Big Boi Ballet Details Emerge

Last May we learned that Big Boi-- probably not the first member of Outkast you'd expect to embrace his inner Terpsichore-- was putting together his very own ballet show in collaboration with the Atlanta Ballet.

And well, folks, it's really happening. Big opens April 10 at Atlanta's Fox Theatre and will feature the man born Antwan Patton moving his body about artistically alongside members of his Purple Ribbon Entertainment troupe and the Ballet. Act fast though; the extravaganza of sound and motion only runs for six performances and closes April 13.

According to NME.com (UPDATE: via Spin magazine), the production will feature a full live band, with musical selections from the Outkast catalog and Big Boi's own forthcoming solo album. There's also talk of taking Big, which was choreographed by Lauri Stallings, over to Europe later in 2008.

New Ballet Set to El-P's Music
Everybody's doing a ballet dance now

Photo by Jason Bergman

After the "future of music" cries have died down, what's a prog-hopper like El-P to do, other than make good records and run a successful label? How about becoming the future of dance by joining the ranks of artists used to soundtrack ballets? With the help of dance company Chicago Dance Crash (CDC), he will do just that.

CDC will close out its 2007 season with Destructible Daytrip, an original ballet set to El-P's music. According to a press release, the show is "a mixture of ballet and boogie," and CDC Artistic Director Kyle Vincent Terry has choreographed to El-P's music for two years in preparation for the project.

Terry has also kept a weekly updated blog of the show's progress, documenting everything from casting to closing night (when it happens).

Destructible Daytrip will run on Fridays and Saturdays from October 26 (that's tonight!) through November 3 at Chicago's Ruth Page Center for the Arts.

UPDATE: El-P would like to clarify that he was not directly involved in the creation of Destructible Daytrip. He gave us the following quote: "The whole thing sounds pretty intriguing, but I didn't know about it until Pitchfork put the article up. I'm flattered that the company is into my stuff. I wish I was there to see it."

Fiery Furnances Plan Ballet, Another LP, Extend Tour

Photo by Amy Giunta

We could come up with some clever lede or pun involving a Fiery Furnaces song title or something, but we're just going to walk you through this one. As Matthew Friedberger disclosed in a recent chat with Billboard.com, the Fiery Furnaces are planning a ballet. The ballet has a rock'n'roll theme and incorporates dance based on American Sign Language. Also, it involves something Matthew calls "American event social gestures."

Huh? "The 'we're number one' finger and the heavy metal horn-sign," Matthew elaborated to Billboard, "and, most importantly, the hand-dancing in Indonesian and Pakistani (religious-minded) pop music videos." Ah, of course. Hand-dancing. Right.

No word yet whether this thing will ever see the light of day, nor whether Granny gets to wear a tutu, but indie rock ballets do seem to be in vogue these days. So the zeitgeist is on their side, at least.

Although Widow City, the Furnaces' latest, doesn't drop until October 9 (on Thrill Jockey), it seems the duo already has another record written. It's called Back to Begamo and, said Matthew, contains sister/fellow Furnace Eleanor Friedberger's "selection of her favorite 'arias' of mine." Well sure, if you're already doing ballet, why not opera too?

In the midst of all this grandiosity, the Furnaces have also stretched their previously reported North American tour into November. Catch the dates just ahead. [MORE...]

Radiohead Tunes Used in Ballet

It's true, ballet dancers are fitter, happier, and more productive than the lot of us. And now some ballet dancers will get their artistic grind on to selections from Radiohead's impeccable catalog, as part of a new dance piece from choreographer Stephen Petronio.

Scottish Ballet premieres Petronio's Ride the Beast at the Edinburgh Playhouse in the Scottish capital, during the Edinburgh International Festival, from August 18-20. Beast will include five jams from Yorke and associates, including "Fitter Happier", Amnesiac ambient cut "Hunting Bears", Kid A's "Idioteque" and "The National Anthem", and the acoustic version of "Creep" that closes the My Iron Lung EP. Despite the ballet moments in its video, "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" does not feature in the production.

As Petronio gushed in a Scottish Ballet press release, "Radiohead's music is a brilliant investigation of achingly modern taste. They sail through genre and form effortlessly and passionately, and their music demands a physical response from me that by-passes reason."

He also stated, "I have chosen the songs for Ride the Beast for various reasons: personal pleasure, their ability to propel, a desire to hit some peaks in the Radiohead's history, and ultimately their ability to shape a world I wanted to move these dancers through."

Petronio, no stranger to setting pirouettes to populists sounds, has also utilized the music of Rufus Wainwright and others in the past.

Radiohead, meanwhile, have revealed no new hints behind their presumed next album, while the Dead Air Space blog has been suspiciously quiet for some three weeks now. If anyone corners Thom at a pub anytime soon, please liquor him up until he tells all.

Joni Mitchell Tribute [ft. Sufjan, Bjork] Set for April 24
Mitchell readying new album, ballet

Photo by Jay Blakesberg

Way back in January (January 3, to be precise), we told you about this craazy Joni Mitchell tribute album featuring Sufjan Stevens, Björk, Prince, and many more. But all we knew then was that it was coming out sometime this spring.

Now, Nonesuch has announced a drop date for A Tribute to Joni Mitchell, and it's April 24. In addition to the aforementioned favorites, Caetano Veloso, Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, and Sarah McLachlan all attempt to undo the foul injustice committed upon Joni's legacy by the Counting Crows featuring Michelle Branch, or Vanessa Carlton, or whoever that was.

While a tribute album might suggest Joni has slowed down or something, that's pretty much diametrically opposed to the reality here. "I'm doing the work of four 20-year-olds," Mitchell boasted to the New York Times last week. "I've never worked so hard in my life."

The Times also reports that Joni, after a ten year hiatus, has recorded enough songs for a new album, to be titled either Strange Birds of Appetite or If. And she's got a ballet on the way. A longtime dancer herself, Joni collaborated with Jean Grand-Maître and Canada's Alberta Ballet to create The Fiddle and the Drum. The show opens February 8 in Calgary (as part of the Alberta Ballet's "Dancing Joni" program) and features a bunch of the lady's music, including two brand new songs: "If" and "If I Had a Heart, I'd Cry". Learn more here.

Lord hopes it will be better than that Dylan musical.

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