Odyssey leaps into 'Moulin Rouge'

Odyssey Dance Theatre artistic director Derryl Yeager was looking for a new work for his company's spring performance of "Shut Up & Dance."

The title is an umbrella for a program that features three different productions performed on different days.

"We always do 'Sledgehammer' as one of those productions, and we've been doing the Beatles tribute 'Let It Be' as another," Yeager said after a rehearsal. "We decided not to do 'Deep Forest' this year. So I was trying to come up with an idea. I walked into Best Buy one day and there was the DVD of 'Moulin Rouge.' And that was it."

It also helped that ODT's European advertisers wanted something catchy to help promote the company, said Yeager. "It fit perfectly with what they and we wanted."

Yeager said he wanted the dance company's version of "Moulin Rouge" to be different than the movie, but at the same time, he wanted it to be familiar to the audience. "The way the film was made is kind of like the way we create dance. The film took songs and gave them new meanings with the visuals. That's how dance is made. So I got to work and came up with some different twists that tell the story."

Yeager used swing versions of Britney Spears' "Oops! I Did It Again" and the original version of Elton John's "Your Song" for some pivotal scenes in the dance production, just to name a couple.

The work features Eldon Johnson as Christian and Karl Henderson as the Duke, who both are vying for the attention of Satine, danced by Christina Bluth. Rounding out the cast is Thayne Jasperson as Toulouse.

Johnson said that he and Jasperson helped Yeager with the choreography. "A year ago, when we found out we were going to do 'Moulin Rouge,' I told Derryl that I was happy to help him choreograph if he needed help. It was my way of asking him if I could choreograph because I have done it before for Odyssey and I enjoy it."

Yeager gave them a thumbs up, and they went to work. "Thayne and I sat down and discussed what we wanted to do with the scenes we were going to do," said Johnson. "We bounced ideas off each other. We also talked with Derryl to see what he wanted. So we had all these ideas and we designed some motifs. Then Derryl left it up to us.

"We worked on what we felt the characters needed and how they would interact with each other. We also watched the film to see if we could gain any insights on the different scenes."