1st Black Rockette, Jennifer Jones, tells her story in new book for children
If Jennifer Jones had listened to the wrong people — people who stepped on her dreams, who tried to crush her spirit — she wouldn’t be where she is today.
She would have given up on dancing when a grocery store clerk scolded her for doing back-flaps in the aisles.
She would have gotten out of that line outside Radio City Music Hall when none of the other dancers shared her skin color.
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Lucky for her, and readers of her brand-new children’s book — “On the Line: My Story of Becoming the First African American Rockette” — she listened to the right people, and her dreams were made of sturdier stuff.
She listened to her parents, Booker and Linda, who took Jones and her sister to see the original Broadway cast of “The Wiz” over and over.
“It showed me that, yes, you can be Black and you can become a professional dancer,” Jones says.
She listened to her first dance teachers, who opened a world to a girl who found herself dancing everywhere she went, practicing on a sheet of linoleum in the family’s basement.
And she listened to herself, to the voice in her gut that told her to stay in that Radio City line, a line that landed her in the world’s most famous kick line, as the first Black Rockette.
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“It’s a lesson for parents to instill in your children that what you want and what your passion is matters,” Jones says.
Her passion fueled 15 years as a Rockette, and the drive to tell her story in a children’s book. After two years of editorial back-and-forth, holding her book in her hands was “surreal.”
“Having it made tangible and opening it up and to see all the illustrations, it took a couple of days for me to even process that it was actually happening,” she says.
Of the dozens of illustrations by Robert Paul Jr., Jones is partial to two, in particular. “The first one is on the page that reads 'That was the day I fell all the way in love with dancing.' I feel like I'm hugging that feeling. The other one is the last illustration where the mother is reading to her daughter. And I'm hoping that the last question — What will your story be? — sparks a conversation between parents and children.”
She has been doing book signings, complete with a kick line lesson, and has more signings and events planned across metro New York this holiday season (while the 2023 Rockettes present The Christmas Spectacular), and for Black History Month in February.
She hopes her trailblazing story will inspire a new generation the way she was inspired by “The Wiz,” a show that made her want to emerge from a backstage door to well-wishers, a dream realized at Radio City and on Broadway.
“I hope I can do that for other children. If they can see me on stage or see me talk and have that want and I can put that fire in them,” Jones says. “I think that's one of the most amazing things that I can ever do in my lifetime.”
Reach Peter D. Kramer at pkramer@gannett.com. Support this kind of reporting by subscribing at www.lohud.com/subscribe
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Jennifer Jones was 1st Black Rockette. Now her story is a kids' book.
