'Let It Be' comes together

Last year, the Odyssey Dance Theatre premiered "Let It Be," a 30- minute tribute to the Beatles, featured alongside other repertory works. This year, artistic director Derryl Yeager has expanded the piece into an evening-length production.

The hardest part of putting dance to a collection of timeless Beatles classics was honing down the music catalog to fit time constraints. "I had a whole list I wanted to do," said Yeager. "But I had to chose the songs that would fit well together in one program and give a great flow to the performances."

He had the idea for a Beatles-inspired dance work four years ago. But when George Harrison passed away in 2001, Yeager went to work. "I wanted to give the kids in the company a chance to experience the Beatles. I wanted them to feel the energy I felt when I first heard them when I was a teenager."

The Beatles recorded more than 100 songs, and Yeager said he went through most of them, trying to visualize what he could do with them. "The Beatles wrote songs about anything and everything. I wanted to create dances to those songs, and I wanted the dancing to be exciting and full of life. I wanted the movements to reflect the spirit of the songs."

So, Yeager decided to use some of the band's popular songs but also some of the songs that were a little more obscure. In addition to all the works from last year's performance -- including "Piggies," "Come Together," "Here Comes the Sun" and "Taxman," just to name a few -- Yeager added nine new songs.

"I put in some humor with 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' and 'Fool on the Hill.' And I did some sentiment with 'Julia' and 'Mother Natures Son.' "

Yeager was careful so he would not merely resort to dancing narratives. "There are songs that you can't get away from that. But with a song like 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' (another new one in the program), how can you literally bring those images to dance?

"But take a song like 'Come Together,' in which there are phrases that lend themselves to some fantastic dance imagery, and you have the choreography set up for you."

Yeager's respect for the Beatles is an ongoing thing. As a fan of the group when they first hit the scene in 1964, he was caught up in the music and the imagery. "These days, rock stars try to be cool to fit a personality. But back then, the Beatles didn't have to try. They were just cool. And they were a lot smarter than a lot of people thought they were."

That revelation came to Yeager when he read an interview with Paul McCartney a few years ago. "He said in the interview that the Beatles began making statements in their songs by masking the meanings. The song 'Blackbird' is about the civil rights movement, and 'Piggies' is about aristocracy.

"It's things like that that make the Beatles something more than just a pop-music group. And I wanted to create some dances to pay tribute to them."

Concerts set at Rose Wagner

What: Odyssey Dance Theatre, "Let It Be"

Where: Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, 138 W. 300 South

When: 8 p.m. Feb. 12-15

Matinee: 2 p.m. Feb. 15

How much: $20-$35

Phone: 355-2787 or 1-888-451-2787

Web: www.Odysseydance.com

E-MAIL: scott@desnews.com

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