Diablo Ballet Premiers World's First Ballet Created By Social Media Crowdsourcing

Diablo Ballet of Walnut Creek, CA premiers the world's first ballet created via suggestions from the internet this weekend (March 1st & 2nd).

The Web Ballet has been created from various suggestions submitted from all over the world to the Diablo Ballet's Twitter and Facebook pages.

Over 132 ideas were sent in from the United States and international locations such as Australia, Japan, Scotland, Russia, Sweden, Japan, and Trinidad & Tobago among others. Choreographer Robert Dekkers reviewed the ideas and selected seven that have been incorporated into the work, entitled Flight of the Dodo, which premieres this Friday and Saturday in Walnut Creek, CA.

"We're excited to break new ground in dance," said Lauren Jonas, Diablo Ballet Artistic Director. " This is the first time a ballet has been created by social media crowdsourcing and we're excited to see what happens."

On January 8th, individuals were invited to send in suggestions in categories such as the emotion of the dancers, the mood of the dance, specific dance steps, jumping), the music, and anything they could think of. On February 15th, Dekkers reviewed the suggestions and selected eight, which are:

- The story of the Dodo Bird, birds who can't fly and became extinct.
- Feel of the dance work: Deliberately ironic.
- Include at least one moment that you hope the audience will find hideously ugly... another evoking awesome beauty... investigate their similarities and differences.
- Setting: Insane asylum.
- Initiate movement from shoulder blades.
- The color turquoise.

Diablo Ballet received a hand-written suggestion from 10-year old Mia Fuerte, which was selected - "I would love for the dance to be in the safari. The boys will be animals and the girls will be explorers."

Dekkers, a dancer with Diablo Ballet and Artistic Director of San Francisco's Post:Ballet said, "There were several suggestions that struck me, but the Tweet requesting my new dance to tell "the story of the Dodo Bird, birds who can't fly and became extinct" was so creative that I couldn't say no."

The Web Ballet has proven to be an international hit. Two students from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, in Stockholm Sweden are writing a thesis on the world-wide effect of arts crowdsourcing.

Two of the individuals whose suggestions were selected are traveling from out of town to watch their ideas come alive.

Flight of the Dodo will be presented as part of Diablo Ballet's March program - Friday, March 1st and Saturday, March 2nd at Shadelands Arts Center Auditorium in Walnut Creek. For information, call 925-943-1775 or visit www.DiabloBallet.org.