Lee Rocker & Complexions

Gather Round

Stray Cats bass man soundtracks rocka-ballet dance collaboration.

With Gather Round, a collaboration with ballet company Complexions, rockabilly veteran Lee Rocker dips his patent leather winkle-picker into the contemporary dance world. Sharing a title and music with Rocker’s latest solo album, the full production is set to premiere next year. This online taster version features three duet performances set to vintage jukebox foot stompers including Gather Round itself and When Nothing’s Going Right. Widescreen acoustic anthem The Last Offline Lovers, meanwhile, strikes a more romantic, Springsteen-ish note.

Two dancers give athletic, technically demanding performances featuring an impressive amount of toe-perching pointe work, which is unusual in contemporary ballet. That said, Dwight Rhoden’s choreography feels firmly rooted in musical theatre convention, owing more to West Side Story than to the fertile avant-rock/ballet crossover lineage of The Fall, David Byrne, Radiohead and others.

It might have been more interesting to hear Rocker attempt an instrumental theatre score rather than recycle existing material with no clear narrative function. But maybe next year’s finished production will feature more original music and stronger emotional connections. But this free online preview is a fun, high-energy spectacle and a pleasingly left-field mix of two antique art forms.