Dance, dance

Yes, we are in the thick of preparations for tomorrow night's Inside the Classics concert, and I'm happy to report that we all survived this morning's rehearsal intact (Peter sounds fabulous). There are, however, other concerts going on this week as well, and this afternoon the orchestra rehearsed for tomorrow morning's Young People's Concerts, a full performance of Rimsky-Korsakoff's "Scheherazade" with dancers from the University of Minnesota and professional dance ensembles. All four movements have been specially choreographed for this show, and it's really quite fascinating. Instead of taking the obvious path of creating a "story ballet" to go along with the programmatic elements of the music (Sinbad's ship, the tale of the prince and princess, etc.), the choreographers have instead devised abstract pieces that are reactions to the sound of the music itself.

The result is at times positively kaleidoscopic, with groups of dancers whizzing across stage in opposite directions - it's a really kinetic piece, which I think will suit the audience (upper elementary kids). The dancers often have gestures that accompany a certain melody, and the return of the gesture when the tune comes back puts a spotlight on melodic repetition and musical structure. To me, the dance effectively amplified the expressive content of the music, often highlighting certain emotional elements, often reflecting the fluctuating energy of the piece.

Adding visual elements to "concert" pieces always has an element of controversy. The argument, usually, is that these works were meant to stand alone without any "extras", and doing so somehow detracts from the music. I really think it depends on how it's done - in this case, not only are there dancers, but also projections above the orchestra of words used by elementary school students to describe the music in each movement. Thus, we are given several different perspectives - the thoughts of students via the projected words, the expressive motions of the dancers, and the glorious aural sweep of the music itself. I found myself totally engaged during the rehearsal.

What I'm very curious about is how this will translate to a hall full of students tomorrow morning, particularly as each movement of "Scheherazade" clocks in at over 10 minutes - a pretty long time for young attention spans. It's an unusual show (and very abstract when compared to most of our other Young People's Concerts), but I'm delighted that our education department is willing to take the risk to try something utterly new, which really is the only way to find out if it works!