Arts & Entertainment

Michael Jackson Meets Stravinsky in Pacific Symphony's Parody Video

Orchestra members dress as zombies for a video combining Jacko's "Thriller" with Igor's "Rite of Spring."

Written by City News Service, posted by Roy Rivenburg

On the 100th anniversary of the premiere of the "Rite of Spring," two Pacific Symphony violinists debuted their own take on the classical  masterpiece Thursday with a YouTube video that mixes Igor Stravinsky with Michael Jackson.

Bridget Dolkas and Alice Wrate created a mashup video in which Jackson's "Thriller" meets Stravinsky's iconic ballet for the symphony's "ReRite of Spring Project," which encouraged artists to reinterpret the "Rite of Spring."

"Rite of Spring" is regarded as one of the most important works of the 20th century.

In the video, the melding of Jacko and Igor starts a little after 3 minutes and fully kicks in around the 4-minute mark.

Dolkas told City News Service that when she conceived the idea with Wrate she didn't initially realize all of the parallels between Stravinsky's composition and the impact Jackson had on popular culture with his long-form video, which starred Vincent Price.

"It was more on a subconscious level," Dolkas said. "The parallels between the two are many, from the grisly subject matter to the innovative dancing to the catchy music that changed the genre and affected everything after that.

"So, somehow, subconsciously those two came together for multiple reasons. Some of the parallels are just coming to me now that it's over and I'm thinking how strange it all was."

The idea came to Dolkas and Wrate one night during rehearsal when the "ReRite" project was announced.

"Alice said, 'Isn't this great?' and I said, 'Yeah, the musicians should do something. It would be hilarious,"' Dolkas said.

"And right there it was a vision, a combination of 'Rite of Spring' and 'Thriller.' We were just screaming laughing and the stage hands are looking at us like, 'Are you OK?' "

What came out of the vision was "Frite of Spring," which the Pacific Symphony posted on YouTube early Thursday with plans to screen it June 8 after the symphony's "Rite of Spring" concert at Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa.

The video was shot in two days following rehearsals, which was a lot to ask of many of the musicians who have commutes of more than an hour, Dolkas said.

"And yet people just jumped on it. They were totally on board," Dolkas said. "The acting, the dancing just blew me away."

Dolkas is also excited about performing the "Rite of Spring" next month.

"I've never actually played it. Last time we performed it, I was on maternity leave," Dolkas said.

"I was really disappointed," she continued, adding, "It's going to be thrilling," before she caught her own unintentional pun and laughed.

Dolkas remembers when Jackson's "Thriller" premiered on MTV on Dec. 2, 1983, slightly more than two years after MTV's debut.

"It was right in that pocket of time when MTV came to be," Dolkas said. "I don't think I was one of the ones up at midnight waiting for the first showing, but I definitely remember seeing it often."


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