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Go behind the scenes of the Rockettes’ Christmas Spectacular with costume designer Emilio Sosa. On their 100th anniversary, the Rockettes take us into the costume shop, showing off everything that goes into the world-famous holiday show. From original looks dating back to the 1930s, to the bold new costumes debuting this year, we get an exclusive look into how the magic is made.
Sosa explains the lightning fast costume changes that get the Rockettes from one number to the next, and how he designs the costumes around those quick changes. Plus, the Rockettes themselves take us through each iconic number, from the Rag Dolls, to the Wooden Soldiers, to New York at Christmas and More, revealing which are their favorites to perform. Whether you’ve seen them at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade or Radio City, this glimpse behind the curtain makes the dazzling holiday tradition all the more spectacular.
Sosa explains the lightning fast costume changes that get the Rockettes from one number to the next, and how he designs the costumes around those quick changes. Plus, the Rockettes themselves take us through each iconic number, from the Rag Dolls, to the Wooden Soldiers, to New York at Christmas and More, revealing which are their favorites to perform. Whether you’ve seen them at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade or Radio City, this glimpse behind the curtain makes the dazzling holiday tradition all the more spectacular.
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00:00It's one of the milestones, I think, for every designer here in New York to be able to design for the Rockettes.
00:04And not many of us have done it, so it's a fact to have dresses still there.
00:09No pressure.
00:10No pressure. Oh. Pressure.
00:15Because the timeline. Timeline. It's fast.
00:20My name is Emilio Sosa, and I am a costume designer.
00:23The Rockettes are an incredible group of women that are incredible dancers who really work at precision dance.
00:35They create such a spectacular thing with formations.
00:38No matter where you are in the line, you're always going to kick your toe to your eye.
00:42That's what gives the uniformity to our kick line.
00:44The Radio City Rockettes Christmas Spectacular is a quintessential New York holiday tradition.
00:49They've performed in every Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade since 1957.
00:53I have very fond memories of the parade and very cold memories of the parade.
00:57It was snowing one morning, so we were literally out there in halter costumes,
01:01and you could just feel the snow hitting your back, and you're like, I'm not cold at all.
01:05You just press on, you know?
01:07Being here at Radio City and across from Rockefeller Center with the Christmas tree,
01:10we are the epicenter of Christmas, so I think you can't help but feel some Christmas joy when you're in this area.
01:15This year's Spectacular features nine numbers, each with its own costume.
01:20How do you design 36 individual ladies to look unisome as one?
01:25Each dress is custom created for each dancer.
01:28One thing that I learned when you're working with the Rockettes is one phrase that I was told.
01:31It's like, you can fix one, you can't fix 80.
01:35The Rockettes may look identical, but in fact, every costume is unique.
01:39In order for the dancers to appear uniform to audience members, the costumes must be custom designed for each person.
01:46In the costume shop, the dancer's waist-to-floor ratio is used to set her skirt length.
01:50Because their proportions match, the skirts look identical on stage.
01:54It's all about math.
01:55I've learned more about the ruler working at Radio City than I did in college designing dresses,
02:01because everything is down to the millimeter.
02:04Sometimes the greatest challenge is to design for a quick change.
02:08You don't want to be that department that stops the entire production.
02:11From the moment they leave the stage to quick change and back.
02:16So things come off as they travel, and then they can just move on to the next.
02:20All of that goes into creating a magical costume that looks really simple,
02:25but it's almost like a science project to create.
02:29This is where we execute all of our quick changes in the show.
02:32So if you look down on the floor, we'll actually have everyone's last name and the costume that corresponds to that particular Rockette.
02:41So it's really helpful, not just for us, but for our dressers to know where everyone is supposed to go and to get into what costume.
02:47They start off as Santa's reindeer.
02:49It's called Sleigh Ride.
02:50Then they move into 12 Days of Christmas.
02:52It looks like ribbon candy to me.
02:54I love it.
02:54It's got a little tutu, a lot of play, really sassy.
02:57This is our 12 Days of Christmas costume.
03:00The mesh on the top is individually matched to each Rockette's skin tone.
03:04And that's one thing that I really appreciate about being a Rockette.
03:07I can truly feel like my most confident self because my costume is customized and made just for me.
03:13So these are our tap shoes that we wear in the show.
03:16And a fun fact is that all of our tap shoes have live microphones embedded in the heel of the shoe.
03:22So every tap sound that you're hearing on stage is actually us performing.
03:27From there we go into the Parade of the Wooden Soldiers.
03:32It was designed in 1933 by Vincent Minnelli, Liza Minnelli's father.
03:36The style of the costume as well as the choreography on stage has remained unchanged since the show opened in 1933.
03:43It's really what makes the number come to life because you don't see their legs, but you just see legs that look like they're wooden.
03:49For our soldier walk, we always want to keep our legs straight.
03:52So we're thinking of lifting up and landing on a flat foot.
03:55As you can see, the pants hold their shape quite well.
03:57And then the topper is their hat, a big high hat with a big large plume on top of it.
04:01So they look much taller.
04:02So this is our Parade of the Wooden Soldiers hat.
04:05It stands about two and a half feet tall with the feather included.
04:08And we actually have a feather checker backstage.
04:11Make sure that feather is perfectly straight up so we can have that visual effect on stage.
04:17We like to wear this hat with the brim down past our eyebrows.
04:21So it actually makes it so that we can really only see out of our periphery for the whole number.
04:25After Wooden Soldiers, the dancers pull off the fastest costume change in the entire show.
04:30At the end of the Parade of the Wooden Soldiers, we hit our final salute, our finishing pose.
04:35And then there's a blackout.
04:36From that moment on, we have 78 seconds to get ourselves out of this costume and onto the next.
04:41The first step would be taking off my hat.
04:44I do this as I'm exiting stage.
04:46From there, I'm removing my cheeks, taking off my gloves, unzipping my jacket and pants,
04:52taking off my socks and shoes, and then we're changing into New York at Christmas.
04:57Which starts with a coat, a little headpiece and gloves, and they take that off during the number
05:00and end up in either a red or a green costume, very sparkly and shiny.
05:04The first thing that I like to do is slip my dress on, and then I'll get my shoes on.
05:08And then sometimes I forget my muff, so I make sure that I put it on first as my dresser
05:14is also, like, zipping up my dress.
05:16I'll slip my earrings on as well, and then one of the last things I'll do is reach for
05:21my coat, and then lastly, put my gloves on.
05:23From there, we do a number that's a multiplying Santa number.
05:26There are 48 Santas on the stage.
05:28This is why they encourage us to do weight training.
05:30We actually have an amazing athletic training department here, founded by a former Rockette.
05:34She has given us a lot of exercises and built this whole routine for us to do before the
05:39season, so when we put on this kind of costume, which weighs 10 pounds, we're ready for it.
05:45We want to make sure that we're giving our best each and every time.
05:48You need to set it down.
05:50It's okay.
05:51It's okay.
05:52We got it.
05:52Okay.
05:54It's so heavy.
05:56From there, they go into the ragdoll number, where they play ragdolls.
05:59This is a number when the Rockettes are all in Santa's workshop, features this beautiful red bow.
06:05The idea is that we're going to be given as a gift to a little girl named Ellie in the show.
06:10It's definitely one of my favorites to have fun with.
06:13We actually wear the same red cloth cheeks for this number that we do for Parade of the Wooden Soldiers.
06:18And in one season, we can go through over 30,000 of those cheeks.
06:22These are one of our red cheeks that we'll wear for both ragdolls and Parade of the Wooden Soldiers.
06:28And we'll just have a piece of double stick tape on the back of it, and then we'll just place it just like that.
06:36In addition to the cheeks, we'll have a pair of glasses, and we'll also wear this really fun red wig that features a bow on top.
06:44The glasses and the wig definitely help us get into character.
06:47Ragdolls is a little bit different from our other numbers, so we get to have more fun on stage, have a little bit more of a personality, and bring some joy.
06:54And then Dance of the Frost Fairies.
06:56Something really special about this costume is that every Rockette is individual and unique, just like Snowflakes.
07:02There are six different colors and six different styles with different straps and necklines, so we each get to have a bit of individuality in this number.
07:10We wear these custom Leduca heels that are bedazzled with Swarovski crystals.
07:15It is one of my favorite shoes to wear.
07:17When I put these on, I truly felt like a Rockette for the first time.
07:20Then they go into the Living Nativity, which is more of a pageant-style piece, and then we end with our finale called Christmas Lights.
07:27Which debuted in the show a couple of years ago, and we've just reimagined this costume this year to celebrate the 100th.
07:33Since this is our finale number, it is at the very end of the show, and it really just shows off the athleticism and the beauty of the Rockettes.
07:40The finale costume that's on stage now for me is a yellow-gold sequin, like a flirty skirt.
07:47But what I love about that is it was inspired by the old Christmas lights.
07:52You remember the ones with the bulbs, the red, green, and blue?
07:55So the first iteration I did was like all these strings and lights, but as it evolved, we turned it upside down.
08:02So instead of all the energy going down, now all of the energy of the color goes up towards their faces, which is another amazing part of the dance.
08:11It's not just their legs, it's the expression, so they're always smiling.
08:15They'll look happy.
08:16The beginning of this number is one of my favorite parts of the whole show.
08:19We use our elevator system on the Radio City stage, and the Rockettes are lifted 10 feet up in the air.
08:24There's a red kabuki curtain that does a big reveal, and these costumes sparkle so beautifully on stage.
08:30It's one of the best moments.
08:31We went through like five different shades of yellow, gold.
08:36Also, we did mock-up dresses.
08:39Whenever I see my dresses come up that elevator, when the first thing you see is like the top of the heads, and then you see the headdress, and then you see their lovely faces smiling, and then you start seeing the dress.
08:51For me, it's like a kid in a candy store.
08:52But if I allow myself to be in the moment with the audience, it's one of the best feelings in the world.
08:58Because it is just about goodwill for all, and happiness, and euphoria for the last 10 minutes.
09:05And then when they do the iconic leg kicks at the end, the whole crowd goes crazy.
09:11And, you know, a little bit of my ego can say I had a small part of that.
09:14My dresses are up there helping them achieve this amazing experience for the audiences.
09:19The Rockettes mark their 100th year this season with a legacy of legendary designers and productions that go well beyond Christmas.
09:26I was able to look at, like, Greg Barnes is one of the top designers here who designed some of the iconic other dresses.
09:33I went through all of the things he did, how he used color, beads, and his artistry.
09:39Then I was able to look at Bob Mackey, who's like the god of costume designers and beading.
09:44And I looked at how he used different stones, how the light captures each bead differently.
09:50Over the years, costume designers for the Rockettes have developed a light mixing technique.
09:55They layer glitter, luster, shine, and opalescence to create a dazzling visual effect for the audience.
10:01So we use, like, luster for the base of the dress.
10:04And what luster does, it just gives you, like, an aura.
10:07Like, you get, like, a glow.
10:09Then I went into shine.
10:11Like, glitter, stone.
10:13There's smaller beads, and it's just, like, dapples of light.
10:17And then we have opalescence.
10:19It's something that captures the light, but it just kind of bends it.
10:23It's almost like a rainbow effect.
10:25And then I think what makes one of my favorite dresses, I think, of all my gold glitter dresses,
10:30is that we use an actual chain, which is a metal.
10:34No one has ever used a metal chain to create a costume.
10:37Why am I the first designed to use metal?
10:39Because I'm crazy.
10:41I don't know.
10:42Because I wanted my dresses to be different.
10:45Because if I only had one shot, if you only had one shot to design here at Radio City,
10:51I wanted it to be an iconic dress that made it different.
10:55Here we are with two examples of my beautiful gold French dresses on these lovely ladies.
11:00And I think one of the things that we wanted to do is we wanted to look like the shine was just, like, dripping from you.
11:06That's why we have the nude mesh on top.
11:09But also the mesh, since it has shoulders, it helps with the weight of the dress.
11:13So the weight of the dress is not on your body so much.
11:16So when it moves, it also captures the light.
11:20So it's not just all frontal.
11:21It also has, like, that element in the back of each ribbon.
11:25There is an additional stone.
11:27But my favorite are these, like, these little wiggly chain ones here that just add weight to the dress.
11:33Makes it so super, super unique and iconic to this design.
11:37And if they can move a little, you'll see how it just, it just gives you that.
11:41It just, and if you can hear that, that's like magic.
11:46I'll join in.
11:46They have a quick hook and eye at the back here.
11:51And then there is a hidden zipper that has a little toggle, the color of the dress.
11:57So whoever's doing the quick change can easily find the zipper.
12:01And it's that little pull that helps them just pull it down.
12:04Surrounded by dozens of dazzling Rockette dresses, Julie shares a few of the ones she wore when she was a Rockette.
12:10Dancing in Diamonds I Wore.
12:11This was designed by Bob Mackie.
12:13This was part of a number, I think it was called Sleigh Ride.
12:15It was in the first couple years of the show that I did it.
12:18The stage was a giant carousel.
12:20We had big swan carts and because of our 43-foot turntable, it looked like a big merry-go-round.
12:25Pizazz I did wear and it was on the road and we had candy canes that we carried around too.
12:30I did wear this.
12:31This was designed by Erte.
12:32This is from an Easter show.
12:34An eggstravaganza, I think it was called back then.
12:36Yeah, so I wore a lot of those actually.
12:39I grew up watching the Rockettes in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and it was always a dream of mine.
12:43What I love about Rockettes is that it's truly a team effort, counting the music together, breathing together, to achieve the level of precision that we have on stage.
12:52I also grew up watching the Rockettes on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, but I think when I saw them on tour for the first time in middle school, I think that was the first time I said to myself that I wanted to be on that stage.
13:02So now in my fifth season and we're celebrating 100 years of the Radio City Rockettes, it truly is a dream come true.
13:09When you come into this building, you just feel the history of all the costume designers that came before me.
13:14So to have my work in that group means the world to me and it's something that I never, ever dreamed.
13:19But now that I'm here, it never fails to amaze me.
13:22But now I'm here.
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