Learn English with the News: “Rockette!”

Good day to you all,

We hope you are having a fantastic Tuesday, wherever you are in the world!

Right now, it’s time to practice some English, and this lesson has a lot of rythm.

1. Read the text
2. Understand the vocabulary
3. Watch the video

Text

Hundreds of dancers flexed their muscles.. and put their best foot forward, for a chance to dance with the famed Rockettes of the Radio City Music Hall in New York. For most of them, the open audition is a step closer to a life-long dream. Danni Hevern traveled all the way from Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

– It would mean that everything I’ve worked for since I was a little girl would be worth it, you know to happen.

Hevern is among 500 dancers vying for the few coveted spots to perform in this year’s Radio City Christmas Spectacular – one of New York’s most beloved holiday attractions since 1935. Linda Haberman, the Director and Choreographer of the show explained what she was looking for in a prospective Rockette.

– It’s an extremely demanding job. They have to be proficient in tap, jazz, ballet. There is a height requirement. But what I’m looking for right now basic technique. If you can’t get through the combination I just did, there’s no way you are going to be able to do the show. So that was sort of a very preliminary combination.

Just a few of these dancers will be invited back to kick their dance routines into a higher gear as the audition process will continue through the rest of the week.

Vocabulary

Flexed – to bend (a body part).

Audition – a short performance to show the talents of someone (such as an actor or a musician) who is being considered for a role in a play, a position in an orchestra, etc.

Vying – to compete with others in an attempt to get or win something.

Coveted – to want (something that you do not have) very much.

Prospective – likely to be or become something specified in the future.

Tap – a kind of dance in which you wear special shoes with metal plates on the heels and toes and make tapping sounds with your feet.

Preliminary – coming before the main part of something.

Video