SAINT CLAIR — After a more than three-hour dance workout Saturday, Mykaihla Sternick, 16, of Pottsville, was exhausted. But she noticed the guest instructor, Jeanne Cargill, Bradenton, Florida, who’s been one of the 80 Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall in New York City since 2009, showed no signs of slowing down.
“I think she’s amazing and just being able to have a class with a Radio City Rockette is a great opportunity,” Sternick said.
Meanwhile, Sternick’s mother, Melissa, was snapping picture after picture with her camera as the celebrity guest put the students through a series of dancing exercises.
Cargill returned to the L.A. Dance Theatre Inc. on Saturday to give 18 dance students, all young women between the ages of 10 and 20, pointers during a master-level dance class on the top level of the theatre’s studio at 41 N. Second St. She was part of a similar workshop held at the studio two years ago.
The connection between the Rockette and the studio is Leandra Maley, Pottsville, an instructor at the studio. She danced with Cargill at Dorney Park in 2001.
Cargill said she teaches Pilates and fitness classes in the Jersey City area during the offseason, and she’s gearing up to start practice for shows with the Radio City Rockettes in November and December. Each show is a workout, since she’s required to do an average of 300 kicks in each.
“When she comes to a workshop, she brings a different style to the studio. We do jazz, but she brings that Rockette flair. We don’t have that experience,” Tara Schane, Pottsville, an instructor at the studio, said.
But Maley hopes the workshop gave the students the impression that discipline and practice lead to excellence.
“I hope they take away a little more of an understanding of what it’s like to be a dancer outside of the studio and what it takes to become a dancer in the professional world. It takes a lot of dedication and I think they can see some of that in a master class,” Maley said.
“Not everyone is in dance for a career, so I think my first hope is that the students who come out just enjoy themselves and have fun. For those that are planning to make a living out of it, I hope to give them just a taste of what to expect when they walk into the next level. You want them to feel prepared and represent themselves well,” Cargill said.
“For example, in Rockettes rehearsals, you would never chatter. You would be cautious before asking a question. If the same question is ever asked twice, it is absolutely unacceptable. You have to listen. And it is a job,” Cargill said.
When the students left the studio after the master class Saturday, Cargill did a series of stretching exercises as she talked about the kind of physical skills dancers need to be a Radio City Rockette.
“In the offseason, everyone has their own regimen so everyone will do different things. I do a lot of Pilates, a lot of core strengthening. A lot of our girls run the New York City Marathon. It depends on your body and what you should and should not do to train. Like a baseball player, you have to train in the offseason and if there are any issues you need to address from the previous season, you’ll do that, whether it’s physical therapy or just focusing on a specific body part,” Cargill said.
In September, Cargill will begin training for the performances slated for the fall. For the list of performances, visit www.rockettes.com.
“In-season, we train six days a week, six hours a day. In New York, we’ll start rehearsals towards the end of September,” Cargill said.
In November and December, Cargill said she will be slated to perform in numerous shows a day.
“The most I ever do is four shows a day. It’s a 90-minute show and we’re in 89.9 percent of it,” Cargill said.
She talked about some of the Rockettes signature moves, including the eye-high kick.
“That’s when you kick from your toe up to your eye line. It’s a jump kick,” she said.
To be a Rockette, a dancer must stand between 5 feet, 6 inches tall and 5 feet, 10 inches tall.
“I stand 5 feet, 6 1/2 inches tall, and I always emphasize the half. But in a dance line, we do all appear to be the same height. We put the less tall girls on the end and the taller girls in the middle. And we kick to our eye and you have this illusion we’re all the same height and kicking to the same level,” she said.
She didn’t show the students the eye-high kick Saturday.
“The choreography we were concentrating on didn’t really call for it. Plus, jump kicks are aggressive and sometimes in workshops there are very different age ranges and I do worry about young ladies hurting themselves. You want to dance smartly for your body,” Cargill said.
But she demonstrated another type of kick used by the Rockettes.
“I showed them a strut kick, which is a little more sassy,” Cargill said.
“It’s like a stylized jazz kick,” Maley said.