‘Becoming Spectacular: The Rhythm of Resilience From the First African American Rockette’
—Cathy Ritchie
Becoming Spectacular: The Rhythm of Resilience From the First African American Rockette by Jennifer Jones (Amistad Publishing, 2025)
On January 31, 1988, dancer Jennifer Jones—performing in that year’s Super Bowl halftime show— became the first Radio City Rockette of color.
That’s right----the year was 1988.
The Rockettes had been an American institution since the 1920s, but it took over 60 years before the “line”—which previously had to include women of similar height and light-hued skin only—changed with the rapidly morphing times. The troupe’s directors and producers over the years steadfastly believed that even a flash of darker skin spotted amidst the nearly cookie-cutter dancers would disrupt the pleasure that the mandated visual “uniformity’ created.
Fortunately, progress would appear, albeit only after continual criticism of the Rockette organization for its lack of dancer diversity. Jennifer Jones finally became the first biracial dancer in the troupe’s history. In this brief but intriguing memoir, Becoming Spectacular, she shares her professional and personal lives in detail.
Jones was born in New Jersey in 1967 to a Black father and Caucasian mother, and dancing immediately became her overriding passion in life. After years of lessons, and with ongoing family support, Jones auditioned for the Rockettes in 1987, winning a spot among 220 women auditioning for 26 vacancies. As Jones would soon learn: “The Rockettes are a precision dance troupe with a deeply rooted reputation, so we had to be perfect. A not-so-unofficial motto we had is that you’re only doing your job if you’re attracting no attention.”
Jones did blend in enough to “do the job” though she was unavoidably noticed due to her unique circumstances. She successfully contributed to the troupe for the next 15 years, appearing not just at Radio City, but at other heralded live events and on television. Her descriptions of the high Rockette standards to be met at all times are enlightening. I once heard the Rockettes described as “the best dancers in the world.” Jennifer Jones was one of them, living her dream.
But she also longed to dance on Broadway. When she was offered a spot in the ensemble for the 2001 revival of 42nd Street, she left the Rockettes to forge new paths. Her professional life after that included outreach to children of color and work with young aspiring dancers, all the while juggling numerous challenges in her personal life, which Jones describes throughout a large portion of the memoir.
While she danced, Jones was also forced to deal with marital and child-custody-related struggles, which she shares in extensive detail. She was also faced with colon cancer at one point. Fortunately, she was eventually cured of the disease, and she describes her experiences thoroughly.
In fact, my only mild criticism of this book is that so much of it is actually devoted to her life apart from dance, the Rockettes, and her career. Jones’ personal issues presumably weren’t directly affected by her being biracial, so the memoir seems at times to be two books in one. I assume she intended the two sections of content to be interlocked and flowing, but I don’t sense she quite delivered.
All that said, however, the story makes for an interesting and well-written book—and comes from a trailblazing artist who clearly deserves to be remembered, as she brought a new face to a legendary institution. As Jones says in her final pages: “The profound awareness that my experience as a Rockette has paved the way for more women of color to pursue their dreams brings me great joy…It marks a significant shift in our collective consciousness and history. While there is still room for improvement, I take immense pride in the distance we have traveled.” [Editor’s note: For younger readers, Jones’ picture book On the Line, co-written with Lisette Norman, makes another interesting read.']
