Bakersfield Life

Rockettes kick into Bakersfield

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      If you’re looking for a unique way to celebrate this holiday season, look no further then the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular
      The Rabobank Arena event comes just in time for the 12 days of Christmas. So leave that partridge in the pear tree, and come out to see these famous ladies dancing, Monday, Dec. 13, for two shows at 4 and 7 p.m.
      The show, which features scenes from the Nutcracker, and the appearance of more than 40 Santas on stage at once, offers all the timeless traditions of the holiday season, wrapped in a New York City package. Adapted from their 75th anniversary spectacular, the show has never before been performed on the West Coast.

      “It takes the history and tradition of something iconic and marries it to the technology available to us today,” said Jeffrey Capitola, vice president of touring productions, who has been with the Rockettes since 2001.

      The group travels with a 40-foot by 60-foot LED screen, which allows them to create a variety of backdrops. Not to mention hauling around a replica of a double-decker bus the Rockettes ride on across the stage as the screen recreates New York City for audience members, taking them from Manhattan to Times Square.

      “I think that it’s all so amazing to watch,” said Capitola, who described the disco ball that hangs above the audience, creating the illusion of a snow storm as the Rockettes make their first appearance as reindeer.

      To say that Rockette Lindsay Howe gets a kick out of her job would be an understatement. In her eighth season with the Radio City Rockettes, she first auditioned for the group when she was just 18 years old. Although she grew up dancing in Sacramento, it wasn’t until she and her mother took a trip to New York after her high school, that she considered becoming a Rockette. After going on a backstage tour of Radio City Music Hall, she says she was romanced by the idea.
      “(I thought) to be part of an American legacy would be amazing and something to tell my children about,” Howe said. She asked the Rockette on the tour lots of questions and came back less than two months later to audition herself.

     “In my wildest dreams, I would’ve never thought I would have ended up as a Rockette,” Howe said. “I went to NY when I was 18 and stood in line with over 500 women at Radio City Music Hall, in my tights and leotard with my headshot. I didn’t know the grandness I was stepping into.”

       The show’s ensemble has more than 55 people, including 25 Rockettes, who perform seven numbers throughout the 90-minute show, according to Howe.
      “I think this is just a really neat thing that we get to bring the history and tradition of the East Coast to the West Coast,” Howe said. “I’m so happy to be a part of it. It’s so great to be able to come into new cities and be in a new place almost every day.”
      Her favorite scene is toward the end of the show, where there is a movie montage narrated by Tony Bennett talking about the history and magic of the Rockettes.
      “The costumes are beautiful,” she said. “They’re dripping in diamonds and it really embraces the power of women and the Rockettes’ style, grace and elegance.”
     She is also excited to get to perform in her hometown for the first time as a Rockette.
     This one-of-a-kind experience is a gift you can give yourself this season, as well as all the special people on your Christmas list.
 
 
For more information or to buy tickets, visit http://www.rabobankarena.com
For more information on the show itself, you can go to their Web site at http://www.radiocitychristmas.com/
 
Or visit their facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/radiocitychristmas