The Rockettes have high-kicked their way on dance stages around the world since 1925. And for the first time in seven years, they’ll bring their famous precision dance moves to Tampa’s Straz Center.
Before they take the stage Dec. 27 and Dec. 28, however, they’ll have an opening act filled with faces many should recognize: a team from Contempo School of Dance on State Road 54 in Lutz.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance for us to dance,” said school founder Lani Gunn.
The team had just five weeks to learn their routine, which lasts a little more than 2 minutes and 30 seconds, using music provided by The Rockettes. It will involve 32 dancers in all, who will not only take the stage to tease The Rockettes’ performance — but they will have front row seats for the main attraction as well.
Most, if not all, of the students performing that holiday weekend will watch The Rockettes for the first time. And that includes Gunn.
“I have their DVD. I’ve just never seen them in person,” she said.
The school caught the attention of the New York City Dance Alliance, a dance convention group founded in 1993, through its success at various competitions. The alliance will earn a portion of the ticket proceeds for its scholarship fund to help get dancers into school by anyone who purchases their ticket with the promotional code “NYCDA9.”
The teams get just one hour a week to practice together, but they’re also spending a few good hours each week practicing on their own at home.
“The steps that they are learning, they have learned over the years,” Gunn said. “It’s not like they can just learn it in five practices.”
Which means for all the dancers, this was a performance years in the making. Erika Hanzelka has danced at Contempo since 2007.
“My friend just told me to start coming here, and I loved it so much, I started to take more and more classes every year,” the 11-year-old said.
Other members of her team have been dancing even longer, like Whitney Herd, 12, who started at Contempo when she was 2 years old as part of the studios’ “Mommy and Me” program.
“I always find myself doing tap dances around my house,” Herd said. “With dance, you can express your emotions and kind of let go. And (Contempo) is a place where you can dance and have fun.”
Dancers just get addicted to it, Gunn said.
“When they are 3, they go once a week,” she said. “And then after that, they want to try some other form, and some other one after that. Many of these kids take between 8 to 10 classes a week.”
The Rockettes are performing as part of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular running from Dec. 12 through Dec. 29 at the center’s Carol Morsani Hall. This is the highest-profile venue yet for Gunn’s studio, which has operated in Lutz for the last 19 years.
“We do competitions, and dance at Busch Gardens and Disney, but never at that big stage at the Straz,” Gunn said.
For more information on The Rockettes show, visit StrazCenter.org. To learn more about Contempo, visit ContempoDance.com.
