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December 10, 2021
Since she was a child, Athena Petrizzo of Toms River knew she wanted to be a Rockette.
It was probably then that others around her realized she had the perseverance and devotion to realize her childhood dream of performing in the "Christmas Spectacular" on the stage of Radio City Music Hall.
"I used to watch the show every year with my family as a Christmas tradition," she explained. "I was perhaps 3 or 4 years old when I first watched it, so I was pretty young. 'I need to do that one day,' my mother said I remarked as I gazed up at her."
They visited the gift shop and her mom bought her a green costume, matching one of the Rockettes' signature dresses.
"I was a Radio City Rockette for Halloween for like ten years straight until the costume was bursting at the seams and I couldn't anymore," Petrizzo explained. "I've always known it was something I wanted to do at some point."
Before joining the famous dance ensemble, Athena Petrizzo dressed up as a Rockette as a child.
But she was well aware of the amount of effort and attention required to join the illustrious ensemble. Petrizzo joined the Rockettes in 2019 after graduating from Toms River North in 2017.
"I still have to pinch myself every day going to work," she said. "It's amazing to me that I get to call this a job because it's just so beautiful, the work that we do and the work that gets put into the show — everyone from the performers on stage to the crew members backstage and our stage managers. Everyone is just putting in every ounce of energy to be able to produce the most spectacular show for our audience."
