balletboys

MovieScore Media teams up with Norwegian composer Henrik Skram for the third time to bring you the composer’s latest score for Ballet Boys. Written and directed by Kenneth Elvebakk, this documentary employs a fly-on-the-wall approach chronicling the lives of three Norwegian boys (Torgeir, Syvert and Lukas) who share a passion for ballet dancing. While studying the art of ballet as an extracurricular activity, the boys share many disappointments, victories, and even their first loves. By the end of the movie, all three of them must make an important decision whether they want to pursue their passion on a professional level, or keep it as a hobby while focusing on their higher education.

Norwegian composer Henrik Skram studied composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and at the Norwegian Academy of Music. Ballet Boys marks the composer’s third release through MovieScore Media and like the previous releases, his writing is characterized by clear themes that work outside their movies too. His music for 90 Minutes was headlined by a beautiful waltz while Crestfallen featured inventive brass writing for the heroine’s journey into the past to find her real parents. Both these scores were also remarkable for their inventive use of classical pieces by Puccini and Vivaldi respectively.

Recorded in Macedonia with the F.A.M.E. orchestra, Skram’s score for Ballet Boys has the dual purpose of being fit for the scenes of training and practicing, but also to highlight the more dramatic events in the boys’ life. The haunting uncertainty of their ”Future”, the nervous excitement of an ”Audition” and the shattered nostalgia of ”Childhood” are just some of the finest examples of the exquisite score that not only works in the ballet class and not excels in the film, but also offers a concise and emotional listening experience on CD. Following other MSM documentary releases such as JFK: A President Betrayed by James T. Sale or The Final Member by Rob Simonsen, Ballet Boys should also prove that non-fictional films can have remarkable and dramatic underscores.

MMS14034 • BALLET BOYS (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Release date (digital): August 12, 2014

TRACKLIST

1 Grasse 3:20
2 Opening 2:58
3 Big Feelings 1:53
4 Plan B 3:18
5 Future 4:34
6 Play 2:56
7 Audition 0:55
8 The Wait 0:49
9 Approved 1:20
10 Childhood 0:59
11 Finale 1:42