Ballet hopes to be a roaring success
Dancing ballet in the small city of Roanoke, Va., can be a mind-bending experience. Hoping to reach a wider audience in Virginia’s Appalachian highlands, Jenny Mansfield’s Roanoke Ballet Theatre company has had dancers pirouette to bluegrass music and prance along the sides of buildings, suspended from ropes.
Her latest creation, a ballet for NASCAR fans, aims directly at a potentially huge audience that’s been especially hard to get into the theater.
“In this business, you’ve got to take chances,” Mansfield says. “The ‘Nutcrackers’ of the world don’t interest me anymore.”
Mansfield’s “NASCAR Ballet” will play April 15 and 17, just in time for the April 18 Winston Cup race in nearby Martinsville. Just maybe, she says, race fans will take a break from the action and venture north to see something that’s new, yet familiar.
At the wave of the starting flag, 30 dancers will round an oval-shaped stage to new age music punctuated with the sounds of revving engines. Their suits will be festooned with logos from the show’s sponsors. Above, three giant TV screens will show the action from different camera angles while a local sports anchor gives a live play-by-play.
And yes, there will be crashes.
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