As composer Maurice Ravel himself admitted, Boléro, his most famous work, is musically minimal: seventeen nearly identical iterations of the same theme, with little variation or development, aside from the number of instruments gradually joining in the march toward an inexorable climax. Yet the suite has repeatedly fueled the imaginations of choreographers and Olympic ice skaters (not to mention the erotic fantasies of filmmakers) since its 1928 premiere. After backing Bo Derek and Dudley Moore’s steamy sex scene in the 1980 film 10, Boléro finished third in a 2012 Spotify poll for most popular make-out music (behind Marvin Gaye, and two slots ahead of Barry White). Hot stuff. But what does Carolina Ballet guest choreographer Lynne Taylor-Corbett hear in Ravel’s famous theme? These clues come from the subsections in the playbill: “The Couple,” “The Sun,” “The Sea,” and “The Wind.”
