The Rockettes

On my last post I told you I would give you my reason for going into NYC yesterday and here it is. My niece (actually my great niece) is a Rockette and 51 members of her extended family and friends met in New York to see her perform.

Let me give some background. Kristen has danced since she was three years old and was also a wonderful ballerina (always a starring role in the local Nutcracker Suite), but by age eight she knew that she wanted to be a Rockette. With a four-plus average all thru high school, she could have gone almost anywhere for college, but she chose the Boston Conservatory in Boston, and of course, majored in dance. For two semesters she was accepted into the Rockette's traveling troupe and performed the Christmas show in Nashville. But this year at age 22, after graduating from college, she was accepted into the New York Troupe.

There are 80 Rockette's that are broken into two groups. There are 6 performances a day, each lasting 1 1/2 hours and they each perform in three a day. There are open auditions held every year and everyone must audition every year, even if they have been in the show before.

Needless to say we are all very proud of our Kristen.  In addition to being a gifted dance, she is a lovely, warm and caring person. She met us in a hallway offstage after the show to give us all hugs and pose with us for pictures. They are not allowed to wear their costumes offstage because they are readying them for the next performance.

Here is Kristen with me in the traditional Rockette pose. There are more that 50 years between us!

Group photo with her aunts. L to R, Diane, Eileen, Lorraine (her mother) Kristen, Dorothy (her godmother) Donna, me, and Nancy.

One of my nieces, Nancy, had a very good camera with a great zoom and she captured this picture. Kristen is the first one in the front row.

This was from a photoshoot at local cupcake shop. Kristen is the one on the far right, getting frosting on her nose.

It was a lovely day in New York. I took the train in and walked about 20 minutes to get to Radio City Music Hall. It was not as cold and windy and predicted and that made for a pleasant walk. I was early so I had time to see the windows at Sake's Fifth Avenue (beautiful!) and see Rockefeller Plaza with its spectacular tree and other trimmings. It was wall to wall people! The Saturday before Christmas, probably one of the busiest days in NewYork.

The show was wonderful! I have seen it twice before, once when I was newly married with my husband and in-laws and then about 10 years ago with a friend. Much of it does not change, but somehow it never gets old. There are always the reindeer, the snowflakes, the toy soldiers (Kirsten was first in line and the first to start falling back), and the magnificent living Nativity scene with live camels and sheep. There was a new-to-me piece with a million Santas, but it was put in a couple of years ago. We all enjoyed it tremendously. This would have been my late sister-in-law's birthday and at her funeral this past fall we decided that we would try to see the show on her birthday in her memory, so it was a little poignant, knowing that she would have loved seeing her granddaughter up there on the stage. We were all sure that she was smiling down on us.

We all went out to dinner afterward, but Kristen couldn't join us since she had two more shows that evening. Her mother found an Irish Pub a couple of blocks from the Hall that could accommodate us all in their third floor room. A nice way to end the day.

Merry Christmas!