Atlanta’s fabled Fox Theatre was home to the opening of “big” last evening, a collaboration between Big Boi and the Atlanta Ballet described as a fusion between hip-hop and ballet. It seems as though Daddy Fat Sacks isn’t the only hip-hop personality to have jumped on the proverbial ballet bandwagon; several prominent vocalists have joined the production as well, most notably Sleepy Brown, the voice alongside Big Boi’s in Outkast’s hit single
The Way You Move.
I don’t know what’s weirder: that Big Boi, not Andre 3000, is the Outkast participant in this project or that (presumably) normal people, such as Lauri Stallings, head choreographer of the Atlanta ballet, see hip-hop and ballet as perfect complements to each other:
Big Boi’s contemporary style may seem inherently different from the traditional and classical sounds that normally echo through an Atlanta Ballet performance. But, Stallings said, as a choreographer it’s not a stretch to equate one of hip-hop’s biggest names with some of the most venerated composers who are usually the backdrop for traditional ballets.
“For me [Big Boi’s music] sounds like Shostakovich, Stravinsky a little … just today’s Stravinsky,” Stallings said.
Since you probably won’t be able to make it down to the ATL on such short notice for the six-day run, allow CNN to provide you with a sneek peek of the show.
