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What’s Next for “Big”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Big” — the collaboration between the Atlanta Ballet and OutKast’s Antwan “Big Boi” Patton — received mixed reviews for its artistic pairing of hip-hop music and ballet. But beyond putting on a great show, one of the dance troupe’s main goals was to attract attention, and hopefully, new audiences for ballet.
The show certainly succeeded in attracting attention, generating a lengthy story and review in The New York Times and a breathless item Wednesday in The Guardian in London, which reports that the production “is expected to tour Europe.”
There are no plans for such a tour, although Big Boi himself has told reporters he would like to take the show on the road, says ballet spokesman Jeff Al-Mashat. The Atlanta Ballet owns the rights to the production, so the company would be the one to decide to take it on tour.
It would be an expensive proposition to take “Big” and all its dancers and musicians to Europe. The financially-strapped Atlanta Ballet isn’t likely to find the money for such a tour, but perhaps Big Boi will?
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Comments
By Dmitri
April 18, 2008 12:22 PM | Link to this
For me, the problem with “Big” is that this is NOT a ballet. Let me explain. It was some dance, thank you very much, but it can’t be called a ballet. Unexpectedly, I much more enjoyed Big Boi, rather than the dancers. I think it says a lot.
The first part was not interesting at all - except some “psychological” aspect. The second part was somewhat more interesting, but rather as a novelty, not because it was an art.
In general, I understand what they wanted to achieve - and I think they did achieve it. What I don’t like is that the AB starts tuning each performance to a certain audience. While it may sound fair, I feel robbed that there are just two performances per year when I am a target audience. And, unlike some other “target groups”, I don’t have anywhere else to go to see MY kind of dance. There are eclectic dance troupes elsewhere in the city. Atlanta Ballet is the only place to get ballet, when they give it.