Radio City Rockettes find ways to stay in top form during pandemic

Theaters and rehearsal spaces are closed during the coronavirus pandemic, but groups like the famed Radio City Rockettes are finding ways to stay in top form, while also helping others do the same.

News 12 Staff

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Apr 9, 2020, 1:12 AM

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Updated 1,742 days ago

Theaters and rehearsal spaces are closed during the coronavirus pandemic, but groups like the famed Radio City Rockettes are finding ways to stay in top form, while also helping others do the same.

The dance troupe is now doing online classes for the public to learn how to kick and dance just like them.

Katelyn Gaffney is among the members of the organization. She is leading fitness and choreography classes from her home live on Instagram. Gaffney has been a Rockette for 10 years.

“It’s really like we’re in a classroom. Because it is Instagram Live, people can ask questions, they can say, ‘Hey, can you go back and do that one more time,” she says.

Every Tuesday and Thursday at 12 p.m. EST, a Rockette guides participants through the lesson.

Gaffney says that social distancing during this time has become the utmost importance because her father is ill and vulnerable to the virus.

“My dad does have ALS. It’s almost two years,” she says.

But Gaffney’s friends and community were able to wish her father, a Vietnam veteran, a happy birthday earlier with a parade past the family’s home in Clark.

Hundreds of people have viewed the online classes on the Rockette Instagram account.