The front of the New York Times Arts section featured an exhaustive report by Katie Rogers and Gia Kourlas on the controversy over the world-famous Rockettes performing at Donald Trump’s inauguration: “Still Kicking, but No Longer Silent.” The text box was harsh to Trump for ruining an American tradition: “A Trump Inauguration Casualty: The Silent, Smiling Rockettes.”
Like hundreds of young dancers before her, Phoebe Pearl dropped everything to become a Rockette.
Ms. Pearl was 19 when she quit the Boston Conservatory in 2009 to join the elite group of dancers -- strong, athletic and poised -- who are as emblematic of New York City as the Empire State Building and the yellow taxi cab.
For eight years, she was proud to be a Rockette, and the company treated her well, with generous pay and health insurance. But in mid-December, when management announced that the dancers would perform at the inauguration of Donald J. Trump, Ms. Pearl did something that a Rockette is never supposed to do. She stepped out of line, breaking with the silent, smiling solidarity that defines the 92-year-old institution, to denounce the idea of celebrating a man with a well-established history of objectifying women.
Pearl's Instragram post went viral, spiraling into the current controversy over the dancers’ performing – or not – at Trump’s Inaugural.
<<< Please support MRC's NewsBusters team with a tax-deductible contribution today. >>>
In a rare collision of presidential politics and a venerable arts organization, current and former Rockettes find themselves in a new kind of spotlight -- a position both painful and empowering -- as they take sides over the inauguration, a split illustrating the cultural divide that President-elect Trump has cleaved through the country.
Note the double standard. While the Times applauds the idea of a liberal artistic group refusing its services to a political figure it doesn’t approve of, it sees no right for Christian conservative bakers, florists, or singers to refuse to service gay weddings.
But Patty DeCarlo Grantham, the president of the Rockette Alumnae Association, which has about 550 members, said that many of them are upset about the furor and support the Rockettes performing at the inauguration, as they did in 2001 and 2005.
Would the Manhattan-based dancing Rockettes have refused to perform for that well known objectifier of women (and worse) Bill Clinton?
The individual Rockettes had no say in the inauguration booking: It was ultimately the decision of James L. Dolan, the executive chairman of the Madison Square Garden Company, which manages the Rockettes. Mr. Dolan is a longtime friend of Mr. Trump and donated to his campaign; he has supported both Democrats and Republicans in the past. A company spokesman, Barry Watkins, declined requests for interviews with Mr. Dolan and current leaders and members of the Rockettes.
Mr. Watkins, in response to written questions about the Rockettes as well as the inauguration performance, wrote by email, “The New York Times has had an anti-Donald Trump agenda for quite some time and now the Rockettes are on the receiving end of their bias.”
The Times went full Woodward and Bernstein on Rockette-gate:
This article is based on interviews over the last three weeks with Ms. Pearl, who was a Rockette until this month, and nine former Rockettes, as well as others in the extended Rockette organization. Several people spoke anonymously for fear that if they were to speak publicly, the Madison Square Garden Company would take legal action against them.
....
She and her fellow performers would later learn that their performance at the inauguration would not be mandatory, as some feared, but it was too late to stop criticism from strangers who took to social media to tell her to shut up and dance. Supporters wondered whether she and her fellow dancers were under a gag order. A news crew, Ms. Pearl said, showed up at her Harlem apartment.
George W. Bush, whom the Rockettes performed for in 2001 and 2005, was apparently a “controversial president” according to the NYT.
This wouldn’t be the first time the Rockettes performed for a controversial president, but the volatile media climate surrounding Mr. Trump’s inauguration is unusual. Rhonda Malkin, a former Rockette who worked as a personal trainer to Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner for two years, said that the Trump and Kushner families were supportive of her career as a Rockette. Once, they attended a performance to see her dance.
....
“I would honestly say that the majority of our audience members are white Christian conservative people,” Ms. Malkin said. “And those folks probably supported Trump.”
Of Mr. Dolan, the Madison Square Garden chairman, she added, “He knows those are the people who buy tickets to those shows.”
