A Quarter of a Century, and Still Kicking

The Fabulous Decobelles

Like Val in "A Chorus Line," when I grew up, I wanted to be a Rockette.

There was a slight problem, the Rockettes have this annoying thing called a "height requirement," and height is one thing in which I am sorely lacking. I'm one of those people who knows her height to within an eighth of an inch, and that's never a good sign.  I've never been smacked on the head by a low hanging tree limb, risked decapitation by a crop dusting plane, had to dodge a chandelier, or hit my head on a doorway. Tall people are asked if they play basketball, people look down at me with a mixture of sympathy and pity, and ask if I've ever tried miniature golf.  Sure, when I was 20 years old, I could kick a 180 split up over my head.  That would put my foot about shoulder level on a normal-sized person.

I am not the only person to be disappointed by this requirement for America's most famous ladies' dance chorus, there is a Facebook page dedicated to lowering the height requirement for this prestigious institution of high kickers, indeed, self-explanatorily (if that wasn't a word before, it is now) entitled "Lower the Height Requirement for the Radio City Rockettes."

But I was lucky to find a better option, and I didn't have to engage in any fiendish elongating operation combining medieval torture with orthopedic surgery to add three - and 7/8ths - inches to my height. Nor did I have to move to New York and give up the California climate.  With an artistic vision and motivation from event coordinator and photographer Laurie Gordon, and combining the large dance numbers from the great musicals of the 20s, 30s and 40s, some choreographic inspiration from Busby Berkeley, and the talents of numerous Bay Area high kickers and tappers, the Decobelles came into being about a quarter of a century ago.  I was lucky enough to be there at the beginning, and 25 years later, after two children, a few pulled muscles and strained ligaments, a subluxation here, a dislocation there, I am lucky to still be kicking up my heels with a new generation of dancers.

And the lineup includes dancers between five foot nothing and six feet tall!

https://www.facebook.com/DecoBelles