FLESH AND BONE – Ballet Music from the STARZ Series

Featuring The Four Movement Original Ballet Dakini by Composer Adam Crystal

Varèse Sarabande will release the FLESH AND BONE Ballet EP digitally on January 15, 2016. The album features the four-movement original Dakini Ballet composed by Adam Crystal (SO GOOD TO SEE YOU, Canvas [ballet]).

FLESH AND BONE is a dark and gritty series following a young dancer, Claire, as she joins a prestigious New York City ballet company and encounters the glamour and dysfunction of the ballet world. She becomes Artistic Director Paul’s muse, creating new opportunities and new enemies. Claire’s self-destructive tendencies amid her vaulting ambitions drive her in compelling, unforeseeable ways, especially when she is confronted with the machinations of the company’s mercurial Artistic Director and an unwelcome visitor from her past.

Series creator Moira Walley-Beckett and choreographer Ethan Stiefel collaborated on a 13-minute original ballet for the series.  “The narrative for the ballet was obviously created by Moira, which was following a woman going through these different phases of growing and becoming empowered,” Stiefel explained.  “I had to create something that works not only as a ballet that looks good and is effective on camera, but also works within the context of the actual episode and what else is happening while that ballet is being performed. And what’s really fantastic is that we had a fantastic composer (Adam Crystal), create an original score for Dakini because the producers wanted something completely fresh, completely new.”

“The ballet is essentially about a young lady finding her own feet and becoming self empowered,” said Crystal. “In the four movement piece we explore her journey from when she’s being born, to childhood and adolescence as she builds relationships. Then we go into sexual exploration and then from that point she is basically finding her sense of self.”

Adam Crystal is a composer and musician based out of New York City. He began his classical music studies at age four on the violin in Berkeley CA. His versatile work spans scoring films, documentaries, modern dance and ballet pieces, art installations & videos, commercials and fashion shows.  In the ballet world, Adam is a sought after composer for original commissions. His recent compositions have included Canvas, which premiered at the Vail International Dance Festival, Final Dress for the Royal New Zealand Ballet and Balloon Dance, for Works and Process at the Guggenheim. In March 2016 his most recent ballet commission GRID will premiere at Lincoln Center with Paul Taylor American Modern Dance.

Recently Adam has been focusing much of his composing time in television and film. He has worked with Academy Award™ winners Errol Morris and Cynthia Wade. His music has also appeared on Showtime’s HAPPYISH, the STARZ mini-series FLESH AND BONE, and Discovery’s VANITY FAIR CONFIDENTIAL. Recent films include THOSE PEOPLE, THIS IS HAPPENING, GIVE UP TOMORROW, BORN TO FLY, and SO GOOD TO SEE YOU, which will premiere January 2016 at the Sundance Film Festival.

A classically trained violinist and multi-instrumentalist, Adam has spent many years touring and performing on piano, keyboards, and violin for various bands including Fischerspooner, My Chemical Romance, Beirut, The Citizens Band, among many others.

DAKINI Synopsis (As Described by Adam Crystal):
Track One: Dakini Movement I and II
“The first movement starts with high harmonics and a yawning cello line that gently stretches and begins to unfold with the coaxing of the piano. A melody in the strings begins to develops, it seems shy yet hopeful and is then answered in turn by the piano whose own melody is carried along by the twinkling arpeggios of the violins.”

“The second movement picks right up out of the first. Now the twinkling arpeggios of the violins from the first movement develop into something more poignant and mature. They’ve laid the stage and set a new palette with a meter of 7/4 which gives a sense of perpetual movement forward. The end of each measure gracefully falls into the next over a triplet pattern. Our primary theme is established and we hear it first heard in the cello. This arcing melody is Andante. It walks gracefully and measured though the complex rhythms created by the interplay between the piano and strings. The cello melody is pensive and beautiful at times and we hear a yearning and sadness in its voice. Then the melody carries us into the development section of the movement. It’s a moment of reflection and growth. Eventually we return to our primary theme which is now enveloped it in a lighter feeling – making that yearning in the voice of the cello take on a different and wiser color.”

Track Two: Dakini Movement III
“The third movement begins with a string chorale. The dynamic swells of the strings convey strength and romance… a new sense of confidence. This introduction ends with the entry of the piano as it ushers in a new sense of urgency and excitement. Out of the pianissimo strings a melody begins to rise. The melody is long, lugubrious, reaching. It’s resolution each time is the pick-up to the next phrase of the melody and each time we are lifted higher as it crescendos to the end. This movement signals the arrival of a new emotional maturity of Claire.”

Track Three: Dakini Movement IV
“The fourth movement is bright and heroic. We acknowledge the rhythmic motives from the 2nd movement and build towards a section of cascading staccato notes that rise and fall throughout the instruments as we recapitulate our primary theme in the cello and solo violin. A sense of arrival is predominant throughout.”

STARZ presents the limited television series FLESH AND BONE, currently viewable at STARZ On Demand. Varèse Sarabande will release the FLESH AND BONE Ballet EP digitally on January 15, 2015

As previously posted, the label has also released a separate soundtrack featuring the show’s original score composed by Dave Porter.