<\/p>\n
From Sting to Taylor Swift to Prince to Debbie Harry, musicians have collaborated with ballet dancers through music videos and live performances for decades. In recent months, however, the crossover of ballet and pop music has boomed significantly.<\/p>\n
At this year\u2019s Coachella, for instance, New York City Ballet soloist India Bradley<\/a> accompanied Giveon<\/a> on the main stage, while over at the Outdoor Theatre stage, another artist, Sombr, was joined by a troupe of ballet dancers for a performance of \u201cPotential.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Days later, rising star Ad\u00e9la released her music video \u201cKGB,\u201d which included a full prelude<\/a> on pointe. Rosal\u00eda<\/a>, meanwhile, featured ballet heavily during her Lux tour. And in June, Olivia Rodrigo unveiled the music video for \u201cStupid Song,\u201d choreographed by NYCB principal Tiler Peck, who performed in it alongside seven other professional ballet dancers.<\/p>\n While the crossover of ballet and pop music is hardly a new phenomenon, the dancers at the center of 2026\u2019s collaborations have a few theories behind its surge.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kara Covaleski<\/a>, who danced with Sombr at Coachella and in the music video for \u201cPotential<\/a>,\u201d believes that, while ballet has always been relevant, the balletcore<\/a> trend laid the groundwork for the art form to make a significant, dancer-led impact on pop culture.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBalletcore started a few years ago, and at the time, I thought, Okay, this is interesting. This is my lifestyle and it\u2019s becoming a trend,\u201d she says. \u201cBut then people started to tune in to ballerinas as a whole and it brought more light to our artform.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In a similar vein, social media has given dancers more visibility, says fellow NYCB and \u201cStupid Song\u201d dancer Grace Scheffel<\/a>, with algorithms igniting curiosity about ballet and its practitioners. \u201cWith social media, you can hear ballerinas speak, you\u2019re able to see what their days look like,\u201d Scheffel says. Collaborating with pop musicians makes the art form even more accessible, she continues. \u201cThis was an opportunity for ballet as a whole to be experienced by people who wouldn\u2019t have seen it in the first place.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n While \u201cballetcore\u201d has whet audiences\u2019 appetites for dance, a much stronger force may also be propelling ballet into mainstream culture: technology. NYCB corps member Rommie Tomasini<\/a>, who is among the dancers featured in \u201cStupid Song,\u201d believes the proliferation of AI-generated content has led viewers to value real, authentic performances. \u201cIn ballet, you\u2019re just as much an actor as you are a dancer, and nothing will beat the true emotion of live performance,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s impossible to replicate through artificial intelligence, and I think that\u2019s something people are having a greater appreciation for.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n As online interest in dancers has grown, it\u2019s perhaps not surprising that a surge of pop artists have chosen to spotlight ballet in their work.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n This uptick also raises valid questions about how mainstream artists engage with the art form. For instance, when \u201cballetcore\u201d first began to gain popularity, many dancers were concerned that people would view ballet only as a trend, rather than engage with its reality. By contrast, the dance community\u2019s response to pop music\u2019s ongoing dalliance with ballet has been resoundingly positive, in part because of the care musical <\/strong>artists have taken in showcasing it. This is what Houston Ballet principal Harper Watters<\/a> relayed to Rosal\u00eda onstage during her recent concert in Houston, when he was selected to partake in the singer\u2019s \u201cConfessions\u201d segment of the show.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really clear that Rosal\u00eda has surrounded herself with people who are immersed in the dance world,\u201d says Watters. She has indeed done her research: Her LUX tour has been partially choreographed by (La)Horde<\/a>, the French dance collective currently directing the Ballet National de Marseille, while former company members from Marseille and Nederlands Dans Theater partner her onstage.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of times, in music and fashion, people will slap on a pointe shoe because of the aesthetic, and it\u2019s clear to the trained eye that they\u2019re not meant to be in it,\u201d Watters continues. \u201cBut with Rosal\u00eda, the knees were crossed, the feet were shaped, she was on her box. She put in the work, which highlights the work we do on a daily basis.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\nTrends, Technology, and Social Media<\/h3>\n
Getting Ballet Right<\/h3>\n