Photo from Rasta Thomas' Bad Boys of Dance Rasta Thomas and his wife Adrienne Canterna created "Rock the Ballet" which features one female and six male dancers.

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Photo from Rasta Thomas' Bad Boys of Dance "Rock the Ballet" is a production of Rasta Thomas' Bad Boys of Dance and tours the world with more than 200 performances a year.
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Photo from Rasta Thomas' Bad Boys of Dance "Rock the Ballet" incorporates many different styles of dance set to rock and pop music.

Photo from Rasta Thomas' Bad Boys of Dance Rasta Thomas and his wife Adrienne Canterna created "Rock the Ballet" which features one female and six male dancers.

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Most people would agree that classical ballet is beautiful, but Rasta Thomas knows it is rarely jaw-dropping.

“Ballet as a whole is like going to the museum. You appreciate it, you respect it, but you are not going to say ‘Oh my God, look at that painting!’” Thomas exclaims. “That is just not a natural reaction. You’re looking at Picasso and you’re like ‘Wow, that’s a hundred million dollar picture’ and you’re still not overjoyed about it. It’s the same thing with seeing a dancer.”

So when crafting his company’s stage show “Rock the Ballet,” Thomas wanted his dancers to be anything but a museum piece — although their abs may be sculpted like one. The high-energy show set to pop and rock music that infuses ballet with other forms of dance and gymnastics will come to Montgomery College’s Robert E. Parilla Performing Arts Center on Friday and Saturday.

“We don’t want people to scream, but we’re trying to get a reaction,” he says. “Where you are comfortable, you’re happy, you’re smiling. You enjoy your time there for the 90 minutes we have you.”

Born in San Francisco and raised in Saudi Arabia, Thomas started his career as a dancer at age 7 — after being rude and disrespectful in martial arts class.

“My dad threatened to put me in a tutu if I didn’t improve my behavior,” he says. “The next day, I was in ballet class. I hated it. But then I got good at it.”

Thomas studied at the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, D.C., and made a name for himself by winning multiple awards in dance competitions at a young age. In 2001, he became the first American to become a member of the Kirov Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia. In addition to performing with multiple renowned dance companies, Thomas appeared in the movie “One Last Dance” starring Patrick Swayze and had the starring role in Twyla Tharp’s Broadway musical “Movin’ Out.”

Rasta Thomas’ Bad Boys of Dance company was founded in 2007 and has been featured on the television shows “So You Think You Can Dance” and “Dancing with the Stars” and in performance with Elton John.

“Rock The Ballet,” with seven dancers, six male and one female, has been touring the world since 2008 with more than 200 shows per year, sometimes featuring Thomas and his wife, Adrienne Canterna, who is also the show’s choreographer.

“The show is feel-good, family friendly and designed to attract a younger and a new audience to dance in addition to keeping the same dance lover traditionalists who have been going to ballets for years,” he says. “My wife and I wanted to get our peers and colleagues more excited about dance.”

Also a graduate of the Kirov Academy of Ballet, Canterna had never taken on a major choreography project before she was presented with the opportunity to design the show that would become “Rock the Ballet” for a five-week engagement in Germany. Although they only had three weeks to make it all come together, all 30 shows sold out, and led to touring the show in other countries.

“To be such a success everywhere is pretty awesome,” Canterna says. “When I was setting [the choreography], we had no idea if people would even come.”

Canterna wanted the movements to feel mainstream and accessible, yet elevated with a high level of technique. She thought choreographing for men would be challenging, but found she was able to think outside her own skin and create something that was powerful and masculine.

“The only thing that I strived for was that they always looked like men,” she says. “It’s really just a matter of keeping your eyes open and making sure it’s about the dancer and not about yourself.”

Thomas and Canterna live in Linthicum, which also serves as home-base for the company, and the pair recently have launched another show called “Tap Stars.”

Thomas feels that “Rock the Ballet” fits perfectly into a dance scene that is becoming less and less about specific genres and styles of dance and more about breaking down boundaries.

“What makes Adrienne a wonderful choreographer is she was trained in so many styles at a young age,” he says.

Because “Rock the Ballet” is modern and based around popular music, Thomas believes it will have longevity as dances can be set to new tunes to keep the show relevant over time.

Although the first act tells a basic “boy meets girl” love story, the majority of “Rock the Ballet” celebrates what Thomas says is a “magic” quality male dancers can possess, such as Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire and Michael Jackson. Pop culture references are scattered throughout the show as part of Thomas’ goal to create an accessible show for all audiences.

“We’re just trying to make it fun, exciting and entertaining,” he says “The spirit of just dancing for pure joy is really missing, I think, in the dance scene.”

ccalamaio@gazette.net

“Rock the Ballet” featuring Rasta Thomas’ Bad Boys of Dance will take place at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Montgomery College’s Robert E. Parilla Performing Arts Center, 51 Mannakee St., Rockville. Tickets are $30, $28 for students and seniors. Call 240-567-5301 or visit www.montgomerycollege.edu/PAC.