Imagine you’re a working mom of three – including a set of twins – and October rolls around. Suddenly your entire to-do list is jam-packed with events and commitments surrounding the three biggest holidays of the year, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and of course … Christmas. Now imagine you’re also a longtime performer with the world-famous Radio City Rockettes, and you’ve already been commuting into the city and rehearsing six hours a day for the past month.
Every day for the next three months is guaranteed to be a fine balance between creating a special holiday season for your own family and making magic for thousands of others who will travel from far and wide to see you dance and spread Christmas cheer.
Tara Turbridy has been doing just that since she gave birth to her oldest girl seven years ago and two years later welcomed her twins. But, she’s actually been a Rockette for 19 years, dancing through two pregnancies and lots of big life moments along the way. And, well, it really is magical.
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Tara hasn't lost sight of how special her job is.
We recently chatted with Tara because, well, it’s hard to wrap our heads around the demands this season brings for her and exactly how she still manages to be present for her kids, herself, and all of her fans when she has so much going on during what many find to be the most stressful time of year.
For Tara, though, it’s a dream realized. She grew up a dancer and even went to college for dance, securing her spot at Radio City a few years later. A native New Yorker, she hasn’t forgotten how she felt as a little girl watching the Rockettes herself and dreaming of being on that very stage. More than anything, she’s thankful that she gets to do this and has been able to do it for so long.
“I kind of still pinch myself every and now obviously being a mom and doing it – you never know how long your journey, your dance career is gonna be – so really just, personally, it’s an accomplishment and I’m just so proud to be a part of it,” she shares.
But the schedule is just as grueling as you'd imagine.
Tara works as a real estate agent where she lives on Long Island throughout the year, but come September, all of her attention turns to training for the Christmas season. Rehearsals typically start six to eight weeks before the show opens in November, and the dancers rehearse six days a week, six hours a day at a minimum. Rehearsals for special events like the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, for example, are additional.
Once the show opens, the schedule intensifies even more. “Our schedule is so demanding, we’ll do anywhere from two to four shows in one day, six days a week,” Tara tells us. “We really are athletes for sure.”
Although the demand is obviously the heaviest during the fall season, the dancers really do have to train all year. It’s imperative that they stay in shape, keep healthy, and take care of their bodies before and after each year’s run of the “Radio City Christmas Spectacular.”
Tara is a big fan of cycling and pilates, and continues to take dance classes, but each Rockette does have freedom to train how they choose. Plus, the dancers also do special events, attend PR commitments, teach classes, etc., throughout the year.
But like, realistically ... how does she do it all?
We’ll be honest, we feel overwhelmed just thinking about the busy weeks ahead of us. Sure, the holiday season is supposed to be fun and joyful, but practically, it often just feels like a lot to get through. How does a mom like Tara with three young kids in a peak work season do it? Firstly, she accepts that she won’t be able to do it all.
“It’s challenging at times. There are certain things that unfortunately, I have to miss,” Tara shares. She says, “prioritizing the things that I can make and then you know, just trying to be present whenever I can,” is how she manages.
So if there are errands to be done but parent-teacher conferences are on her day off from the show, she’ll do the conferences and either save the errands for later or have her husband or another family member pitch in.
“Budgeting time for things is definitely key. I start my Christmas shopping early, and I have huge help from family. Even now that the girls are older and in school, their schedules are so demanding – they’re in dance, they’re in gymnastics, they’re in all these different things – so, it’s challenging but you make it work.”
These days, Tara usually does the daytime shows, so if she can get home in time to take her kids to their extracurriculars or playdates, or special events, she almost always will, even if she’s tired from working and commuting all day.
“I don’t get to go home and just do whatever I want for me and you know, relax right away,” she says. “I walk in the door and it’s ‘Mommy, mommy, mommy,’ and dinner, and showers, and baths, and bedtime.”
Even though her girls are now old enough to know what she does and how busy and exhausting this time of year is for her, they still need her and those needs come first.
Understandably like so many of us moms, carving out “me time,” to recuperate and recover mentally and physically, is one of Tara’s biggest daily challenges.
“Knowing that it is only a couple weeks of the crazy craziness, and at the end of the day, we’re part of this bigger picture – this beautiful experience that people come to see – if you go back to that place of where I am, what I’m actually doing, what I get to do, what I’m a part of, that really helps you push through.”
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But, she also makes sure she's always as prepared as possible.
Yes, Tara takes it all in stride, but that doesn’t mean she just goes with the flow. She’s more of a create the flow yourself kind of girl. Being organized in all aspects of her life is what keeps everything running smoothly, especially during the busiest times.
“I think I’ve definitely mastered multi-tasking, and scheduling, and organizing, for sure,” she says. “I like things to be written down. I’m not like a digital person. I’m very old school like that,” she continues. “So I have my markerboards in my pantry month-by-month, and everything is color-coded – my schedule, my husband’s schedule, the kids’ schedules, the dog, who is picking up who, babysitters – I need to visually see it.”
At the end of a good day ...
When it’s all said and done, it’s the little things that make it all worth it for Tara. Seeing her daughters experience the show and beam with pride as they watch her, bragging about how cool her mom’s job is to their friends, teaching them that it really is possible to accomplish your wildest dreams … those are the things that remind this mom of three that what she’s doing matters and is worthwhile.
At the end of the day, if she gets to come home, tuck her kids into bed at night, and curl up on the couch next to the Christmas tree to watch a Christmas movie, she knows it was a day well spent.
