Dancer kick-starts 2000

Terry Webster

Monday, Jan. 3, 2000 | 10:05 a.m.

Behind the curtain, the stage is black and silent on the eve of the new century.

On a rack inside the dressing room, a bright fuchsia costume with sequins and fringe is inanimate now, waiting to come to life like the dream that began 20 years ago while a little girl was flipping through a glossy magazine with her mother.

"I remember being in a beauty salon with my mother when she opened a magazine and showed me a picture of the Rockettes," Las Vegas resident Debbie Freeman said. "I was very small. But I was in awe of how beautiful they were and how beautiful their costumes were."

Freeman, now 29, no longer dreams about the picture.

She is the picture.

A Rockette since 1993, Freeman started her career in New York City. But the past five years have found her high-kicking her way across the stage at the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes' Las Vegas-based show at the Flamingo Hilton on the Strip.

"We just got back from dinner," she said prior to the New Year's Eve show. "Everyone was there, the magicians, the jugglers and the dancers."

For her, it was the perfect party.

"They're like my family," Freeman said. "I'm with the people I love and the people I want to be with. It's so exciting. I'm happy to be here performing tonight."

Germaine Thompson, the Rockettes' press representative, pointed out that the dancers hail from the same tradition as the New York City-based Radio City Music Hall spectacular. The production premiered in 1932 and has since been seen by more than 255 million people.

"There are so many imitations in Las Vegas," Thompson said. "People have asked whether these are the 'real' Rockettes. They are."

Before the show, the audience formed a line of black -- sequins, velvet and suits -- outside the theater entrance, their elegance sharply contrasting the smell of stale smoke and sounds of clanging slot machines in the casino.

A middle-aged woman was overdone, wearing a white chiffon dress resembling a ballerina's tutu. A couple in line lamented not being able to get into another show.

Backstage, the Rockettes began filing into the dressing room. There were no pre-show jitters for Freeman -- who says she knows the routines "inside and out."

Take that 18 times over, the number of dancers on stage.

As the Rockettes' dance captain, Freeman trains the new dancers and also has to know every part, in case anyone is out sick or on vacation.

A formula helps her remember it all.

"If you enter the stage on your left, you start on the inside foot, then dat, dat," she said. "The downstage line goes to the right and the upstage always goes to the left. If you start in the front, you end in the back line."

Those are the basics. The specifics call for precise movements and singing, as well.

"Every night, the girls get notes," Freeman said. "Everything we do has to be so precise. Your hand can't almost go to your shoulder. It has to be in the exact spot."

From the audience, it is difficult to discern the identities of the dancers.

"It takes a certain, talented person to be able to move exactly like everyone else," Freeman said.

Her wish before the show was the same as it is every other night before the curtain opens. Go out there and give a killer performance and smile, smile, smile.

The best nights are when the audience smiles back.

"It's exciting to see people's expressions in the audience like they are really enjoying the show, or to see a little girl smiling up at me," Freeman said. "When I'm performing, I'm giving the audience a part of myself. When they applaud, they are giving me a part of themselves. If I've had a bad day, I can forget about it. When I'm out there, I'm not thinking about anything but dancing."

A dancer since age 3, Freeman has taught dance since she was 16, something she still continues to do.

"I tell my students not to get disappointed if they don't make an audition," she said. "It just might mean that someone worked a little harder than they did."

Becoming a professional dancer -- especially with a group as revered as the Rockettes -- means surviving a fiercely competitive audition and often the disappointment that comes from being cut. Auditions are held in ballet, tap and jazz dance, along with singing and an interview. Cuts are made after each segment.

Even getting the job doesn't mean the bumps and bruises end.

"I've fallen down flat on stage," Freeman said. "One night, I slipped on a bead. You just get right back up and go."

On stage the dancers easily transform from numbers requiring a ballerina's grace, the rigidness of a toy soldier, or the cuteness of Betty Boop.

When the cast members take their final bows, Freeman extends her arm out to the audience like an offering, beaming a million-dollar smile.

Lavish with applause, the audience is smiling, too.