The Rockettes perform in Oakland on Dec. 16-19

A few years ago, Rockette Emily Blanchard was touring in Radio City's venerable Christmas Spectacular when she met one of her precision-dancing predecessors backstage at the Orange County Center for the Performing Arts. The retired Rockette was 89 and full of beans.

"She got down and did the splits, then did the eye-high kicks," Blanchard said. "She had such vivaciousness. It was inspiring."

Blanchard was inspired to become a Rockette after seeing the dazzling line of dancers in Detroit when she was 12. Awed by their precision and glamour, she, like countless other American girls, dreamed of kicking up her heels at Manhattan's palatial Radio City Music Hall. Four years ago, after a demanding two-day audition - she and 600 other Rockette hopefuls had to perform tap, jazz and ballet combinations, in unison with two other dancers - Blanchard landed the coveted job.

"It's wonderful to be part of a great American tradition," said the reddish-haired, green-eyed hoofer. She's one of 18 Rockettes starring in the 2010 Christmas Spectacular National Tour, which plays Oakland's Oracle Arena on Thursday and Friday and HP Pavilion in San Jose Saturday and next Sunday.

The holiday extravaganza, with its glittering costumes, enormous eye-popping sets - audiences are transported to the North Pole and Christmastime Manhattan - fireworks and fake snow, features new pieces and classic numbers that have been in the Radio City show since it began in 1933 at the height of the Depression.

Those perennial favorites include "The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers," in which the Rockettes, wearing costumes designed by Vincent Minnelli, artfully fall back and collapse on each like a slow-mo row of dominoes, and the starlit "Living Nativity" scene. The live camels that appear in the New York production aren't in the touring cast.

Also not in the touring show: a live orchestra.

That has raised the ire of the Boston Musicians Association, which has been protesting the use of taped music at the Rockettes shows running throughout the month at Boston's Citi Performing Arts Center. The local musicians union has bought radio ads urging patrons to forgo the show without live music, and a "Drive-by Orchestra" of musicians has swung through the theater district on a double-decker bus, passing out leaflets.

Officials of San Francisco's Local 6 of the American Federation of Musicians haven't decided if they'll take any action. "I'll have to consult with our theater community," Local 6 President David Schoenbrun said.

Either way, the show - featuring about 50 performers - will go on.

"One of the coolest parts of the job is seeing a group of ladies who've never worked together before come together as one," said Nicole Schuman, 26, who joined the Rockettes eight years ago. Another Detroit native who began dancing at the age of 3, she used to get up early every Thanksgiving morning to watch the Rockettes strut in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

"These women were modern and strong role models, but at the same time, they didn't forget the tradition," said Schuman, standing outside Oracle Arena on a foggy morning with Blanchard and two other leggy colleagues: Alissa LaVergne and Allyson Kelly.

They were dressed in tight, sleeveless red-and-white candy-striped costumes fringed with gold tutus and green and gold trim. They wore nude tights, rhinestone diamond and emerald earrings, ruby-studded bracelets and those beaming showgirl smiles.

The Rockettes wear these outfits while dancing "12 days of Christmas," a killer seven-minute tap number that climaxes with a line of eye-high kicks. The dancers do 300 of those high-flying kicks a show, four shows a day.

Tricky kicks