You Can Now Listen to Playlists Based on Your Favorite Ballets
If you’re at all like me, the key to getting through Mondays (in addition to copious amounts of coffee) is music. And thanks to Pacific Northwest Ballet, I’ve got my new #MondayMotivation mix all set.
PNB has a dedicated Spotify account with playlists tied to upcoming ballets. Some, like “Jewels” (pegged to the Balanchine ballet of the same name), feature the mix of Fauré, Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky you’d hear should you attend the performance. Others, like “Swan Songs,” comprise selections from Tchaikovsky’s iconic score for (you guessed it) Swan Lake alongside pop ballads with “swan” in the song or album title. They’re basically the perfect soundtracks for doing homework between rehearsals or warming up before class.
Not only is the account great fun, but it’s also an ingenious new approach to audience engagement. On one level, the playlists serve as an intro to the music one might hear at PNB’s performances. On another, the song selections outside of the ballets’ scores give potential audience members another way into what is sometimes seen as an intimidating art form. Maybe someone’s never seen Swan Lake, but can find their way into the ballet’s themes through a favorite pop song—the melancholic musings of Lana del Rey’s “Swan Song” certainly speak to Siegfried’s desire to leave everything behind, or the ill-fated lovers’ leap into the lake at the end of the ballet. It’s all about making the work that happens onstage more familiar and approachable.
Plus, who doesn’t love cheeky ballet puns?
