Rockettes Kick Off The Holiday Season in Huntington

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Two of the famous Rockettes from the “Radio City Christmas Spectacular” spent part of their day in Huntington meeting their biggest fans, including the Huntington Highsteppers.

The eyes of many young dancers lit up when when they met the Rockettes and posed with them in pictures at Variations, a dancer’s studio.

The two Rockettes, Eleni Gavalos, a Manhasset native, and Jennifer Clavin, a Holtsville native, offered advice and gave the dancers some insight on what it’s like to be a Rockette.

“It was nice second stop,” said Gavalos, who visited Northport earlier in the day. “There was a bunch of young dancers and a high school team was here. It was great.”

Like the Rockettes, the Huntington Highsteppers do a kickline routine in their performances.

Team captain Holly LoTurco said her team usually has practice on Wednesdays, but they decided to visit the Rockettes in their uniforms for a special photo opportunity. “A couple of the girls were saying if they were tall enough, they would audition,” LoTurco told Patch.

With a 5-foot-6 inch height requirement to become a Rockette, some girls just miss the cut.

A few of the tiniest girls at Variations are the Rockettes’ biggest fans, said Erin Lopez, co-owner of Variations.

Six-year-old Bryce Gilroy has already seen the “Radio City Christmas Spectacular” twice. She’s such a huge Rockette fan that she wouldn’t let her mother leave before she got an autograph. Bryce even has her own Rockette costume that she got for Christmas last year.

For one woman, meeting the Rockettes, brought back emotional memories. Margarita Arnold would go to see the “Radio City Christmas Spectacular” with her grandparents every year since she was three years old. Now that she has her own kids, Steven and Cali, she is restarting the tradition. “When she walked in, she had tears in her eyes because she was so emotional,” Lopez said.

Gavalos and Clavin have been Rockettes for four and eight seasons, respectively. When they aren’t in rehearsal for six hours a day, six days a week, the women both work as fitness instructors and teach dance classes. “Dance, eat and sleep,” Clavin said with a laugh.

The two women made a trip to Huntington to meet members of the community before beginning rehearsals Friday in preparation for the “Radio City Christmas Spectacular.”

This isn’t the first time Clavin has been to Variations. She made a visit to the dance studio about two years ago to teach a Rockettes master class. “It was cool to come back,” she said. A photo of her last visit can be seen on the wall of the studio.

Gavalos and Clavin spent the day touring Long Island towns promoting the “Radio City Christmas Spectacular” in partnership with Patch.

Performances of the 2015 Radio City Christmas Spectacular begin Nov. 13, and run through Jan. 3, at Radio City Music Hall.

To purchase tickets, visit radiocitychristmas.com or the “Radio City Christmas Spectacular’s” Facebook page for more information and to see pictures from other meet and greets.