By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Former Rockette Heather Pugsley Blakely, an Encore Performing Arts alumna from Lawrence, will be teaching a master class Sunday, Nov. 6, at 3 p.m.
The class will double as an audition for a high-kicking local line that will appear in Dowagiac's 7:30 p.m. Christmas parade on Friday, Dec. 2.
Encore Artistic Director Amy Rose attended college in Oklahoma City with Blakely, who recently turned 30 and moved home to Michigan to Rockford to begin raising her family after three years as a Rockette with the Chicago line.
Rose said Wednesday that Blakely spent about six years performing with the Encore troupe.
Blakely also performed at Busch Gardens in Virginia and at a hotel in Las Vegas.
Her master class in the Rockette style of dancing and perfecting the famous kick line will last an hour to 90 minutes.
All area dancers are welcome to attend. There will be a $10 charge payable at the door at Encore's studio in Lincoln Community Center.
Rose hopes to select about a dozen dancers for an additional rehearsal later that afternoon to appear in the parade.
Rose said she auditioned for the Rockettes, but was too short at 5-foot-5 1/2. She had to pin her hair up just to be tall enough to get into the tryouts.
She said Blakely, even at 5-foot-7, was the shortest dancer in her Chicago line.
Rose said Rockettes “work their tails off” from August to January, then many dance the rest of the year in theme parks or for cruise lines.
Most famous is the Radio City (Music Hall) Christmas Spectacular in New York City, which will be performed more than 200 times between Nov. 3 and Jan. 2, 2006.
The Rockettes are known for their precision, dazzling costumes and their world-famous eye-high kicks.
The Rockettes performed four shows a day, 28 shows a week, 365 days a year, for more than 50 years. They starred in USO tours during World War II and won the grand prize at the 1936 Paris dance exposition.
At the 1988 Super Bowl halftime show they performed before a television audience of 150 million.
They also perform in Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and appeared at the 2001 inauguration ceremony for President George W. Bush.
The Rockettes celebrated their 75th anniversary in 2001.
Did you know that the Rockettes debuted in show business, not in the Big Apple, but in St. Louis as the “Missouri Rockets?”
With lines in numerous U.S. cities, their live show is enjoyed by more people in one year than any other live show in America - more than 2.1 million annually.