Ballet Incredible
Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe release the music for their first ever full-length ballet, The Most Incredible Thing this month. The ballet is a collaboration with choreographer Javier De Frutos and Britain’s leading dance theatre, Sadler’s Wells. Based on the Hans Christian Anderson story of the same title, it runs at Sadler’s Wells in London from 17th -26th March.
Tennant and Lowe proposed Andersen’s story as the basis for a new ballet to Sadler’s Wells in London in 2007 after a friend, the then Royal Ballet principal, Ivan Putrov, asked Neil Tennant if Pet Shop Boys would consider writing a piece of music for him to dance to at Sadler’s Wells. Coincidentally a couple of days later, Chris Lowe suggested to Neil Tennant that “The Most Incredible Thing” would make an excellent narrative for a ballet and, inspired by this synchronicity, they approached Sadler’s Wells with the project. Subsequently Javier De Frutos was invited to be the choreographer and director. The story is about a competition in a mythical kingdom where the King announces that whoever invents the most incredible thing will win the hand of the Princess in marriage and half of the Kingdom. What follows is creative, destructive but ultimately happy.
Neil & Chris said: “This is a very exciting project to be part of. In the past we have written dance music so to write music for a ballet seems like a logical development. Also we have always been fascinated by giving our music a theatrical context.”
Album ‘The Most Incredible Thing’ out 14th March – Parlophone Records