NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WMOT) -- The Bluebird Café and the Nashville Ballet will collaborate on this year’s Attitude performances at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center.
Rehearsals for the unlikely collaboration are underway now. Twenty dancers and four choreographs have been paired with three of the Bluebird’s most popular singer-songwriters, including Victoria Banks, J.T. Harding and Georgia Middleman.
Nashville Ballet Artistic Director Paul Vasterling says community collaborations like the Bluebird Café project are his passion.
“Working with these writers and hearing their music and understanding it, it brings inspiration to us, and it works both ways," he said. The writers get to see something else about their music and I think they are almost always inspired in a different way. I mean, they are very surprised by what we do.”
Pleasantly surprised in the case of singer-songwriter Georgia Middleman. Middleman has written hits for the likes of Keith Urban, Faith Hill and Kenny Chesney, but having a contemporary dance created for her tune I’m In has been a novel experience.
“It was very creative what they did and it was very surprising and beautiful. I honestly didn’t know what to expect, but I was really hoping to expect the unexpected and that’s exactly what I got,” she said with a laugh.
The Bluebird collaboration is just part of this year’s Attitude performances which also include a revival of Petit Mort and the Chopin Tributes.
All three performances hit the TPAC stage for four shows beginning February 12. Follow this link to show times and ticket prices.