Uniontown grad performing with Rockettes
A Fayette County native is performing for the Radio City Rockettes in New York City and will be part of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday. “It’s great. I’m very happy to be here,” Ami Price-Coyle, of Brooklyn, N.Y., said about working at Radio City Music Hall in New York. “I got married in August and it’s nice to spend the holidays with my husband.”
Price-Coyle, who is a 1994 graduate of Uniontown Area Senior High School, married Kevin Coyle on Aug. 2 in Long Island, N.Y. She is a daughter of Jim Price of Uniontown and Paulette Price of Hopwood.
Price-Coyle studied dancing at the Uniontown studios of Larraine Susa and Ginny Tanner for 14 years, and then went straight to work, soon landing a job as a dancer with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1995 where she spent four years touring the country. She also worked as a dancer at a resort in Japan.
Price-Coyle first began performing as a Rockette 11 years ago, taking a break over a few years. She has worked as a Rockette for seven seasons in cities such as Detroit, Mich., and Mexico City, Mexico, before coming to Radio City for the first time this year.
Because the Rockettes have a show in Pittsburgh, Price-Coyle considered that venue but wanted to make sure she had a chance to work at Radio City where the Rockettes have been a fixture since 1932.
Price-Coyle started work for the Rockettes on Oct. 1, rehearsing six hours a day, six days a week.
“You learn the show in two weeks and then you clean and clean and clean,” she said.
That practice creates the precision dancing for which the Rockettes are famous – that and their legendary kick line.
The New York show began Nov. 13 and continues through Dec. 30 with six performances a day, seven days a week.
“There are 6,000 seats in the theater and it sells out. It’s amazing,” said Price-Coyle.
To meet these demands, there are two casts with 80 women. Price-Coyle can perform up to four shows a day and works six days a week. In addition, the Rockettes do work for charity, such as Garden of Dream, which helps youths in crisis.
Price-Coyle loves the job.
“It’s a very close family. We spend so much time together that we’re really close,” she said. “And it’s a tradition – the show in New York. It’s a celebration of the Rockettes. Once in a while, we have a luncheon for alumni and you have 90-year-old women come. It’s amazing. They’re so excited.”
The Radio City show, which boasts a huge stage, includes a number with a double-decker bus and a television screen that recreates a tour of New York City with Rockettes dancing on top of the bus. There also is the toy soldier number, which is a crowd favorite and performed in all venues.
The Rockettes are also renowned for being featured in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and will perform a number from this year’s show called “New York at Christmas,” which is being modified for the parade that traditionally includes overhead camera shots.
The parade will be televised nationally on NBC.
“We all want to do it because people who can’t get to New York can see us on TV,” said Price-Coyle. “And it’s a tradition that the Radio City Rockettes do the Thanksgiving Parade so I’m excited to do it.”
Price-Coyle is not the only member of her family to be a Rockette. Her sister Mia also was a member of the Radio City Rockettes for six seasons although the two women never were in a show at the same time. Their family has traveled all over the United States watching the sisters in their shows. Mia Price lives in Long Island and is a personal trainer in New York. She is engaged to be married in 2010 to Al Notarnicola of Long Island. Price-Coyle also is a certified personal trainer.
Their other sisters include Kimberly, who is living at Fort Walton Beach, Fla., and is in the Air Force and scheduled to be deployed to Afghanistan in January, and Brooke Price, who lives in Fairchance and is employed at the Stone House restaurant and is the mother of Jeremy and Lizzie Campbell. The sisters have a brother James William (J.W.), who is a second-grade student at Hatfield School.
Asked how she enjoys working as a dancer, Price-Coyle said, “I love it. I’m working towards getting in a Broadway show.”
Meanwhile, she’s keeping busy with the Rockettes, including a holiday to remember as part of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.