Ragazzi presents
Street Symphonies,
a concert in collaboration with Destiny Arts Center, a hip hop group from Oakland dedicated to serving youth through the arts.
Saturday June 2 2012
7 p.m.
Trinity Church
Brittan and Alameda de las Pulgas
San Carlos, California
For tickets contact Ragazzi: 650-342-8785 or www.ragazzi.org
How did this collaboration come to be? A year ago when on a plane, I happened upon a movie called "Street Dancing". It was not a great movie, but the story intrigued me. It was about a competition in New York City among hip hop dance groups. The protagonists were desperate to win the contest, but suddenly lost their best dancer to a competing troupe. Not only that, they were suddenly thrown out on the street with no rehearsal space.
In their wanderings, they came upon a beautiful, old building where a very traditional classical ballet school rehearsed. As they asked to be given rehearsal space, the ballet director got a gleam in her eye. She offered to give them space if they would teach the ballet dancers to dance in the hip hop style.
As the story unfolds, the two groups are not compatible and they resist each other. The hip hop dancers don't have the lean ballet lines and the ballet dancers can't loosen up enough. They are not really able to dance in these new styles and in fact begin to clash in their interactions with each other. Finally, they both agree to do what they do best and put on a show where their groups do their own dances and interact in new and creative ways. The result is a brilliant and magical dance program that is colorful, graceful and exhilarating.
Inspired by the story, I went to Destiny Arts Center last fall and met their Artistic Director Sarah Crowell. I wanted to stretch the expectations of Ragazzi's audiences so that they could see some unity in these different styles. I also wanted to show that classical music does not have to be "stuffy." As we talked about ways that we could bring my classical music group together with her dancers from the East Bay, we both began to be excited about the possibilities. Sarah showed me a Youtube video of Yo Yo Ma playing a cello solo of Saint-Saen's "The Swan." As the music builds, the great hip hop dancer L'il Buck slowly bends and moves to interpret this classic art-song. Here was exactly what I was looking for, a blending of artistic styles to show how music can bring us together as it did the two dance troupes in the film "Street Dance."
The dancing on the street and the music in the concert hall come together in this concert. We will be singing Bach and Schubert but also Native American and African dance songs along with Michael Jackson medleys. The texts we sing are greetings and welcoming songs, from Yanaway to Sorida to The Lord Bless you. Barriers will come down as we meld these styles into an artistic whole. For a new concert experience, please join us and enjoy these talented young people!
Joyce Keil
