From the River Cities Reader -- October 12, 2005 Ballet Quad Cities Teams Up with Local Rock BandsBallet Rocks, October 15-16 at the Capitol Theatre Story by Jeff Ignatius
For Ballet Quad Cities, a longstanding desire to present a rock ballet has always run into one major obstacle: money. “Every year we have kicked around the idea of doing something very contemporary, with rock music,” said Joedy Cook, the executive director of Ballet Quad Cities.
There are ballets set to the Stones and Elvis, but securing the rights to the music is expensive. “You probably couldn’t afford them,” Cook said. “I can only imagine” the cost.
But when someone suggested using local bands, the idea clicked. And Ballet Rocks, which will have two performances at Davenport’s Capitol Theatre this weekend, was born.
The show will feature power-pop institution Einstein’s Sister and the lounge-spy sounds of The Metrolites. The bands will play while Ballet Quad Cities dancers perform choreography created specifically for the music by Johanne Jakhelln, the company’s artistic director.
To nobody’s surprise, the pairing of area musicians and dancers has worked. Cook said using local bands “has truly been a lot more rewarding and a lot more enjoyable” than working with a classic-songs format.
“It was a thrill to be asked,” said Bill Douglas of Einstein’s Sister. When asked how this will differ from a club show, he joked, “There’s more people dancing.”
For this weekend’s two performances, each band will play two sets – one with vocals, and one without. The groups will share some instruments in the orchestra pit and alternate sets.
Jakhelln chose the songs based on the bands’ recordings, and said she created four distinct pieces for the one-hour, 20-minute program. Dancers have been rehearsing with CDs, but on October 1 practiced with the live bands for the first time.
Don’t expect traditional ballet. While ballet is about upward movement and lightness, contemporary dance, Jakhelln said, is “often more heavy,” stressing downward movement. Ballet Rocks is certainly a contemporary set of dances, she said.
One key in putting the pieces together, Jakhelln said, is to make something new and to avoid jazz-dance clichés. “I wanted to create something that respected the music,” she said, “to find my own movement vocabulary.”
Cook noted that Ballet Rocks is a contemporary experience beyond the rock-music conceit, down to the all-new costumes. “No tutus,” she promised. She said that the performance includes props ranging from pink bathrobes to shopping carts.
Jakhelln hadn’t worked much with rock songs, particularly music with vocals. So Ballet Rocks presented her with plenty of challenges. The choreographer said she look to the lyrics for inspiration. The shopping carts, she said, were prompted by the words in a song, and apple and snake motifs stemmed from a lyric referencing “original sin.”
Ballet Rocks is obviously an attempt to help the ballet company attract a younger audience, and to diversify its programming. “Our largest, most consistent supporters have been older people,” Cook said. The company has tried to expand its reach through edgier programming.
She added that the ballet’s collaborations with the Augustana Jazz Ensemble have been among its most popular performances, and extending the live-music-and-dance combination made sense.
Overall, she noted, the ballet company has been integrating more contemporary elements into its seasons. This year’s debut of the Anne Frank ballet From a Young Girl’s Life (which will be presented again in February) represented a major departure for Ballet Quad Cities, Cook said. “That was almost dance theatre,” she said. “What we were trying to show our audience was confinement. ... That’s dance theatre.”
Also on the horizon is Ballet Quad Cities’ participation in One Mississippi River (http://www.onerivermississippi.org), a June 24 event that will feature simultaneous performances in seven communities along the mighty river, from Minnesota to Louisiana. Although many details remain to be worked out, Cook said that “our stage will run from the Arsenal bridge to the Centennial Bridge. We’re thinking as big as we can think,” including the possibility of featuring boaters in the choreography. The company’s goal, she said, is to create “movement to specific music to draw attention to the river.”
Ballet Rocks will be performed Saturday, October 15, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, October 16, at 2 p.m. at the Capitol Theatre in downtown Davenport. Tickets are $18 for adults, $15 for senior citizens, and $10 for people 16 and younger. High-school students with a school ID will be admitted for $2. For more information, call (309)786-3779 or visit (http://www.balletquadcities.com).