Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Ballet often moves to classical music, but this weekend, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre turns once again to American pop music for its inspiration.
Choreographer Dwight Rhoden, whose new ballet 'Step Touch' is based on a dozen doo-wop songs, says, 'You forget until you get involved with them that these songs have been part of your whole life. And the influence of doo-wop is where hip-hop is going.'"
6 comments:
When I read the title, I was shipped to the pop culture in the '90s. I thought that they were drawing from those boy bands. I was relieved when I saw that it was a bit earlier than that. The project definitely sounds interesting. It'll be exciting to see what they come up with.
I love the idea of mixing the two genres. All music we hear today is based on classical music so using pop for the music is a cool way of mixing old and new.
I like the idea of ballet not being set to classical music. I watched Radio and Juliet last year, which is a ballet set to Radiohead music, and it was really interesting. The change in music gets me more focused on the actual ballet.
I think it is so great that even a style as traditional as ballet can lend itself to reinvention by using different types of music and choreography. I found it particularly interesting that they mentioned wanting to make the audience feel like they are part of the action, as I usually think of ballet as something that you admire rather than feel a part of.
I love when two such defined mediums can blend. I think the concept is fresh and the ideas unique. This really has the potential to liven up and indeed, update ballet with also using music with which people can wax nostalgic.
I think this is a really interesting way to perform ballet and get younger generations to appreciate the art. Sometimes classical ballets turn the younger generations away, but using pop music my draw them in to see.
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