rockettes — those high-kicking, precision-dancing marvels — are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the troupe, said to be the longest-running precision dance company in the U.S. A great interview aired on NBC News recently, with show footage and interviews with charming Rockettes past and present. 

Alas, the NBC segment didn’t mention where the Rockettes started — in my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, in 1925. Then known as the Missouri Rockets, the 16-member troupe performed at the Missouri Theatre in midtown, with choreography by Russell Markert.  

In 1932, along with theater owner Samuel “Roxy” Rothafel, Markert took the Rockets to New York City, where they first danced as the Roxyettes. They settled in at Radio City Music Hall, changed their name and have been known as the Rockettes ever since. (Read more here.) 

The big Christmas show debuted in 1933. According to an article by Gillian Russo, the "Parade of the Living Soldiers" and "The Living Nativity" numbers have remained unchanged since then. Today, between 80 and 84 dancers are members of the Rockettes, and 36 perform at one time, with two rotating casts. 

More Fun Facts About The Rockettes 

Among Russo’s other fun facts are these:

• The Rockettes do their own hair and makeup. 

• The Rockettes and the singers go through 1,100 costumes for the Christmas show, which adds up to 350 loads of laundry a week. 

• The Rockettes typically do more than 160 high kicks per show, but Russo noted the dancers are capable of up to 650 per day. (Ouch! And you thought your job was hard.) 

Wikipedia reports this about the genesis of the troupe: “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 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."

That they did. In 2007, in tribute to their beginnings, the Rockettes were honored with a plaque on the St. Louis Walk of Fame. 

Why Do I Care About The Rockettes? 

Two reasons: One of the early Rockets was named Eileen Corrigan! Even if we have a remote genealogical link, I am short and round, and was not gifted with the long legs required to be a Rockette. (Good on ya, Eileen!)  

Secondly, this year marks the 40th anniversary of “The Madcracker” — said to be the first parody of “The Nutcracker” in the U.S. — and for eight years I tap danced in the show with MADCO, a regional modern dance company that toured in the Midwest and parts of Texas. I got this gig as a side hustle to my job as a newspaper reporter at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch because Ross Winter, the company’s artistic director, was a dear friend. 

Every Sunday, when Ross came over for dinner and after we took a stab at the New York Times crossword, he would plot out what “The Madcracker” would look like. He considered the show his “F*ck You, 50” gesture, and dubbed it "a pungently witty"parody of the “tired old chestnut” that almost every dance company everywhere produces every holiday season. 

As a kid, I took dance lessons, and as an adult, I was (and remain) a fan of rhythm tap, so every week after dinner I would suggest that Ross include a tap number in Act 2. One Sunday, he said, “Put up or shut up — you do the tap number.” 

I immediately hired a third-generation member of the famous Four Step Brothers — they have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame — to help me start dancing again. I explained to him that I can’t dance in an ensemble because I can’t count, and the young man was fine with that. “You’ve got good feet,” he said, one of the loveliest compliments of my life. Later, I worked with Webster University dance instructor Gary Hubler, who also was kind and patient.

(Full disclosure: When not being asked to follow choreography, I do (or used to do) quite well on a dance floor. Watching me in the disco on a Caribbean cruise one evening, the DJ called out, “You dance like a flamingo in heat!” Then he asked me to help him judge the dance contest later in the evening. Also, during a cruise on the Nile, I won a belly-dancing contest, possibly because I had a core and a belly to call on, unlike the skinny French women who also took part.)   

So, rocking a red sequined costume, for two weeks every year from 1985 through 1993, I tap danced in “The Madcracker.” Well, sort of. Once, when I ran off stage after my big number, Ross hugged me and said, “You actually danced to the music this time!” (Another treasured compliment.) To this day, I cherish my time spent with Real Dancers and remain in touch with some of them.

Happy 40th anniversary to “The Madcracker” and Happy 100th anniversary to the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes — dance on, one and all!