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Contest Is A Kick

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By STEPHEN HAMMILL, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 19, 2007

Updated: 12/17/2007 07:46 pm

KEYSTONE - An hour into a comprehensive dance number, 11-year-old Haley Vaughan looked over at her friend Kelsey Ristad and hugged her, unable to contain the excitement any longer.

They were dancing with a Rockette after all.
Local radio station WQYK sponsored the contest in which two aspiring dancers and their friends received a private lesson from one of the Rockettes, who are in town this month performing at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center.

Haley brought friends and fellow dancers Sara Sturges, Kelsey Ristad, Karina Bowers and Chelsea Caso. The girls train together at the Karl & Demarco School of Theatre Dance in Lutz.

Toni Rhodus, an 11-year veteran of the Rockettes and the touring troupe's dance captain, taught the nearly two-hour session.

"We learn our numbers in one day," Rhodus said to the girls, "so that's why we'll try and throw as much in as we can here."

She began a count-in to the opening movement, called "cold shoulders."

"Five, six, seven, eight and heel, toe, shoulders, toe!" she said.

Haley dances 12 to 15 hours a week. For the past three years, she has visited the Broadway Dance Center in New York City.

"Haley saved her own money for those trips," said her mother. "She lives for dancing."

The winners were asked to send letters to the radio station explaining why they should get to dance with the Rockettes.

Haley's mother told her the good news.

"I said 'You won' and she started crying; and I said, 'Oh, by the way, you get to bring four friends,' and she just lost it."

"I was just crying and screaming and running around the house," said Haley, who has been dancing since she was a toddler. "I'm just really excited. I never thought I'd get a chance to do this."

Rhodus said she enjoys taking time out of her schedule to show the girls what goes into being a dancer.

"It's really nice to see them start, and they don't know anything about it, and by the end of it they get it," she said. "It's very specific, and it's very precise, and when they come to that realization it's really nice to see."

As part of her prize, Haley and her friends attended that night's performance of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.

Since 1925, the Rockettes have performed seven days a week in New York and throughout the country. Rhodus said the dancers train six days a week, six hours a day.

The Radio City Christmas Spectacular runs through Dec. 30 at the 2,600-seat Carol Morsani Hall. The 54-performance-run marks the Rockettes' second trip to Tampa - the first was in 2003.

Reporter Stephen Hammill can be reached at (813) 865-1523 or at shammill@tampatrib.com.

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