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Goldrush's
"Did
You Know?"
The
Missouri Rockettes?
The Radio
City Rockettes first kicked to life in 1925 as the "Missouri
Rockets" and made their show business debut in St. Louis, the
realization of a long-time dream of their creator, Russell
Markert. "I had seen the John Tiller girls in the Ziegfeld
Follies of 1922," Markert once reminisced. "If I ever got a
chance to get a group of American girls who would be taller
and have longer legs and could do really complicated tap
routines and eye-high kicks... they'd knock your socks off!"
At Radio
City's opening night, on December 27, 1932, they did just
that. The Rockettes, discovered and brought to New York by
consummate showman S.L. (Roxy) Rothafel who first dubbed them
the "Roxyettes," shared the stage with 17 diverse acts, among
them the Flying Wallendas, Ray Bolger and Martha Graham.
Source:
www.radiocity.com
And You
Thought Your Pointe Shoes Were Expensive!
Ballet Met
will spend $32,000 on pointe shoes in one-year. Source:
www.balletmet.org
Lucy's
Dancing Sons
Desi Arnaz
Jr., co-director of Boulder City Ballet along with his wife,
Amy, writes to Goldrush. "Your readers may not know
that my childhood friend, Keith Thibodeaux (who played Little
Ricky on I Love Lucy) is also married to a ballerina
(Kathy Thibodeaux) and he does for her what I do for Amy.
Keith and Kathy run Ballet Magnificat in Jackson, MS. I think
it’s funny – actually amazing – that Keith & I both are
helping our wives." Source: Dezi Arnaz, Jr
Largest
Tap Dance
On May 24, 1998, the greatest ever number of tap dancers
gathered for a single routine at the Stuttgart City Square,
Germany. Choreographed by Ray Lynch, 6,952 dancers tapped away
for 2 minutes 15 seconds to the tune "Klicke-di-Klack",
specially composed by Lynch. The event was organized to
commemorate the birthday of tap-dance legend Bill Bojangles
Robinson. Source: Guinness World Records
You
Never Know
In 1954
Shirley MacLaine was hired as a chorus girl and understudy to
the second lead, Carol Haney, in the hit Broadway musical
The Pajama Game. When Haney broke her ankle, MacLaine took
over the role and was “discovered” by film producer
Hal Wallis, who put
her under contract. Source: Britannica
Who Says
Dancers Don't Make Money?
The youngest millionairess was tap dancer Shirley Temple (b.
USA, April 23, 1928), now Mrs. Charles Black, who accumulated
wealth exceeding $1 million (equivalent to $8,932,472 today)
before she was 10. Shirley Temple leapt to fame with the film
Little Miss Marker. Later in life she turned to
politics. She was the US ambassador to Czechoslovakia from
1989 to 1992. Source: Guinness World Records
Not An
Easy Journey To Greatness
Isadora
Duncan was acclaimed by the foremost musicians, artists, and
writers of her day, but she was often an object of attack by
the less broad-minded. Her ideas were too much in advance of
their time, and she flouted social conventions too
flamboyantly to be regarded by the wider public as anything
but an advocate of “free love.” Certainly her place as a great
innovator in dance is secure: her repudiation of artificial
technical restrictions and reliance on the grace of natural
movement helped to liberate the dance from its dependence on
rigid formulas and on displays of brilliant but empty
technical virtuosity, paving the way for the later acceptance
of modern dance as it was developed by
Mary Wigman,
Martha Graham, and
others. Source: Britannica
Now
That's Tappin'
Ann Miller
was once clocked at 574 taps per minute? Source:
www.balletmet.org
You
Thought You Had Big Classes
The largest
ballet class ever had a total of 530 people from 41 ballet
schools who took part in an hour-long ballet class à la barre
organized by Cape Town City Ballet at Canal Walk shopping
centre, Cape Town, South Africa, on October 12, 2003.
Participants ranging in age from 10 to 52 years old were led
by the Cape Town City Ballet's publicist – and former company
member – Andrew Warth. Source: Guinness World Records
Was She
The Youngest Ballerina?
Cynthia
Gregory’s parents encouraged her to take up dancing when she
was five, hoping exercise would stem a history of childhood
illnesses. By age six, she was on pointe. She first appeared
on the cover of Dance Magazine at the age of seven. Source:
Footnotes, The Classics of Ballet
www.soundventure.com
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