Dance like a Rockette: College students take unique class
A group of college students in Boston is getting a unique opportunity to learn to dance like the Radio City Rockettes
BOSTON (AP) — Rhapsody Stiggers has been dancing since she was 2, but the 20-year-old college junior has never taken a dance class quite as challenging as the one she's in now.
She is one of 38 students at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee enrolled in the first for-credit college dance class taught by the Radio City Rockettes, the precision dance team famous for its annual high-kicking “Christmas Spectacular," seen by more than 69 million people since 1933.
The class, taught by a current Rockette, focuses on their meticulously precise technique, based on tap, ballet and jazz, in which the dancers move and kick in perfect synchronicity. The course also teaches strength training, choreography and lessons that can be applied to pretty much any dance genre.
“What’s unique about this class is the level of technicality," said Stiggers, originally from St. Paul, Minnesota. She said she's skilled in ballet, modern, jazz, salsa, West African and improvisation, but “no other style of dance really emphasizes the precision of every single body part."
