Pink Floyd Ballet

Hello Floydians!!

As you may already know Roland Petit has put again the Pink Floyd Ballet show with the Tokyo Asami company. After some very successful dates in Japan they've come to Barcelona during this past weekend and I've been lucky enough to go and watch the show, so I have thought that I'll take some time to write a small review of what I saw hoping to shed some light as well on this often obscure Floyd-related topic ("What the heck is the Pink Floyd Ballet?", "Is it true that it is only based on "The Dark Side of the Moon"?, etc...).

First of all the Tokyo Asami Ballet is formed by 32 dancers and in some songs you get them all together on the stage creating a quite spectacular effect. For this show there are also 4 special guests who are street dancers. They perform the live version in the album "Is There Anybody Out There?" of "Run Like Hell" and they interact with other 6 dancers of the company in the song "Money". Of course, the music is on CD (I wish the Floyd would have been there to perform it live but this is hoping too much) and the effects created by the light and the dancers are quite striking. I think that in Japan they performed the ballet in a big venue with lasers and projection of images but in Barcelona ("Teatre Tívoli") we had a more intimate rendition of the show. Also, the show seems to be a remake of the old one with some songs from "The Wall" added. The selection of songs is quite typical of the songs the Floyd were playing back in '72 when this project was born.

They began with "Run Like Hell" (the studio version) with only one dancer on stage. The first impression is a bit odd since you see a classical dancer and you expect to listen to Tchaikovsky and not to a crowd shouting "hammer, hammer!". But when the song is over and "Money" begins you start realizing that this can be a good show. The interaction between the classical and the street dancers in this song is wonderful though part of the solo is edited.

Then you get a series of songs from "The Wall" which are "Is There Anybody Out There", "Nobody Home", and "Hey You". For me this was the low point of the show as they are not precisely "great dance songs".

After this boring section the stage covers with dry ice smoke and we listen to the bass rhythm from "One of These Days". The 32 dancers get on stage and the effect is simply wonderful, everybody in the audience begins having a really good time.

"Careful with That Axe Eugene" followed. At first I didn't know which version they were using as there was an unusually busy rhythm section in the first "quiet" part. Then I realized that it probably was the Pompeii one with some bass drum overdubbed. The mixing was done in a very respectful way and it doesn't sound as a modern-techno pastiche but as if Nick Mason was a bit more aggressive that day.

Then you get "When You're In" and "Obscured by Clouds" played. Those two songs show that Roland Petit went to see the Floyd live in '72 when they sometimes performed them as an encore (as in the Robert Wyatt benefit concert).

"The Great Gig in the Sky" is a "pas de deux" (a piece for two dancers, a man and a woman) and was another of the high points in the show. That's in part because of the inherent beauty of that song, which makes it perfect for a ballet piece.

The end of the show is indeed a "Grand Finale": "Echoes" ladies and gentlemen!!! one of the greatest Floyd songs ever For this song you get again the 32 dancers on stage doing things that are simply amazing. Since some songs were edited ("Careful", "Money", "Hey You") I thought that this was going to be the case again with this epic but it just went on and on like in the album until the middle part when the "whale" noises start. The song then stops and we listen to Waters shouting "Are there any paranoids in the audience tonight..." and a good rendition of "Run Like Hell" live is magnificently performed by 4 street dancers.

"Ok" I thought "fair enough, Run Like Hell bookends the show", but no, I was mistaken, those familiar whale noises coming out of the amps... Yes! "Echoes" again, the second part just like in the Pompeii show. I was so glad that they performed this song in its entirety... and so was the rest of the audience!

By the end they got a big, warm and long standing ovation and they thanked us with something very unusual in ballet shows, an encore! They performed "One of These Days" again for our pleasure. A great show indeed.

Now they are in Paris and since the show is being quite successful wherever it goes perhaps there will be a tour in the future but I'm not sure. But go and see it if you've got the chance and if you are not too annoyed by watching a lot of classical dancers performing Floyd songs.

Thanks for letting me post this personal review and keep going with the good work in this site!

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