A Venn diagram of music videos and ballet would have pretty small overlap. Music videos of the MTV-type often rely on dance, but it’s usually popular styles. Ballet film projects are rare outside of a pandemic, and usually rely on classical music. But where pop music, film, and ballet come together is a very happy place for me. So I’ve rounded up some ballet music videos for this post. Only after I put the list together I realized how Iceland-heavy the list is. That’s strange, because ballet is one of the few art forms I don’t particularly associate with Iceland.
I have listened to a lot of classical music in the last couple decades, but mostly as accompaniment to another art form like ballet or opera. Ólafur Arnalds was my introduction to the music sometimes known as neoclassical. Since that discovery, I’ve found a lot of contemporary classical music that I like.
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Ólafur Arnalds
The man who started it all. Ólafur was my introduction to contemporary classical music. My entry point was the indie-like, accessible For Now I Am Winter with vocals from Agent Fresco’s Arnór Dan. From there I went on to listen to his more classically styled compositions – and to explore other artists in the genre. After a hand injury, Ólafur focused on his electronic project Kiasmos for several years. But 2018’s re:member returns to form.
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Nils Frahm
I’ve already written about how I went to the electronic music festival Decibel Fest to see Ólafur Arnalds on a split bill with some guy named Nils Frahm, and how Frahm blew my mind and changed my ideas about what music could be. His latest album, All Melody, is a bit more traditional, as the title indicates. But Spaces is still one of my all time favorite albums.
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Valgeir Sigurðsson
Valgeir is better known as producer, but I loved his album Architecture of Loss. Even now, most of his work is still behind the scenes and in collaboration with other Bedroom Community artists. But most recently, he has released another solo album, Little Moscow, that is every bit as meditative and even more melodic.
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Caroline Shaw
A newer discovery (and recent release) is the album Orange by Caroline Shaw and the Attacca Quartet. It doesn’t do anything weird or experimental. It’s just a beautiful, engaging work for strings exploring the “the ways we find wonder in endless encounters with the same object” – like an orange, or a suite for four strings.
{Aside: If you haven’t read the excellent manga Orange by Ichigo Takano, I highly recommend it. Even though it presents the problematic idea that friends can rescue someone from mental illness without professional medical help, it is a truly beautiful story about the impact on loved ones left behind. I read it in one sitting and ugly cried through the last third.}
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Liam Byrne
Many of Bedroom Community’s releases are over my head, but I try to keep track of what they’re up to because when they hit the spot it is sweet. Liam Byrne‘s Concrete is just what I’ve been waiting to hear from them. The album combines contemporary and centuries-old compositions, but the aesthetic is so consistent I dare you to guess which are which. It’s all beautiful.
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John Luther Adams
At least where I live, in Seattle, John Luther Adams made classical music cool again when the second of his three environmentalist compositions created for the Seattle Symphony under now-departing conductor Ludovic Morlot won a Pulitzer in 2014. He may technically be from New York, but John Luther Adams is kind of a Seattle hero. The final installation in the series, Become Desert, is as spacious and lovely as the others.
All Premiere, the second program of Pacific Northwest Ballet’s 2018-2019 season, is an annual tradition. Together with Director’s Choice, you can count on All Premiere to feature some of the most interesting and innovative dance in the ballet world. This year was as exceptional as always. I’ve already talked about A Dark and Lonely Space, which surprised me with its – literally – cosmic scope. The ballet I was most looking forward to was the middle piece of the program, Silent Ghost by Alejandro Cerrudo.
All Premiere is the second program of Pacific Northwest Ballet’s 2018-2019 season. In contrast to the Jerome Robbins Festival, which was a unique sort of double feature, All Premiere is an annual tradition at PNB. Every year, PNB does one program of all new ballets. Sometimes they are literally brand new, and sometimes they are just new to PNB. Usually there’s some of both. Like Director’s Choice, you can count on All Premiere to feature some of the most interesting and innovative contemporary ballet available. This year was no exception in being exceptionally good. Read More
