Familiar Tunes
This collection of dances incorporates well-known bits of music – sometimes in surprising ways.
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Monica Bill Barnes & Company
Happy Hour, 2018
The score for this immersive work by Monica Bill Barnes featured beloved standards from Elvin Presley, Nat King Cole, and Judy Garland.
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Dance Theatre of Harlem
Come Sunday, 2018
The traditional African-American Spiritual that accompanies this dance by Geoffrey Holder is sung by Odetta, who performed live concerts on this very stage for three consecutive seasons in the 1980s.
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The Hong Kong Ballet
Castrati, 2014
Most people associate this music by contemporary Welsh composer Karl Jenkins with television commercials for diamonds – so much so that the composer later titled the album containing it Diamond Music. Choreographer Nacho Duato had something much more sinister on his mind when creating this powerful work known as Castrati.
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Pacific Northwest Ballet
TAKE FIVE...More or Less, 2014
Dave Brubeck’s rendition of “Take Five” is a classic, once performed by Brubeck himself on the very stage where Pacific Northwest Ballet shared this delightful work by Susan Stroman. Known primarily as a Broadway powerhouse, Stroman’s work for the concert stage is every bit as skillful and engaging as her musical theater hits.
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Decadancetheatre
4, 2014
Jennifer Weber’s powerful group of female hip-hop dancers already defies convention in a male-dominated field, and here she ups the ante by incorporating classical music into her vision. Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” is given a contemporary gloss by DJ Boo, but you’ll still be able to recognize the familiar melodies.
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Inbal Pinto
Oyster, 2001
Set to a delightful elevator-music rendition of “Around the World in 80 Days,” this quirky trio from Israeli choreographer Inbal Pinto offers something completely different. The U.S. premiere of the award-winning full-evening Oyster was presented at the Pillow in 2001, and some of those lucky enough to have seen it live still talk about it!
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Trey McIntyre Project
Mercury Half-Life, 2014
Tunes don’t get much catchier than Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and this work has the distinction of being the last piece performed by TMP before the company disbanded.
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Royal Winnipeg Ballet
Carmina Burana, 2012
Although it’s now most often employed in movies and television commercials, Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana” has a rich history as a dance work, including this version by Mauricio Wainrot.
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Alexandra Danilova
Sugar Plum Fairy variation from The Nutcracker, 1952
Perhaps the most familiar of all dance tunes are those in The Nutcracker, here charmingly embodied by the inimitable Alexandra Danilova two years before Balanchine created his now-classic version.
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Ted Shawn's Men Dancers
Finale from The New World, 1936
The familiar strains of Dvořák’s “New World Symphony” are visualized here by Pillow founder Ted Shawn in this earliest clip of all those in Jacob’s Pillow Dance Interactive.