--- title: Donald Trump: Rockette Kicks Back at Inauguration Plans description: The union for the Radio City Rockettes told the dancers they will be required to perform at Donald Trump's inauguration despite concerns canonical: https://time.com/4617393/rockette-concern-over-donald-trump-inauguration-performance/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-23T15:18:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:42:08.346Z article:section: Politics og:title: Rockets Told Trump Inauguration Show Must Go On, After Dancer Objects og:description: "Any talk of boycotting this event is invalid," the dancers' union told them og:url: https://time.com/4617393/rockette-concern-over-donald-trump-inauguration-performance/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd361d7733be923db/6988b3ea8e0601f018468aa1/rockettes-donald-trump-inauguration.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: ABC's "The Chew" - Season Six og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Rockets Told Trump Inauguration Show Must Go On, After Dancer Objects twitter:description: "Any talk of boycotting this event is invalid," the dancers' union told them twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd361d7733be923db/6988b3ea8e0601f018468aa1/rockettes-donald-trump-inauguration.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Rockettes Told Trump Inauguration Show Must Go On After Dancer Objects > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: TIME 2016 Person of the Year: Donald Trump [Watch (HLS stream): TIME 2016 Person of the Year: Donald Trump](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Q0tBuF3M.m3u8) (4:12)  _Published 2016-12-07. The 2016 Person of the Year is Donald Trump, the President of the divided states of America._  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Dec 23, 2016 3:18 PM UTC  The Rockettes appear Dec. 16, 2016 on ABC's "The Chew." The Rockettes appear Dec. 16, 2016 on ABC's "The Chew."Lorenzo Bevilaqua—ABC/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Dec 23, 2016 3:18 PM UTC The performers’ union representing the Radio City Rockettes has told the dancers they will be required to [perform at Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration](http://time.com/4617033/rockettes-donald-trump-inauguration/), after at least one dancer voiced concern about being “involved in a dangerous political climate.” James Dolan, the executive chairman of The Madison Square Garden Company, confirmed Thursday that the iconic female dance group [will perform at Trump’s inauguration](http://time.com/4617033/rockettes-donald-trump-inauguration/) on Jan. 20. “We have received an email from a Rockette expressing concern about getting ‘involved in a dangerous political climate’ but I must remind you that you are all employees, and as a company, Mr. Dolan obviously wants the Rockettes to be represented at our country’s Presidential inauguration, as they were in 2001 & 2005\. Any talk of boycotting this event is invalid, I’m afraid,” an administrator for the American Guild of Variety Artists wrote in an email to the Rockettes that was [obtained by BroadwayWorld](http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Update-Rockettes-Union-Calls-Boycotting-Inauguration-Invalid-20161223#). The email told full-time dancers they were “obligated” to perform at the inauguration. Dancers who are not full-time performers have the option of not signing up, the email said. “This has nothing to do with anyone’s political leanings (including AGVA’s), it has to do with your best performance for your employer, period. I will reiterate that if Hillary Clinton was the President-elect, nothing would be different, and there would probably be those who would not want to be involved because of her. It is a job, and all of you should consider it an honor, no matter who is being sworn in. The election is over and this country will not survive if it remains divided,” the email said, according to [BroadwayWorld](http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Update-Rockettes-Union-Calls-Boycotting-Inauguration-Invalid-20161223#). “Everyone is entitled to her own political beliefs, but there is no room for this in the workplace.” Dancer Phoebe Pearl shared her disappointment in an Instagram post that has since been deleted, [according to the Hollywood _Reporter_](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/trump-inauguration-rockette-fears-being-fired-refusing-perform-959003). “I usually don’t use social media to make a political stand but I feel overwhelmed with emotion. Finding out that it has been decided for us that Rockettes will be performing at the Presidential inauguration makes me feel embarrassed and disappointed,” Pearl wrote, according to [the _Reporter_](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/trump-inauguration-rockette-fears-being-fired-refusing-perform-959003). “The women I work with are intelligent and are full of love and the decision of performing for a man that stands for everything we’re against is appalling. I am speaking for just myself but please know that after we found out this news, we have been performing with tears in our eyes and heavy hearts. We will not be forced! #notmypresident” Trump’s transition team has struggled to book performers for the inauguration, as [others in the artistic community](http://time.com/4609263/celebrities-on-donald-trump-inauguration-performance/) have raised similar objections. Singer Jackie Evancho and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir are currently the only other performers set to participate. ## Transcript MUSIC ] Every year we choose the Person of the Year who is the individual who has had the most influence on events for better or worse. The Tod argue that anyone had no influence that Donald Trump over the events of this year. [ MUSIC ] I didn't get Beyonce and Jay Z and Goose Bernstein to get crowds, I had just me. And ideas that people wanted to hear. But there is a profound argument about whether his influence was for the better or for the worse. And that really is the challenge that faces the country came through this election season more divided conspicuously publicly than at any time through any election cycle that most of us Can remember. [ MUSIC ] We're gonna have a lot of jobs put back. I think we're gonna have a lot of fuel companies leaving our country. I believed we will be successful with defeating ISIS or bringing them down to a level where it's almost the same thing. And I hope I'm judged from the time of the election as opposed to from January 20th because the stock market has had a tremendous bounce and people are seeing very good things for business in this country. [ MUSIC ] One of the things that was remarkable in going to see him, to interview him, is to be in that Penthouse which is the most austiontacious, imaginable marble and mirrors, and gold. And see him in the suit and the diamond cuff links. There is a kind of distance that repressed him about, of how is it that the billionaire is the tribune of the working man? He said, he thought that it had to do With that he wasn't a phony, that there have certainly been wealthy politicians before. Doing some cases would bend over backwards to make themselves appear like the common man, or do anything that they could, eating the corn dog at the Iowa State Fair, wearing a flannel shirt in New Hampshire. I think he had a very strong instinct that his wealth and that flamboyant display of his wealth Was not a liability that it was actually an asset. [ MUSIC ] Donal Trump is very comfortable sitting down and answering questions, although he very frequently does not remotely answer the question that you asked. In one sense it feels very undisciplined and in another sense maybe it's very disciplined in that He knows what he will and will not talk about and is unabashed in completely changing the subject. Do you feel changed by your election, and how you do think, if I play this tape back in four or eight years, the office will have changed here? Well, it's a It's a very humbling experience, I can tell you, as somebody that loves this country, it's a very large country, but it's also an even more powerful country than the numbers, because, if you look at China, and India, and you have others with more people, but, when you look at what we do in this country, it's The most incredible place on earth. [ MUSIC ] A lot of people think that Person of the Year just because the nature of the name is an honor. And certainly there have been years where we have recognized people's whose influence has been altogether, unassailably worthy. Normally, that's not the case. I know there are a lot of people who disagree with so much of what Donald Trump said and are very apprehensive about what his presidency means for them and for the country. I think I would challenge them to suggest that someone else this year had more influence than a way greater Surprise than what he did in 2016. 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