Fairy drones make an appearance in Rockettes Christmas Spectacular 2022

This holiday season, the leggy superstars will share the stage with a swarm of new cast members: eight wing-propelled fairy drones in the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular 2022, which premieres on Friday.

The immersive performance piece “The Dance of the Frost Fairies” will include fairy drones and is designed to make the audience feel as if they are within a snowflake.

“It's really about the magic of the first snowfall,” director and choreographer Julie Branam told the NY Post.

For the event, the Rockettes will don brand-new, winged outfits. To let the dancer move freely throughout the physically demanding and highly skilled performance, the wings had to be tiny enough.

Every one of the 36 dancers' outfits is unique, much as no two snowflakes are the same, yet they all feature intricate sparkling patterns.

The Rockettes enter the stage one at a time throughout the new song and begin to spin around like frost fairies. Then the fairy drones make their entrance, flying throughout the auditorium.

The drones only weigh 1.05 ounces apiece and are made of a super-light cloth painted to resemble the sparkling Rockettes. The unmanned aircraft measure 14 inches long with a three-foot wingspan, which is surprisingly wide.

“They're a way to bring in more technology to the show, to up our game and find new things that keep up with the times,” said the show director, Branam.

You can read more about how drones are used in shows here on DroneXL.

Photos of the fairy drones, courtesy of Annie Wermiel, NY Post, and MSG Entertainment.

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