How did the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes get their name? Choreographer Russell Markert formed a women’s precision dance troupe in St. Louis in 1925 called the Missouri Rockets. The group was performing in Manhattan and was spotted by impresario S. L. (Roxy) Rothafel, who headlined them at his eponymous Roxy Theater as “The Roxyettes.” Rothafel moved the troupe to the Radio City Music Hall when it opened in 1932, and the name morphed into The Rockettes. Markert, born in 1899, was the chief choreographer and director from the beginning until his retirement in 1971. The Rockettes continue to present the Christmas Spectacular each year at Radio City, performing in four or five 90-minute shows six days a week for six weeks. The dancers — all between the heights of 5’6″ and 5’10 1/2″ (1.6 and 1.8 meters)
— kick about 300 times a show. In a room backstage, there are large basins of water chilled to about 45° F (7° C) for icing down swollen feet and sore legs.
Rockettes
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