- Hey dancers, happy holiday season.
Today, we're going to be learning a routine inspired
by the incredible Radio City Rockettes.
Let's get started.
(jazzy holiday music)
(jazzy Jingle Bells plays)
- All right dancers at home.
There are so many things to know
about the Radio City Rockettes, but we're just
going to focus on three things.
Number one is super strong arms and wrists.
You want to make sure that you're activating your muscles
for nice and straight lines.
The next thing is the same idea, but for your legs,
really stretch and extend the legs and toes.
That third thing is what I called pockets.
So it's placing your palms at the very top of your bottom,
just like your random pair of jeans,
and you're going to slip your hands into your pockets.
You're going to see this position a lot in the routine.
So now that you know those three things,
let's learn the choreography.
Dancers go ahead and turn around for me.
Beautiful.
Now, for my dancers at home, if you have a couple
of friends who are learning this with you,
you'll notice that there are roll offs in the dance,
which means that you do the same movement,
but act different counts.
If you're dancing solo at home, that's fabulous too.
You can maybe pick one of these beautiful assistants
to follow and do their part of the routine.
It'll make sense once we get started.
All right, everyone, so the very first movement
that you're going to do is just two walks forward.
Dancers here just go ahead and freeze for me
while I do this.
I'm going to walk.
One, two, turn my body slightly to the left.
I'm going to lift my right leg up to a low passe,
and then I'm going to sharply snap the leg out,
bend the supporting knee, and break your wrist up top.
I'm going to show you that one more time.
Five, six, seven, eight.
This is walk, walk, passe, hit.
Good, now dancers, this is happening in a roll-off.
So let's show them what we mean by that.
Five, six, seven, eight,
one, two, three, and hold.
Five, six, seven, eight.
One, two, three and hold,
five, six, seven, eight,
One, two, three and hold.
Good, dancers, freeze right there for me.
So, you'll notice that their backhand is in their pocket.
Once everyone is here, we're going to bring our right foot
to join our left foot, stand in parallel
and hands are in your pockets.
You'll notice our fingertips are glued together.
The next movement that we're going to do dancers,
is a beveled foot.
So you lift up on a really high demi pointe, okay?
Your head is looking straight forward.
You have one, two, three look to your left, snap.
Keep your head there, but do your feet,
left, right, left, snap to the right,
again right, left, right, snap to the left.
Good.
Now, dancers we're looking to the left side of the room.
My dancers in here, go ahead and freeze for a moment.
The next movement that we're going to be doing is a chaine.
Okay?
That chaine has your arms glued down to your sides.
And it looks like this: chaine.
I'm then going to step onto my right leg,
and do a little bit of a slide.
And don't worry, we're going to have our beautiful
assistants show you this in just a moment again.
When you do that slide, your arms come up and out.
It's kind of like you're swimming and then arms come down.
Dancers, let's go from the bevel.
So feet are parallel, hands are in your pockets.
Five, six, seven together.
One, two, three, snap,
one, two, three, snap,
one, two, three, snap, freeze,
I'm going to get out of your way, go ahead
and do the chaine, arms down, and chaine, step, slide.
[Auti] Freeze.
Good, dancers, reset to the beginning of the routine.
Gorgeous.
Hands are in those back pockets, our fingertips
are glued together, our eyes are looking up.
Well, they look up once we step, that was a test.
(Auti laughs) Here we go dancers.
Five, six, seven, and group one ♪ buh, buh ♪
[Auti] Hold, five, six, seven, group two ♪ duh, duh, shoo ♪
[Auti] Five, six, seven, and group three ♪ bum, bum ♪
[Auti] Bring parallel, and hold, here we go.
Bevel, bevel, bevel, snap, bevel, bevel, bevel, snap,
again, bevel, bevel, bevel, snap, chaine
♪ Duh, duh ♪
[Auti] And freeze.
All right dancers.
So, we just did our chaine and that big swimming motion.
You're now going to move into some low jazz walks.
So you stay in a plie.
So go ahead and match these dancers here.
You're going to walk this direction.
Try it with me, dancers, we go,
left, right, left, hit.
You have the sharpest arms and legs,
straight knees, pointed toes.
Let's go to the right.
Six, seven, and walk, walk, walk, sharp.
Good, dancers, from here those hands are going to come
to those pockets again.
You're going to come up to a releve as you take four steps,
three, four.
Now, you'll notice that my beautiful assistants
squeeze in together because our kick line is coming up.
So if you have friends at home that you're doing this with,
you're spread out and then you go
(whooshing noise)
you zip into one another with those high releve walks.
If you're doing this alone at home, go ahead
and still travel so you get that idea and practice
of moving in the space.
Let's spread out a tiny bit more.
Let's go from the jazz walks again.
So we did our chaine, we did our swim,
our head's forward the whole time.
Five, six, seven, travel ♪ bum, bum, bum ♪
sharp, and ♪ bum, bum, bum ♪
Sharp, walk, one, two, three, four, down, beautiful.
So you have four gorgeous walks
and then your hands come down.
Dancers, do me a favor, stay in your line,
but go ahead and come on this tape line.
Good.
Now when you get here, your knees are together.
Your ankles are together.
Your arms are down, your chin is lifted.
You're about to do your kick line prep.
Now for this specific routine,
you're going to link behind the dancer's back
instead of the shoulders.
Dancers, can you show me right arm high?
Right arm high.
See how straight they are.
And then go ahead and link, and if you're on the outside,
you're going to have that outside arm in a blade
with a straight elbow.
Let's do that again, arms down.
Go ahead and go on the seven, eight.
Five, six, up seven, link eight.
So good, okay, go ahead and stay linked, dancers.
Now, my dancers at home.
I'm going to show you facing the camera.
My assistants just stay right where you are, okay?
You're here, you're linked.
You're going to be doing a developpe kick.
So you're developing through a passe
and then extending that leg out, okay?
So you're going ♪ buh, buh ♪ and ♪ buh, buh ♪
passe lift, passe lift, again, knee, kick, knee, kick,
passe lift, passe lift.
That's the combo.
Let's just show that dancers.
[Auti] So the two developpes, and the two passes two times.
Five, six, seven, eight, developpe, developpe,
passe, passe, again ♪ buh dum, buh dum ♪
Passe, passe, and freeze.
Stay right where you are, so beautiful.
Now that's the slower part, okay?
This next part, you really have to focus on the dancers
next to you to find the plie,
because you're about to do your
plie, kick, plie, kick, plie, kick.
You come back to a parallel position
and then you drop to your hands on your knees, okay?
Now, you do three kicks.
So it's, plie, kick, plie, kick, plie, kick, parallel,
hands to knees.
Okay, dancers let's give that a shot.
[Auti] All right, five, six, seven, eight,
one, two, three, four, last one, parallel and knees.
Good dancers, hold right there for me.
That was so gorgeous.
So this next part is another roll off.
And it's going to start on this side of the room, okay?
Now what you're going to do from this little position
is you're going to break the left arm out palm down,
and you're going to go
(whooshing noise) left arm out, left leg out,
and the body is facing stage right.
Now, my first group is here, second group is here,
third group is here, and fourth group is here.
So there's four counts.
Let's try it dancers.
[Auti] Five, six, seven, eight,
hit one, hit two, hit three, hit four, freeze.
From there, you're almost to the end, okay?
Now everyone is going to, dancers, go ahead
draw the left arm and left leg in
and then look straight forward, beautiful.
So you have that super sharp and then you bring it in
and your eyes look forward.
From here, every single person goes up with their heads.
Good, okay, let's go all the way from the top with no music.
You can come up, and then we'll go with music, okay.
Go ahead and reset.
[Auti] All right dancers here we go,
five, six, seven, and ♪ duh, duh, phew, ha ♪
hold, five, six, seven, eight, and ♪ bum, bum, bum ♪
sharp, five, six, seven, and
♪ Duh, duh, bum, boom, ha ♪ parallel, pockets. ♪
Seven, right foot, go ♪ duh, duh, duh ♪
Sharp, ♪ duh, duh, duh ♪ sharp, again,
♪ Bum, bum, bum ♪ sharp, chaine, and swim. ♪
Walk ♪ duh, duh ♪ sharp, arms
♪ Duh, duh ♪ sharp arms, pockets, releve, releve, releve ♪
right arm and link.
Develop, one, two, good, high passe, lift those chins for me
and uh, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,
one, two, three, four, five, six, parallel, and knees,
one, two, three, four, look forward, and lift.
Okay dancers let's go with music, reminder for those
super straight arms and legs, as well as those hands
in those pockets.
Have fun.
(jazzy Jingle Bells plays)
All right dancers, we hope you had such a fun time
learning that routine with us.
Make sure to check out the Radio City Rockettes,
there's videos all over YouTube,
and they're so cool to watch.
Thank you so much to the beautiful dancers
of Capital Dance Company.
Happy holidays, and we'll see all of you so soon.
Bye.
(jazzy music)