Just did our two nights at Radio City, and we’re ecstatic and exhausted. Doing shows in one’s hometown is always a thing — more thrilling when it goes over well, and there are always many, many more things and people to attend to, and more nerve-wracking aspects in general. We got back from Canada, and the very next day we went into rehearsals and cleanup mode — rehearsing the surprise ending for the Radio City shows, and cleaning up the choreography that, inevitably, gets a little loose. The 4 choreographers dropped by while we were all in the same town, which was convenient.
The cleanup was actually minor — in the course of the first sixty-some shows, we’ve internalized much of the movements, so it feels more integrated and organic… but some details still needed attending to.
While we were rehearsing, Mark Degli Antoni was at Radio City getting a crash course in the Mighty Wurlitzer. The original idea was that he’d play the giant house organ and then we’d join him on “Take Me To The River” — but as the volume level of the Wurlitzer is what it is, we couldn’t get the organ and the band to mesh. So, Mark did a short introductory piece that he wrote that highlighted some of the sounds, bells and whistles.
The surprise ending can be seen here on someone’s YouTube posting:
[Link]
We learned this ending in two afternoons (and at sound check on Friday). There was one real Rockette in the bunch, who generously offered us tips on some of their typical moves. The additional dancers were all friends of our dancers and choreographers — and as Chris, Annie-B’s collaborator said, “It was like the cream of the downtown dance world all said YES to dancing on the Radio City stage.”
Somewhere in the Far East, I had enquired about the possibility of having the Radio City Rockettes join us at the end of our show. When we finally got their budget, it proved to be way too expensive — and we hadn’t even brought up the subject of rehearsals… so I asked the band and dancers what they thought about developing our own tribute to the institution. I did a quick budget, and figured we would have more fun, and more financial wiggle room, if we just did it all ourselves.
Annie-B Parson agreed to compose a short dance that would merge into the existing choreography at the end of “Burning Down The House,” and finish with the iconographic kick line. We bought 30 tutus, and asked the new dancers to wear white. When I saw it begin to come together in rehearsals, I was ecstatic — the “tidal wave” entrance alone was spectacular — but, like the rest of the show, it was all sort of downtown spectacular — homemade, not too slick, precise but not cold.
On my way home later, I witnessed a showdown for a parking space on my street. A woman, who was holding a space by standing in it, motioned to a slowing car to move on, but she was ignored. The car stopped, the woman shouted “no no” and “not available” and waved her hands around, but after a beat the car began to back into the space anyway. The woman held her ground. The last I saw, the passenger riding shotgun leaned out and said something like, “You can’t hold a parking space!” They were obviously prepared to use their car as a battering ram, and force the woman onto the sidewalk — and there’d be some unavoidable, nasty showdown when they exited the car. I sure wouldn’t want to leave my car on the street after making an enemy like that!
