Kick it

MSG Entertainment

It wouldn’t be December in New York without the glitter-saturated holiday overload known as the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. Yes, the Rockettes—plus Santa, ice skaters and live animals—are back and promising to deliver even more holiday pageantry for the show’s 75th anniversary celebration this year. Although just thinking about it may make your teeth hurt a bit, most kids are awe-struck by the 72 legs swinging eye-high in perfect unison. Now, more than seven decades after Radio City opened as a movie theater, children not only have the chance to watch the fantastic dance display, they can also learn how to do it.

Through the Rockette Experience, a three-hour workshop open to hoofers ages ten and up, youngsters get “a unique opportunity to learn the actual choreography,” says Eileen Grace, a former dancer and the artistic director of Radio City’s Rockette Summer Intensive program. Unlike other forms of dance, the Rockettes’ precision style requires individuals to perform intricate choreography while the group appears to move together as a single entity.

Fortunately, your child doesn’t have to be a prodigy to take the class. Minimal training in jazz, tap and ballet is suggested. Each group of 35 to 40 students meets at one of the rehearsal studios in Radio City—a bonus, Grace says, because while they’re there, students get to take a tour of the building and go backstage to see the ins and outs of how the show works.

The Rockette Experience instructor begins class with a warm-up, offers a bit of history and then teaches three routines, including a kick line. The workshop wraps with a Q&A session and photo op with the instructor, a souvenir of a lesson that, as Grace points out, is unlike any other dance training. “I think younger dancers can gain a lot from learning about the technique,” she says. “Precision dance requires a different kind of thought process and muscles that they may not be used to using.”

Dates for the Rockette Experience are scheduled through Sun 30. To register, go to radiocity.com/rockettes/index.html or call 212-631-4354.