2 Years Ago Today, Life Became Amazing

Two years ago today I got the best phone call in the world.

"Hey Taylor it's C. calling from Radio City Music Hall. How are you? Please give me a call back as soon as humanly possible about the show..."

To this day I have the peppy voicemail saved on my phone. Completely out of the blue, after they had already told me they didn't have a job for me, The Radio City Christmas Spectacular called to hire me as an ensemble dancer in the New York show.

I will never forget that feeling - the rush of just "ahhh!" running through me as I sat at my internship desk at Sterling Publishing. I literally had to keep re-checking my phone's recent calls to make sure it really did happen.

I've been SO fortunate to dance 2 seasons with the show. It was the best time of my life, dancing up to 17 shows a week in a 6,000-seat theater with incredible cast members. I am grateful more than I can say for every day I spent there.

A part of me still secretly hopes they'll call me in the next month asking me to dance this year (despite, you know, the boot). :(

Here's my blog post from the day I got the call.
Here's my blog post from my very first day of rehearsals.
Here's my blog archive of all things RC.

First White House Dance Event

Really sorry I missed the live stream of this (couldn't they have let me watch in the hospital yesterday? Haha). Dancers from Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, New York City Ballet, Paul Taylor Dance Company, and The Washington Ballet performed at The White House hosted by Michelle Obama.

This must've been so exciting for all who danced. Last winter just around Christmas week the Obamas had a small group of Rockettes perform for them privately and it was SO thrilling for our entire show! It was a first for them. I was a little disappointed they didn't want a ballerina bear to grace their presence, too. Haha!

It's nice that they honored Judith Jamison. Because I'm always taking class at Ailey I see her in passing on occasion and she is so statuesque. Actually the day I went to the Ailey PR office to see my Times article for the first time in print I ran into her, literally. I look like a student in the school and I was on the office floor where they're not allowed so she was like, "What are you doing up here?" but friendly. I explained who I was there to see and she let me in. Haha that's my big Judith Jamison story. It was the icing on the cake at the time.

Watch the archived video above :)

Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy, take from here

Some More RC Pictures

Our opening weekend of previews went really well...and it was crazy busy for me personally with all kinds of visitors coming to see the show. Love it...tomorrow night is the official opening night party (expect many more pictures from that!) and then we get into the real swing of our show schedule - which means time for blogging. Til then, more pictures!

My dressing room mirror.
Me as Mary in Nativity.
Singing out in the New York at Christmas scene. I'm in the black coat holding a green bag.
A whole bunch of friends from my hometown, who came to see the show yesterday!
In front of the most amazing view ever.

Radio City Tech Through Pictures

There is SO much to say about the past week of Radio City rehearsals...and yet I have to revert to that old phrase, "A picture's worth a thousand words." There just isn't the time right now to explain everything in detail, but once we open (Friday!) I'll have long breaks between shows where blogging is the ideal time killer - promise! For now, here are some pictures from tech

week...tomorrow we add costumes, and the rest of this week we have full dress rehearsals! We open for previews on Friday, over the weekend I have many friends coming to watch, and then next Tuesday is the "official" opening :)

A bunch of us stretching the aisles of Radio City Music Hall on Halloween. I'm towards the back of the crowd, haha.

Gorgeous stage.
Both casts of us in the ensemble on Halloween - we all wore shirts with our dance captain's old headshot on it! Too funny...
Tech-ing the curtain call with the full cast!
Tech-ing the Nutcracker section. We start in that blue box under the tree, which opens up to reveal us like this - and then we dance! (This is the other cast though).
Later in the show we dance in "Central Park" - I'm in pink on the left.

A Few RC Photos

I can't believe we're already done with the initial rehearsal process! Yesterday was our final day in the studio - we start tech in the theater tomorrow! Crazy. Yesterday was amazing because we had our first full nonstop run through of the whole show with the full cast, while the other cast watched as the audience. Amazing.

Here are a few pictures...I'm in the "gold" cast, so to show some spirit on our last day we all wore gold (or, um, yellow haha).

some of us in the ensemble
the full gold cast!
bear costumes lining the halls of Radio City

SOOOO excited to start in the theater tomorrow. We tech for a week and a half before previews start, 2 weeks from today!

Radio City from the Archives

Just a reminder that, even though I have yet to blog about this season's rehearsals in detail, you can always read about last year's Radio City Christmas Spectacular's rehearsals in the archives, here.

This week is our last few days in the studio before we hit tech madness (12 hour days in the black hole of the theater, haha) this weekend. It's all going SO well. We finished learning the show on Friday and now it's time to clean up the choreography and piece the numbers together.

And guess what I found out Friday - I'm Mary in the famous Nativity scene! Which means that even if you can find which little dancer is me throughout the whole show, you'll DEFINITELY see me at the end, haha. Big fun.

More soon :)

On the First Day of Xmas...

...my true love gave to me me: a bruise, a blister, and many aches aches and pains!

Haha.

Today was our first day of rehearsals - also known as Christmas bootcamp, haha. It is SO wonderful to be back in Radio City land, I can't even tell you. So great to see everyone and meet new cast members, and just to be dancing this choreography again!

I'll write more this weekend, because tonight I am simply exhausted. I've been taking crazy amounts of classes lately to get myself prepped for this schedule, but the way we repeat choreography so much as we learn it really takes a fast toll on your body. I'm dead...but so very happy. Will write all about it when my body rests this weekend. It doesn't help that I've had a cold for a week that won't go away...but I'm not complaining! Loving this! :)

--

PS- since I still have insomnia (I crashed around 8pm dead tired and am now, at 2am, wide awake...of course) I'm re-reading my blogs from last year's rehearsals. It's so funny to see how foreign this all was to me then, and how today I felt like I never left and I'm so at home with everything. Details and things. Read about my verrrrry first day last year here, when, again, we started with ballerina bears :)

RC Costume Fittings!

You know life is amusing when you get to put on a fat Santa suit on a warm fall morning in a random warehouse!

This morning and yesterday I had my costume fittings for Radio City - and what fun it was. I've missed the show SO much since last year, and being in the costumes again only made me more anxious to get going again. (Read about last year's fitting here.)

Yesterday I had to go fill out paperwork at the theater, and while I was there I had to try on all my headpieces. That started of course with my ballerina bear head! In the show this is the least fun part - trying to dance on pointe in a heavy hot fur costume, all the while being nearly blind thanks to the bear head. I got used to it as the season went on, but putting it back on yesterday brought back memories of when I first had to wear it in rehearsal onstage. It's a little dark and scary in there, haha. We can only see clearly through the space between it's lips - a very narrow slit. The nose of it is dark mesh that we can see out of only slightly, and that's if the stage lights are hitting it the right way. It's going to take some getting used to again...

After that I tried on three other hats I wear throughout the show, but they were different from the ones I wore last year. Though every cast member has their own set of costumes, my alternate from last year (the girl who did my spot in the other cast) and I are now in the same cast, so we knew one of us would be getting a new wardrobe this season - and that's me! I was excited to see which costumes I'd be wearing, and I got to find out this morning...

(Rockette toy soldier hats backstage last year)

I headed out to Radio City's costume warehouse in Queens, a very unassuming building in a pretty empty neighborhood a few subway stops out. They gave us really clear directions, but I think last year I got a little lost, haha. Luckily everything is more familiar this year! I got there early and took a little stroll around the neighborhood because it was such a nice morning. It's so funny to think that all the magical, beautiful, expensive costumes seen onstage are kept in such a dreary place.

Soon it was time for the fitting. I went in and up the elevator (which was the size of a small dance studio! I suppose it has to be to fit all the costume racks) and was greeted by one of the wardrobe folks. She led me through multiple rooms, lined with mile-high stacks of colorful threads, sewing machines galore, racks and racks and racks of old costumes, many mannequins, and all kinds of loose trimmings. Where the wardrobe room at the theater yesterday was packed with Rockette reindeer antlers and pretty headpieces, this room had endless lines of toy soldier uniforms, sparkly crystal dresses, and...a rack of all to familiar pieces labeled "Gordon" for me!

(my rack last year...some things are missing...)

I've always been fascinated with costume shops. Back when I grew up in Boston Ballet's Nutcracker, a huge highlight was going in for fittings in the basement of the studio and seeing all the gorgeous tutus and tiaras. Ironically, one of their costumes I loved seeing up close was the bear costume they use in the party scene of Nutcracker. It was all brown tulle ruffles, chunky and itching looking at first glance. But onstage it really looked like a cute furry bear doing cartwheels and tempting the party kids (which was later me). It's amazing to see the differences in how things look up close and from far away onstage!

Anyway I found comfort in the familiar pieces on my costume rack this morning - my own ballerina bear suit, the red velvety Santa outfit, my silver "Shine" skirt and jacket. And then there were the new costumes I was expecting - well, not new, but new to me. They were my friend's last year, who is now out on the European tour of "West Side Story" (how jealous am I?!) and they're cute! The whole show is full of wonderful costumes, though.

First I tried on my new wintery dress for the scene where we dance in Central Park. Last year I had a finicky skirt that kept coming undone when my partner lifted me, but this time I get a simpler burgundy-ish dress with a cute jacket over it. I had to stand there forever with this one as the costume people (more familiar faces :) pinned and tucked and rolled extra material away because I'm so short, haha.

(my Central Park costume last year, with one of our fabulous wardrobe ladies!)

They are incredible with the amount of knowledge and detailed-thinking they have to work with. There were three or four of them at any given moment twisting the costume, discussing where and how to take pieces in efficiently and effectively. I'm amazed at what they can do, and even more in awe at how much work they have cut out for them just with my costumes alone! They really "fit you to a T" and make each costume absolutely perfect for your body, from sleeve length to evening out an ever so slightly tilted vest to the smallest imperfection in a line of stitching. It is so professional and it really is the royal treatment. I stood there, reminded of how incredibly fortunate I am to be involved in such a fantastic environment!

After my "Central Park" outfit I moved on to my "Magic" dress, which we wear in the toy shop scene of the show before the Rockettes dance the rag doll number. Here they messed around with the puffy sleeves a bit to avoid giving me "football arms," haha. This scene is super vibrant and colorful. Last year my dress was mostly a lime green, and this time I'm more yellow and purple. Fun!

(last year's "Magic" costume...I'm on the left on the cart :)

Next came my "Shine" costume, the one we do the least dancing in at the finale. Apparently they kept my same exact skirt and jacket from last year, but somehow it felt a little foreign on me. It's been a while, I guess. They made lots of pinning and adjustments - it's like the costume grew and became really uneven over the summer break, haha. But after that things got easier for them - my Santa suit was the same one from last year, and there's not much you can do with that thing to make it any more flattering, haha. It's cozy though. My "Nativity" shepherd robe also didn't need much editing. And the last to go was the lovely ballerina bear suit. I forgot how funny looking it is without the head on, haha.

Putting everything on made me really want to just get up and dance! I'm sure my body will remember most of the choreography when we start rehearsals next week (hey, I did the show 110 times last year!) but I'm likely going to be in a different track this time, meaning different places within the same dances. I'm SO ready to get going, get learning, get dancing, and get performing!

And the (painful?) fun begins...

Yesterday was the first event of the Radio City season for me - our medical pre-screening day. Though it was optional, I was eager to participate given the tough year I've had and the trouble I've had in finding doctors that take our union insurance!

It was exciting to be back in the space where we rehearsed last year and it made me all the more anxious to get started with rehearsals. They divided the studios and other spaces into sections for lots of different medical teams: the physical therapists, the orthopedist, podiatrist, athletic trainers, and the regular doctor. We took turns going around to each group to be evaluated individually - and it was fun to see familiar faces from the cast last year going through the same routine.

I didn't really discover anything new...I know my body pretty well by now and all their tests (strength, flexibility, mobility etc. of certain joints and positions) proved that. But it was nice because at the end they sat down and gave personal exercises that will help some of my weaknesses so I can get through the season without further injuries.

Last year I missed out on this pre-screening. And throughout the season I knew there were great resources available to me if I needed them up at athletic training (those therapists work the same amount of shows we do, taking care of all the Rockettes' and all of our problems, haha). But I didn't really take advantage of everything I could have last year. I was so overwhelmed by everything being so new and exciting to me. AND I was (and still sometimes am) of the "ballet mindset" that you should never let it show that you're injured or sick. So often in the ballet world we fight through severe pain (I've known people who dance months with stress fractures!) without seeking treatment or taking it easy because we're afraid our directors or teachers will look down upon us, or change casting, or punish us in some other way. At least, I definitely experienced this at a studio or two I've attended. But in the real performing world (or the RC world anyway) I've learned it's more important to tend to your body and take precautions, not just struggle through. This year I plan to take advantage of all I can to minimize the dancing pain, haha. Luckily last year I did indeed come through the 110-show season without any more problems (just the stupid achilles tendon, but that's going on 2 1/2 years now.) There's no doubt the show schedule is taxing and there are days when it takes so much mental energy to get your body to physically push through the painful exhaustion (especially at 9am, in pointe shoes, in a bear head...). But pain or no pain, I'm ready!

I really can't wait to get started. Two weeks from this Thursday!