Amarillo Symphony hopes to pop with dance concerts

When audiences at Amarillo Symphony's weekend concerts hear classic dances tunes, they won't just be seeing dazzling steps in their head: They'll be watching them on stage, too.

Metropolitan Ballroom of Charlotte, N.C., will perform with the Amarillo Symphony in "Favorite Classics: 'The Blue Danube' and More" at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday in the Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts, 500 S. Van Buren St.

"This is what we were thinking of for a long time," said Clement Joly, co-founder and director of the dance company. "When you hear a beautiful waltz or something, you always imagine the dancers, but you never have it. ... It's great to have the dancers and orchestra together."

The concerts are the first in the Symphony's new pops concert series and will feature several favorite light classic pieces, including "Hoe-Down" by Aaron Copland, "By the Beautiful Blue Danube" by Johann Strauss II and "Pavane" by Gabriel Faure - and some surprises.

"There's some waltzes, some cha-cha, some rhumba, jive, Lindy hop, samba," said Joly, who co-conceived the program with Jacomo Rafael Bairos, the Symphony's music director and conductor, when the latter worked with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra.

"It was a huge success," Bairos said of the Charlotte collaborations.

Joly will perform with wife and choreographer Tatiana Kazakova, plus Ranko Bogosavac and Dasha Hamrick.

The program is "tailor made around styles of dance," Bairos said. "We're ... trying to create something fun and exciting ... that can show off not only the dancers, but the orchestra, too."

how to go

o What: Amarillo Symphony's "Favorite Classics: 'The Blue Danube' and More"

o When: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday

o Where: Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts, 500 S. Buchanan St.

o How much: $24, $39 and $54; $20 in advance or $25 at the door for Symphony Underground, or $40 for both

o Information: 806-376-8782 or www.amarillosymphony.org