At a time when everything seems wrong with the world, it is refreshing to find something that seems to have it all together. This was my wild experience attending a show by the Rockettes in New York City. I sat there in astonishment that nothing was wrong with it and everything was right.
Does this even exist anymore? It does right here.
“It never would have occurred to me to see the Rockettes,” a friend told me.
Exactly. I’m the same. I’m left wondering what took me so long.
The Rockettes are now celebrating their 100th year in operation as a dance troupe. You know them from their famous lineup of female dancers doing a precision line kick that is perfectly synchronized. They do it still. The audience was as amazed today as it was back in 1925 when this move gained them popularity in the first place.
It’s the quintessential American show in so many ways. You should be thrilled to know that it is still ongoing, with no compromises with warped sensibilities that are otherwise dominating the arts and culture.
The show these days deploys far more technological wizardry than it once did, including even physically flying drone fairies and wild illusions on stage. Otherwise, you can observe the deep roots in the Jazz Age and just enjoy every minute.
I was there for their Christmas edition. I sat there in amazement. The big and powerful orchestra and singers cycled through spectacular arrangements of at least 100 Christmas songs that you likely know. They were woven together in a wonderfully arranged medley complete with dance numbers, Santa monologues, stories from the North Pole, and even a full telling of the Gospel narrative of the birth of Christ.
Get this: The manger scene included real lambs on stage, and the visit of the Wise Men included two actual camels walking across the stage. And just to be clear, I’m not misrepresenting anything. An actual dance troupe in real-life New York City right now is putting on full view a pious display of the birth of Christ, complete with angels and shepherds, while narrating the actual text from the Gospel account, alongside fantastic performances of traditional Christmas carols.
You didn’t think this was possible? I certainly did not. But there it was, on full display to the sold-out crowd gathered at Radio City Music Hall in Rockefeller Plaza, right around the corner from the world’s most famous Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center.
What can I say? Not all is lost. New York City at Christmastime still has it going.
To be sure, I would not call the Rockette show religious as such because there is no evangelization taking place. It’s not like that. The Christmas you see on display is a product of a deeply cultural embed. Doing it like this amounts to the preservation of tradition more than the practice of faith. In 1925, when the troupe began, Christianity as the driving faith of America was not in question. The show has merely preserved the ethos, probably if only to sell tickets. Whatever the motivation, it is inspiring to see.
This one included the famous dance “Parade of the Wooden Soldiers,” which is marvelous to watch. The innovation from 1933 was that the sound of a gun goes off and the soldiers fall one by one in a line—a domino-like fall—until they are lined up as a long flat line.
The trick is extremely difficult, and you could see the intricacy of the maneuver from a close seat as the ladies push with body weight on the back of the dancer in front to make the fall orderly and decorous.
The dance troupe started in St. Louis in 1925 as the Rockets but then caught the attention of the famed impresario Samuel Lionel “Roxy” Rothafe, who brought them to New York as the Roxyettes, a name that was changed to Rockettes when they moved to Radio City Music Hall, where they remain today.
The total show requires 80 dancers, and the girls themselves not only have to comply with the height requirement but must also be proficient in jazz, tap, and modern dance training. Contrary to what might be the distant impression, this is far from being a schlocky show; it puts on display some incredible virtuosity of talent in many areas, not just dancing.
The show opens with two organs on either side of the stage, with live organists playing arrangements of Christmas carols. Sitting in this huge but old-fashioned theater and listening to live show organs, you know you are in for a treat like no other.
For some unknown reason, the spirit and substance of the original performance of the Christmas show survives entirely, as fresh and wonderful as ever.
I’m trying now to reconstruct what was probably my reluctance to go before. Maybe it seemed like a tourist trap, designed to lure in people who just want to experience the city but otherwise offering nothing of substance. Or perhaps I was put off by what I had believed was a purely popular show, whereas I might think of myself as too much of a classical aficionado for that. I’m not entirely sure.
In any case, I’m delighted to inform you that none of this is true. I cannot fathom anyone who would not be utterly delighted by the show. The audience itself certainly was engaged from the first to the last. It is only 90 minutes, but my goodness, what an unforgettable hour and a half.
Particular mention must be made of a rendering of the full Nutcracker ballet suite but mostly with dancers in funny animal costumes and with the main themes truncated to fit the time constraints. The little girl in the show was portrayed by a young ballerina who looked to be about 9 or 10. It’s hard to imagine the hours of gruelling practice that went into that.
This observation adds another dimension to why this performance is so impressive. What you see here is the product of extremely hard work, and not just from the dancers but also from the musicians, the visual technicians, the sound technicians, and the actors in all parts.
Sorry to say that this seems to be increasingly rare in our times. People are so broken these days that hiring managers are relieved when the new hire even shows up. Seeing an entire regime of raw talent that is a product of extremely hard work, together with a kind of piety toward the tradition of which the Rockettes stand guard, is nothing short of an inspiration.
I’m left wondering why this group and this show is not more legendary than it is. It might have something to do with its 100-year history in a time when all the attention is on whatever is new and innovative only. We abide in a culture that is ridiculously infatuated only with new things alongside the presumption that whatever is old has already likely been displaced.
The truth is that excellence often depends fundamentally not on innovation as such but on continuity from one generation to another, in which the old guard teaches the new. After all, this is how the monastic chants lasted for 1,000 years or more and how the oldest ballet companies in Europe kept the craft going. There has never been a break in the tradition, and that is precisely how precision and excellence become deeply embedded in the craft.
This pertains not only to the arts but also to other specialized skills. A few years back, I was in Mexico on a hot-air balloon ride and was amazed at the skill of the operators. When asked, they informed me that they had learned from their fathers and their fathers before them. It was a family tradition, something you cannot learn de novo from a textbook. I’ve read that this was also true in the practice of medicine in the old days.
It’s continuity that breeds excellence, discipline that drives precision, aspiration to emulate that which has come before that recruits the best talent, and intergenerational commitment that builds mighty cultural institutions. The Rockettes have all that, making their craft and art a holdout of virtuosity and audience connection in a world that has mostly lost its footing.
This show is America’s own. Don’t be dissuaded by the impression that this is just for gullible tourists. It’s truly a show for everyone.
