How the Radio City Rockettes Make a Living Outside Christmas Spectacular — Including Their Surprising Off-Season Jobs (Exclusive)

The grind doesn’t stop for the Radio City Rockettes!

The professional dancers who perform in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular between November and January each year surely have busy schedules when their job is to perform multiple shows a day each week throughout the holiday season, but some add even more to their plate to make a living.

During an exclusive interview with PEOPLE ahead of the show’s opening night, three Radio City Rockettes — Britain Feeny, Alexis Payton and Jordan Betscher — gave glimpses into their lives as full-time performers in this year’s cast, while also sharing their professions in the off-season.

“Everybody does something different,” Betscher told PEOPLE of her fellow Rockette’s careers outside of the Christmas Spectacular show calendar. “We have some full-time moms, we have some full-time accountants. It really is different for everybody.”

While being a Rockette is “absolutely” a full-time job during the season, Payton — who’s in her fourth season in the cast — said she simultaneously works as a data analyst. “We have some people that are accountants, we have some people that work in HR,” she said of a few of her castmates.

“I know some women are definitely balancing full-time jobs,” she added, noting that her data analyst career is “fortunately” only part-time. “I’m not doing as much juggling. But that is also something that I do in the off-season — and it’s something that I’m also very passionate about, too.”

Payton explained, “It’s within the realm of public health, I like to say. I actually got my master’s in environmental engineering, so the first few hours of my day are spent being a data analyst. I do that year-round.”

Though the three women didn’t specify their salaries during the interview, it’s been previously reported that the weekly base rate for Rockettes is $2,627.51, according to an open casting call posted on the official website this year.

The New York Times compared a Rockette’s salary to Broadway performers, per a 2005 report. According to Playbill, that’s approximately $2,439 a week (though Rockettes are in the American Guild of Variety Artists, not Equity Union Broadway).

There are 84 Rockettes in total, split into two casts of 36. Payton, who’s in the evening cast this year, says she’ll work her part-time job in the morning before heading to Radio City Music Hall in the back half of the day.

“The first few hours of my day are spent being a data analyst. I do that year-round. I do public health research,” she explained. “I’ll do anything from checking my emails, analyzing data, and contributing to manuscripts — and then after that, I’m ready for a 4:00 p.m. or 5:00 p.m. show.”

Betscher, who’s in her eighth season as a Radio City Rockette, works as a freelance dancer based in New York City when it’s not the holiday season. “I’m auditioning, I’m doing TV, film and theater work — and I’m always taking class too to make sure I stay in tip-top shape,” she said.

During the non-holiday months, Betscher said she and the Radio City Rockette cast will sometimes have related duties, like additional shows or social media obligations. “We have some off-season events that we do as well,” she said.

“We’ve performed in the Tony Awards. We’ve also performed at the VMAs. Last year, we performed at the Cheetah Awards in New York,” Betscher pointed out. “We do a lot of things in the off-season as well to keep it fresh and to stay alive. You know?”

Feeny, too, is a freelance dancer. “I audition and I just like dancing, do a bunch of jobs in the off-season when I can,” she says, though notes that her focus is on all things Christmas Spectacular this year.

“During this season specifically, I’m only a Rockette,” she said. “It’s what I have put at my forefront because that’s all I feel like I have time and energy for… just want to make sure I give this my full attention, obviously, for the two months that we do perform.”

Still, Feeny acknowledged the additional obligations she tends to after the season officially wraps. Above all, she says that Christmas is “at the forefront” of her mentality when it’s not the holidays, so she’ll continue to “train” and “take dance classes” to ensure she “stays active” throughout the year.

“We’ll do some events here and there,” said Feeny. “But we are full-time Rockettes during the Christmas season.”