Meet the new dancing queens.
This Friday, Radio City Christmas Spectacular Returning for another magical holiday season – This year many new faces have joined the famous rockets of the show.
next Open-call auditions in the springIn which more than 800 women took to Midtown to show off their best tap, jazz and ballet moves, 17 extraordinary women will join the illustrious dance battalion of 84 total.
“When two of my dance teachers grew up to be Rockettes, watching them live out their dreams on stage, it made me want to be one too,” Kayla Sue, an eager 21-year-old from Scotch Plains, NJ, told The Post. told The Post days ago. His first performance.
And while it may seem like the weight of the world now rests on their shoulders, the group of 17 — all recent graduates from the Rockettes Conservatory Development Program — are more than capable of anything on their own, according to fellow newcomer Tamia Strickland, 23. Not there. Silver Spring, MD
He said the troupe is making every possible effort to welcome new women.
“We’re in this together and even all the vets are like old sisters to us, they’re our mentors and are helping support us in the rehearsal process,” Strickland said of her motivation to pursue the program. Kiya saw the show for the first time at age 17, she told The Post.
The best advice Danielle Esposito, 22, of San Diego, received from senior members was to simply remember to “breathe.”
“I have a few dancers on either side of me and I have one dancer who constantly puts his hand on my back and says ‘It’s OK,'” Esposito, a former member of Houston Ballet, shared. He told The Post he switched professional gears out of love for Christmas.
“Just a little reminder from them that this Is Well, staying calm and focused will only take you further in the show.
Senior support also comes in the form of commuter advice for 19-year-old Danica Torres, who is taking the bus from her home in Boonton, NJ, to rehearsals.
“They’re telling me all the best ways and the best times,” Torres, who is taking a semester off from school in London, England, told The Post.
“It has been very helpful and very beneficial,” she said, smiling.
As far as up-and-comers are concerned, a new member, Sole Mitchell, 22, from the Dallas area, could be No. 1. New York City subway fan,
“I don’t like driving and I have to do that all the time in Dallas,” Michelle, whose family will see the star-studded car for the first time with her daughter, told The Post.
“Being able to take the metro… it’s very convenient. I like that. So I think that’s my favorite thing about New York.”
making a list
New member Avery Embrefe, 24, is thrilled to be a role model for young girls, just like she was with her in sixth grade during the Rockettes Experience at Radio City.
“I still remember the exact choreography we were shown and I think I practiced it every single day of sixth grade,” the Boxford, Mass., native told The Post.
Ambreff clearly remembers the call she got as she worked her way in and out of the subway chopping roasters — eventually breaking down with excitement on 86th Street.
“Growing up with the Rockettes as my idols, I feel like I’m really shaped as a person… and it’s amazing for other young viewers to be like that or grow up.”
For others, like 26-year-old Jacqueline Salerno, Friday night has been a long time coming — six years and 13 auditions to be exact.
The Manahawkin, NJ native fell in love with the idea of becoming a Rocket as a sixth grader when her mom had a coupon for the Rocket Experience coupon, but after not making the final cut in Early Years, she had no idea how to become a Rocket. There was a backup plan for. A high school math teacher.
Salerno said during regular auditions for about four to five years that her supportive family would gently tell her that “some things aren’t for show” – but she persisted.
“I was like, ‘No, I’m doing this,'” Salerno told The Post, recalling that every time she failed, friends who made rockets encouraged her to keep going. Because she was “too close”.
Now, finally, the dream has come true.
“When I got the call I told it to my family and I was all crying. It was a full-circle moment. ‘I can’t believe you did it, you really did it.’
“Yes I did.”
‘My Little American Dream’
Rose Hinoul, 22, who came to Manhattan by way of Belgium as a child, will never forget the moment she told her loved ones the good news of making the Cut. It happened when she boarded a plane to her native country to see her grandparents.
When Hinaul reached Europe a few months ago, the magical moment came to tell him this.
“They were in complete shock,” Hinoul told The Post. “This is something very prestigious, especially Unless you’re from America.”
For him and his family at the age of 8, the Thanksgiving parade became a major tradition adjusting to life in the States. It also introduced him to the Rockettes, as they danced in Herald Square.
After years of hard work in dance as well as studying sociology at Fordham, she shines on camera on Turkey Day to applause from her family and abroad.
“It’s like my little American dream come true,” she said, fighting back tears.
