2006.10.30
Halloween Dance
I spent this past weekend in Salt Lake City, Utah, and while I was there, I had the opportunity to see Odyssey Dance Theatre‘s production of Thriller, their Halloween special.
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I’ve seen ballet before, but this was something different. There was no orchestra, but rather pre-recorded music was used, spanning a wide range of genres. The dancers performed in a wide range of styles. It was very pleasantly unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.
Thriller is composed of two acts, and each act is a collection of disjoint stories which are all unified by a common theme: Halloween. The show draws its name from the opening scene of the first act. The company, dressed as zombies, perform to Michael Jackson’s hit pop song Thriller. I never before have seen 20 zombies dancing on stage, but the dancers are all very talented and put on quite a show.
Other scenes are inspired by classic horror films like Child’s Play, novels like Stephen King’s The Children of the Corn, or other bits of macabre arcana. I enjoyed very nearly all of them. They were quite varied, and an appropriate amount of humour was included to keep the subject matter from getting too heavy.
If you ever find yourself in Salt Lake City around Halloween, be sure to check if Odyssey is doing Thriller, and if so, buy yourself some tickets.
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