SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) – The Radio City Rockettes got their start in Missouri, and now in the 100th year of the dance line a young woman from Springfield is representing the Show-Me State.
Samantha Noto is in her first season as a Rockette. She had dreams of dancing from a young age.
“I actually started dancing when I was two years old,” said Noto. “I first saw the Rockettes when I was eight years old in the touring company,” she added.
Noto moved to Missouri when she was young and spent years perfecting her craft at Ann’s Performing Arts Centre in Springfield. In high school she spent four years on the Kickapoo Dance Team.
Noto moved to New York to study dance and business at Marymount Manhattan College. She received her BFA in dance and a minor in business.
After auditioning three different times for the Rockettes, Noto was invited to their invite only, summer dance program and then got the job offer of a lifetime.
“It is incredible,” said Noto. “It’s been such an amazing year so far with it being the 100th year anniversary of the Rockettes,” she added.
The Radio City Rockettes also got their start in Missouri.
“They started in St. Louis as the sixteen Missouri Rockets,” said Public Historian Amanda Clark.
Their founder and choreographer Russell Markert came to St. Louis after World War I.
“He was in a dance school for therapy for a foot injury that he received while he was doing military service so that’s how he got into dancing, as therapy, and that’s how he got started doing their choreography,” said Clark.
Clark shares the Missouri Rockets first took the stage at Grand Central Theater on Grand Avenue in St. Louis. Weeks later, just down the street, the Missouri Theater became their homebase which is now the Angad Arts Hotel. The Missouri Rockets became the opening act for what was headlining inside.
“The reason they had these shows before movies was to compete with each other, each movie house out doing the other,” shared Clark.
The Missouri Rockets were so good they went on tour and Markert took them to New York City. There, Clark said they meet the man who later opened Radio City Musical Hall, Samuel “Roxy” Rothafel.
“He (Rothafel) is the guy that sees the act and wants to move it to New York City,” said Clark. “They originally bring the line from St. Louis, they call them the Roxyettes,” added Clark.
In New York the group expands to 32 dancers and later becomes known as the iconic, Rockettes.
In 1933, the Christmas Spectacular debuts including a performance they still do today which is the Parade of the Wooden Soldiers.
The Rockette’s Christmas Spectacular even spent nearly a decade dazzling crowds in Branson, Missouri, at the Grand Palace.
Their director and choreographer today Julie Branam performed with the Rockettes in Branson.
“I’m loving living out this dream,” shared Noto. She shared she has dreams on someday being on Broadway or T.V.
A little girl who was once in the Rockettes’ audience is now one of the biggest smiles on the stage.
She shares advice for others with big dreams. “Believe in yourself, your journey is your own, and don’t waste any time, just go for your dreams,” said Noto.
The Rockettes are performing their Christmas Spectacular in at Radio City Music Hall in NYC through January 5, 2026. You can find tickets here.
You can learn more about the Rockette’s St. Louis history by watching KY3’s We the People streaming show Thursday at 6:30 p.m. You can stream it here, or watch on Roku, Fire or Apple T.V.
Stream ‘We the People’ Thursday at 6:30 p.m. and Tuesday at 10:30 a.m.(KYTV)
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