Pet Shop Boys Do Ballet

BY Stephen CarlickPublished Jul 8, 2010

Paul McCartney isn't the only one who can score a ballet. British synth pop icons Pet Shop Boys recently revealed that they too are working on a ballet, based on the Hans Christian Andersen tale The Most Incredible Thing.

As Slicing Up Eyeballs points out, the duo are teaming up with choreographer Javier de Frutos on a full-length ballet of The Most Incredible Thing that will hit London's Sadler Wells dance house in March 2011.

The project came together after the Royal Ballet's Ivan Putrov asked the duo four years ago to write a ballet score for him. Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant (aka the Pet Shop Boys) chose the 1870 Andersen story of "a princess, a kingdom, and of two very different approaches to the task of creating something extraordinary."

On the band's website, Tennant and Lowe claim that it's "a very exciting project to be part of. In the past, we have written music for the club dance floor, so to write music for the ballet stage seems like a logical development. Also, we have always been fascinated by giving our music a theatrical context."

The production will run from March 22 to 26 and will feature 15 dancers, a 26-piece orchestra "and a message of hope that lies at the heart of Andersen's tale."

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