Day 3 of our Christmas NYC adventure found us at Radio City Music Hall for a 9:00 a.m. show of the classic "Christmas Spectacular!" starring the world-famous Rockettes. Since we had the chance to take a behind-the-scenes tour after the show, we learned that the Christmas Spectacular has been running in Radio City since the inception of the Rockettes. If you haven't seen it, you must. It is one of my favorites -- saw it for the first time in 1985, my last trip to the city, and knew that it had to be one of our stops here in 2013. The Rockettes are, in a word, spectacular. Their precision, beauty, and bodies (just sayin' - they are in perfect shape), are amazing, as is the choreography and the costumes of the show. I could go right now and watch it again! My favorite number is "Christmas in New York," where all 36 Rockettes ride in an actual double-decker Gray Line tour bus onstage as a video montage of the NYC Christmas lights plays behind them. They wear beautiful white sparkly winter coats and hats, which they eventually peel off to reveal beautiful bedazzled red and green Christmas dresses. Another favorite was the opening number, where the Rockettes were dressed as reindeer pulling Santa and an actual sleigh across the stage at Radio City.
After the show, we had about an hour before the much-anticipated "Rockettes Experience," so we went back to the hotel for Mad to change into her dancewear and "do" dancer hair. She insisted we do so, although I was resigned to the fact that she would wear her sweater and leggings that she wore to the show. Boy was mom wrong! We arrived at the backstage entrance of Radio City around noon to check in, and I immediately felt like I was trapped in an episode of "Dance Moms." I was surrounded by little girls dressed in their dancewear finest with their pushy stage moms. I soon realized that the "Rockettes Experience" was not a light-hearted fun experience for young girls to dream for a couple of hours, but rather a program where future Rockettes are recruited, groomed and discovered. Mad felt the pressure, and so did I! I kept telling her we were just there to have fun and to have a wonderful experience, but she wasn't buying it. Well, after her nerves settled down, she shined and held her own against dancers of all ages, despite being the youngest one there. She loved it! And, I loved watching every minute! She danced in the actual rehearsal space for the Rockettes with a live pianist, and learned actual choreography from the show. Truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience for us both.
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