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Dateline: 8th June, 2007
Radiohead at the Ballet Scottish ballet's new production Ride The Beast (a world premiere) has been set to the music of Radiohead. As an avid fan of their music, choreographer Stephen Petronio has selected five tracks spanning Radiohead’s career to complement what the company calls "the layered complexity and primal nature of his new work". Opening with the detached electronica of Fitter Happier (from the 1997 album OK Computer, which regularly places high in best album of all time polls), Ride The Beast showcases many sides of Radiohead: an acoustic version of anthemic single Creep from 1994’s My Iron Lung EP; clipped instrumental Hunting Bears (from 2001’s Amnesiac); the dreamy surge of Idioteque and the throbbing, brass-drenched National Anthem (both from 2000’s Kid A). This soundtrack follows in Petronio’s tradition of choreographing to modern music. Previous Petronio works have seen him forge artistic partnerships with Rufus Wainwright, Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, James Lavelle and Wire as well as working with photographer Cindy Sherman, sculptor Anish Kapoor, and fashion provocateur Leigh Bowery. Speaking about his choice of music, Petronio says, “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 bypasses reason. I have to live with music so intimately while creating with it I simply have to work with music that I love. Radiohead has been at the top of my list for a very long time. “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,” he continues. “While I have had a field day with every song, National Anthem holds particular relish for me as one who has always been suspect of jazz, particularly in tandem with my choreography. The hysterical and searingly driven horns would not let me rest. And in the end Creep, their first hit, is a personal anthem and sung with such animal passion that it was just too good to pass up.” “When you ask Stephen Petronio to create a new work for your company you expect something bold and provocative,” says Artistic Director Ashley Page. “When he chooses to set that work to music by Radiohead it makes perfect sense, because the sonic landscapes and layered textures of the groups' music are a perfect ally for the choreographic language Stephen has been developing throughout his dazzling career. Both dance and music here are absorbed in exploring these landscapes, the one enriching the other as structures and material are pushed to the limits.” The world premiere of this new piece is particularly exciting for Scottish Ballet as it marks the first piece choreographed on Scottish Ballet by an outside choreographer since Ashley Page became Artistic Director in 2002. The piece, choreographed for twelve dancers who sub-divide into groups, is a celebration of raw energy and aggressive creativity; untamed, unruly and unpredictable. Costumes for Ride The Beast have been designed by leading New York designer Benjamin Cho. Ride The Beast will be performed alongside Trisha Brown’s For MG: The Movie and Artistic Director Ashley Page’s Oliver Awarding-winning Fearful Symmetries, which was choreographed during his time at Royal Ballet and will be performed for the first time by Scottish Ballet at the Edinburgh International Festival 2007. Audiences can see this new programme at the Edinburgh Playhouse from 18th to 20th August. This will be Scottish Ballet’s third appearance at the Edinburgh International Festival.
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