http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/popsmart/2008/04/09/guest-blogger-thomas-bell-on-whether-big-can-be-big/ OMIGOD!! a Creative Loafing A&E Blog Fri, 12 Mar 2010 06:37:38 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/popsmart/2008/04/09/guest-blogger-thomas-bell-on-whether-big-can-be-big/comment-page-1/#comment-940 catherine Wed, 09 Apr 2008 20:38:25 +0000 http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/popsmart/2008/04/09/guest-blogger-thomas-bell-on-whether-big-can-be-big/#comment-940 Hi Tom, this is a great post! The first time I heard about the Atlanta Ballet/Big Boi collaboration I immediately thought of Joffrey’s Billboards. When it came out in ’93 I was a 10 year old bunhead obsessed with ballet. My ballet classmates and I all thought Billboards was the coolest thing to happen in dance. Where else would you see ballerinas wearing bikinis (with mesh unitards) and pointe shoes? Nope, Billboards wasn’t a masterpiece, but I remember the huge amount of media coverage and excitement the show received when Joffrey brought it to the Kennedy Center. For the past four decades ballet has been loosing its popularity because companies rely too heavily on the classics (Swan Lake, the Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet). Audiences enjoy the classics, but most would not opt to see a ballerina tip-toeing around stage as a dying swan more than twice. You are right. The future ballet relies in branching out and away from tutus and love-sick princes. So hurray for choreographers like Laura Dean, Matthew Borne and Margo Sappington. And hurray for Atlanta Ballet for putting ballet on the pop culture radar. Hi Tom, this is a great post! The first time I heard about the Atlanta Ballet/Big Boi collaboration I immediately thought of Joffrey’s Billboards. When it came out in ’93 I was a 10 year old bunhead obsessed with ballet. My ballet classmates and I all thought Billboards was the coolest thing to happen in dance. Where else would you see ballerinas wearing bikinis (with mesh unitards) and pointe shoes? Nope, Billboards wasn’t a masterpiece, but I remember the huge amount of media coverage and excitement the show received when Joffrey brought it to the Kennedy Center. For the past four decades ballet has been loosing its popularity because companies rely too heavily on the classics (Swan Lake, the Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet). Audiences enjoy the classics, but most would not opt to see a ballerina tip-toeing around stage as a dying swan more than twice.
You are right. The future ballet relies in branching out and away from tutus and love-sick princes. So hurray for choreographers like Laura Dean, Matthew Borne and Margo Sappington. And hurray for Atlanta Ballet for putting ballet on the pop culture radar.

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