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Among professional dancers, there is no more prestigious opportunity than to dance alongside the Radio City Rockettes
Five members of the iconic dance troupe chatted with PEOPLE about the exact moment they found out they had been granted a spot in the company
"It's that moment where your dreams come true," says Rockette Courtney Crain. "I'll never forget it"
Among professional dancers, there is no more prestigious opportunity than to dance alongside theRadio City Rockettes.
The iconic precision dance troupe, which is celebrating its100th year as a companythis year, is a staple of the holiday season in New York City. Their annual Christmas Spectacular, which is performed up to five times a day at Radio City Music Hall from November to January, brings their characteristic high kicks and synchronized twirls to thousands of visitors every year.
And naturally, for members of the dance troupe themselves, there is no more memorable moment than receiving the call with a N.Y.C. area code — after days of grueling auditions — and finding out that you would be given a spot on the Rockettes. PEOPLE spoke with several current dancers, who recalled the happy tears they cried when they got the call.
Danielle Betscher, a 30-year-old Rockette who is dancing in her 13th season, was only 18 when she auditioned for the troupe. After the audition process, she tells PEOPLE, she went on a family trip to a lake in Tennessee.
"I was on the boat with my family when I got this New York number calling me, and I was freaking out, of course," she remembers. "I didn't have very good service in the area that we were in, so we had to find service there — the whole thing."
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When she finally did get cell connection, she heard over the phone that her childhood dreams had come true: They wanted her to dance in the Christmas Spectacular that year.
"I was surrounded by my family, who have always been so supportive of my dream," she says. "So it was really, really special."
Kayla Hsu, a second-year Rockette, remembers the day she was accepted as "one of the best days of my life."
She had just gone through her third audition for the dance troupe, and she had heard from friends she had made throughout the audition process that acceptance calls were going out that day, so she "anxiously waited" by her phone for a call of her own.
"Then my phone rang, and it was a New York number," she remembers. "I was like, 'OK, calm yourself. This may be it.' I picked up the phone, I answered, and they were like, 'We'd love to offer you a position as a Radio City Rockette.' And just immediate tears. Immediately bawling my eyes out."
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Continues Hsu: "Everything I've worked for since I was, like, 5 years old came true in that five-minute phone call. It was so magical and, honestly, maybe even more magical for my parents, too."
When Svetha Nallapaneni, a 24-year-old in her second season as a Rockette, got the call, she was sitting in her N.Y.C. apartment with some of her roommates.
"They knew all about everything that I had been working towards," she tells PEOPLE. "I was like, 'Oh my gosh, guys, the calls are going out today. Fingers crossed."
When the N.Y.C. number came through on her phone, remembers Nallapaneni, her "heart stopped" — and when she found out she was accepted, she immediately burst into tears.
"I think they got like one word out, and I was like, 'Are you kidding me?' " she says. "Just such a surreal moment."
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Courtney Crain, 30, who is dancing in her fifth season with the Rockettes, was actually living with a current member of the dance company while she was going through the audition process — so she had someone who had gone through the process to celebrate with when she got the exciting news.
"She was just walking in the door when I got the call that I was going to get the job, and we just started jumping up and down together," she says. "It's that moment where your dreams come true. I'll never forget it."
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Samantha Noto, who is making her debut as a Rockette this season, was getting dressed for her part-time job when the call came through. She almost didn't pick up, she tells PEOPLE, thinking it was a package delivery.
But she did, and it was the Rockettes offering her a job.
"It was pretty surreal. It honestly felt like it didn't happen," she laughs. "I was shaking. I started tearing up, but in the best way — just happy tears."
She immediately called her mom, who was in the middle of her workday as a teacher and told all of the other teachers at her school.
"She just starts crying, and then I start crying," remembers Noto. "It was amazing."
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