Fantastic Dances

Dance, the river is there to rise. Dance, touch me and close your eyes. Dance, the winds will touch your feet. Just dance and dance, feel the beat!

Fantastic dances, symphonic dances, Hungarian dances, and Slavonic dances. Polkas, tangos, hoedowns, and mambos. This concert will get the toes tapping and the spirit flying. Orchestral dances to start – Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances (we'll play the first movement), Ravel's tribute to the glittering spectacle of the Viennese ballroom in 1855 through La Valse (The Waltz), a Hungarian Dance from Brahms and a Slavonic Dance from Dvo�™ák. Another waltz, this time from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin and Strauss' Thunder and Lighting Polka round off a first set of dances.

After interval, we dip into dances further afield – Polovtsian Dances from Alexander Borodin's opera Prince Igor, and then, from the Americas, a Hoedown from Aaron Copland, Danzón no. 2 by Mexico's Arturo Márquez and, from Argentina's favourite son Astor Piazzolla Libertango. Back to Europe and Western Asia for the concluding set: Armenian-born Aram Khachaturian's Sabre Dance, a Habanera from Lithuania's national composer Eduard Balsys, the Dance of the Knights from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet and, kicking up our heels before the clock strikes midnight, a Can-can from Jacques Offenbach.

Just dance and dance, feel the beat!.