© 2025 Juergen A. Riedelsheimer. All rights reserved.

 

 

 

Dancing With Radiohead - When Classical Movement Meets Avantgarde-Rock 

 

In a striking fusion of modern music and classical movement, choreographer Robert Bondara presents a contemporary ballet set to

Radiohead’s haunting track “Reckoner.” The performance, performed by Polish dancers, offers more than just visual interpretation; it becomes a dialogue of two artistic languages: sound and movement. The performance reminded me of an article by article by Joellen A. Meglin and Lynn Matluck Brooks (2013) titled “Music and Dance: Conversations and Codes,” in which the authors argue that music and dance are not hierarchically arranged but instead function as “sound companions” - equal partners in meaning-making.

 

 

Radiohead Ballet: "Take Me With You" by Robert Bondara

 

 

Music and Dance as Dialogues, Not Illustrations

Meglin and Brooks propose that when music and dance intersect, they form a shared semiotic system: “codes" that generate new meanings neither art form could convey. In this performance, Bondara’s choreography doesn’t just follow the rhythm or melody of “Reckoner.” Instead, it engages in a core musical conversation:

 

• Phrasing in the body echoes harmonic swells in the music

 

• Pauses and contractions mirror moments of dissonance or breath

 

• The dancers sometimes resist rhythmic expectation, creating tension and release that visually amplifies the song’s emotional ambiguity

 

This resonates with Henry Cowell’s  “elastic form” concept, as discussed in the article: a flexible structure where music and dance stretch and contract around each other. Bondara’s use of classical phraseology against Radiohead’s atmospheric, non-traditional structure invites us to see the music and the movement in a new emotional context.

 

Beyond Aesthetics - A New Hybrid Code

What emerges is more than just a performance: it’s a hybrid language rooted in tradition that speaks to modern sensibilities. According to Meglin and Brooks, such collaborations offer fertile ground for rethinking how we study, teach, and experience performance, especially in a world increasingly defined by genre fluidity and cultural variations.

 

 

 

 

Reference

Meglin, J. A., & Brooks, L. M. (2013). Music and Dance: Conversations and Codes. Dance Chronicle, 36(2), 137–142.