Ohio native gets a kick out of being a Rockette

“I just found there was something magical with this group of beautiful women all doing these kicks, and they all looked so polished and put together. I was just really intrigued by it, and it was unlike anything I had ever seen before.”

Melissa Thomas, Rockette

By JOHN BENSON

Vindicator Correspondent

As a Northeast Ohio native, aspiring dancer Melissa Thomas looked forward to every Thanksgiving morning as her one and only shot at seeing the Radio City Rockettes in action.

“I wanted to be a dancer at the age of 4, so every year I would specifically wake up early just to watch the Rockettes perform on the Macy’s Parade,” said Thomas, a Parma native and a 2001 University of Akron graduate. “I just found there was something magical with this group of beautiful women all doing these kicks, and they all looked so polished and put together. I was just really intrigued by it, and it was unlike anything I had ever seen before.”

Though she spent her youth training around the area, the hopeful dancer spent two years dancing on Holland America cruise lines before venturing off to New York City. Eventually, she landed a national tour of “42nd Street” before realizing her decades-long dream of becoming a Rockette in 2005.

“I don’t know if you really know what you’re getting into,” Thomas said. “There is nothing as hard as this. And there is nothing you can do to prepare yourself. You come in thinking you’re in the best shape of your life, but it’s just even more than you would ever imagine. Just physically and mentally, they expect a lot from you because of the precision and perfection. It’s an eye-opening experience when you’re new.

“With the precision comes sharpness, and everything we do has to be muscled, punched and hit very hard on every single count. So you might just be putting your arm out, but it’s actually coming from your whole core, and your whole body is tensing up just to get your arm out there for one count and to get it back down for the next count.”

Thomas said such dedication has helped maintain the Radio City Rockettes’ legacy, which began in 1925, with its popular Christmas Spectacular dating back to 1933. In fact, the act’s touring holiday performance, which comes back to Cleveland for a Sunday show at the Wolstein Center, includes original routines such as Parade of the Wooden Soldiers and the Living Nativity Scene. There are also new routines that take audiences on a tour of Times Square with dozens of Santa Clauses in tow.

Thomas believes that now that the Rockettes are touring on an annual basis, the world-famous show will become something more than just a Macy’s Day Parade experience for future generations.

“It’s such a wonderful opportunity,” Thomas said. “Not everyone is able to travel to New York City to see the Radio City Rockettes. It’s a tradition that’s been around so long, and I know people from the New York area that grew up with it and it means so much to their family. While people in the Midwest might not have had that experience, now with this tour, the show comes to them so they can hopefully build their own tradition.”