The Rockettes are still in step after 100 years

Audiences have been getting a kick out of the Rockettes for 100 years, and clearly the dance troupe still has legs. They're currently putting their best feet forward in the latest edition of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, which runs through Jan. 5.

As the theater world's favorite chorus line marks its centennial, let's look back at its history, which is as colorful as its amazing costumes.

Meet them in St. Louis

When the group was formed by choreographer Russell Markert in 1925, they were called the Missouri Rockets and performed at the Missouri Theatre in St. Louis. They moved to New York City in 1932 when theater owner S.L. "Roxy" Rothafel hired them for the new Radio City Music Hall, which opened that December with a stage show that also featured dancers Ray Bolger and Martha Graham. The show flopped and, a month later, the theater changed its format, pairing a movie with a 30-minute live show.

Merry Christmas

In December 1933, screenings of the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musical "Flying Down to Rio" were followed by the first Christmas show starring the newly renamed Rockettes and featuring opera singer Jan Peerce. Two of the show's iconic numbers — "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers" and "The Living Nativity" — were introduced and are still performed today.

One of the crowd-pleasing moments in "Wooden Soldiers" is the part when a cannon goes off and the Rockettes, in a true feat of coordination, drop like dominoes. "It's easy if you're in the front of the line and it's not bad if you're at the other end of it, because you land on a pillow," said Kerri Pearsall, of Bellmore, who was a Rockette from 1980 to 1999. "When you’re in between those two ends, it's all about guiding and working together."

Working all year

Pearsall followed in the dance steps of her mom, Margaret Pearsall, 95, also of Bellmore, who was part of the Rockettes from 1949 to 1953. In Margaret's day, the Rockettes performed 52 weeks a year in a variety of shows. "If a movie played there for two weeks, we rehearsed all of the second week for the new show," Margaret said. "There were 46 of us and 10 went on vacation every week, so we rotated."

For the current 90-minute Christmas Spectacular, dancers rehearse for six weeks and six hours a day, said Julie Branam, the director of choreography, who started as a Rockette in 1988. "As the show continues to evolve and dance evolves, it's been amazing to see how many different styles of dance they can do," she said. "They’re very versatile dancers in all different types of genres — tap, ballet, jazz."

One thing that has been a constant is the kick line, and dancers really need to be up to speed. "When I did the kick line, we kicked at 148 beats per minute and now they kick at 152 beats per minutes," Branam said. "Through the years we found that it helps with the uniformity of the kicks."

Before they were famous

While most Rockettes continued working on Broadway or in some other dance capacity, a few made their way to Hollywood. Lucille Bremer scored as Judy Garland's eldest sister in "Meet Me in St. Louis" and danced with Astaire in two films. And Vera-Ellen, who was fired after a few weeks as a Rockette for showing too much individuality, eventually went on to dance with Astaire and Gene Kelly, each in two films, and had her brightest moment playing Rosemary Clooney's sister in "White Christmas" (1954).

Dromedary drama

The Rockettes weren't the only ones who knew how to kick it. On one occasion, a camel in the "Living Nativity" number tried to upstage one of the dancers. "A camel kicked one of the girls, and she had to go the hospital in her "Nativity" costume and then explain what happened," Kerri Pearsall recalled.

"Another time one of the camels figured out how to open one of the faucets," Kerri said. "We came to work and the camel had flooded out a quick change room and ruined all of our shoes. But the show went on and it was fine."