Indigo Girls Complement Atlanta Dancers.

Indigo Girls Complement Atlanta Dancers The Indigo Girls Project Fox Theater Atlanta, Georgia October 18-21, 2001

Standing ovations aren't anything new to Indigo Girls Emily Saliers and Amy Ray. But when Atlanta Ballet audiences rose to their feet at the close of Margo Sappington's multimedia work Shed Your Skin, the edgy folk-rock music duo seemed almost bashful. After all, it's not every day they and their band perform with a ballet company and a full orchestra in an unprecedented world premiere collaboration.

But maybe, just maybe, it's because several of their early works--"Least Complicated," "Shed Your Skin," "Caramia," "Scooter Boys," "Ghost," "Everything in Its Own Time," and "Touch Me Fall"--took on a new life under Sappington's care.

The resulting ballet, melding the "low" art of popular music and "high" art of ballet, could be loosely interpreted as a statement about the search for individual identity in relationships with friends and lovers. And though the movement vocabulary was unmistakably balletic, the visual appeal of the work may more often be associated with rock music videos. Of course, Sappington's credits include everything from Broadway theater (her first assignment was Oh! Calcutta!) to music video. In 1993 she created "Slide" for the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago's Billboards.

In "Least Complicated," the dancers appeared as fans, taking the stage in punky street clothes, dancing with one another as though at a party. Then, in the ballad "Shed Your Skin," they tipped off their outer layers to reveal sexy costumes in glistening metallic shades, reflecting every line and shadow of their bodies. The effect was definitely sexy, but unexpected, especially given the down-to-earth sensibilities of the music and the Indigo Girls themselves. Of course, if we were meant to draw the analogy that we're all precious underneath our outside layer, the message came through clearly.

As a member of the MTV generation, I easily referenced Michael Jackson's choreography for "Beat It," when "Scooter Boys" hit the stage running, and saw pieces of Madonna's "Express Yourself" message throughout. But Shed Your Skin, thankfully, had more than one layer to peel, revealing a strong core inside.

The dancers' combination of strength, technique, elegance, and fearlessness belied the relative intricacy of the choreography, especially the unusual, intertwined lift sequences in "Touch Me Fall." Fraught with the tension between weight and balance, fall and recovery, the movement sequences wound through space. Wei Dongsheng and Jim Stein lifted their respective partners, Laura Feig and Alessandra Lange, overhead as each woman executed an elegant, seemingly effortless port de bras, then lowered them en pointe to the floor only to lift them again onto their hips with a circular motion. In between, the couples' legs were tangled, soft hands were hardened into fists, and croisee positions were abandoned in favor of parallel, confrontational stances facing the audience.

Throughout the ballet, the dancers brought their personalities onstage as well. Clearly, they enjoyed the virtuosity of the movement, as well as the increased interpretive freedom it represented.

More traditionally minded Atlanta Ballet season ticketholders may have been shocked by the eroticism that surfaced occasionally throughout the work, evidenced by several matrons who seemed visibly uncertain about their reaction to the work. At one point, same-sex couples embraced behind a sheer drape, backlit to reveal their vignette, as a male and female dancer moved through the end of a relationship. But fans of the Indigo Girls--lured by the chance to hear a set of songs rarely performed live--took it all in stride. If Atlanta Ballet Director John McFall intended, when he commissioned the work three years ago, to expand the company's audience, it worked. Shed Your Skin is definitely among the many popularly accessible ballets designed to keep the "dead" art form, with its set vocabulary, undeniably alive.