\n<\/p>\n
When the choreographer Kate Prince set out several years ago to create a dance show based on the music of Sting, she was unsure what story she might be able to tell using his varied songbook.<\/p>\n
Then she saw photos<\/a> of young Syrian refugees taking desperate risks to reach safety in Europe, and she had an idea. She would use some of Sting\u2019s and the Police\u2019s most affecting music, songs like \u201cDesert Rose\u201d and \u201cEvery Breath You Take,\u201d to tell the story of a family displaced by war.<\/p>\n The result is \u201cMessage in a Bottle,\u201d which premiered in London in 2020 and comes to New York City Center in Manhattan for a two-week run<\/a> beginning on Tuesday. In the nearly two-hour show, featuring Prince\u2019s dance company, ZooNation<\/a>, she draws on freestyle dance, salsa, lindy hop, street dance and other styles to bring to life 27 songs.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople get married to my songs, people play my songs at funerals,\u201d Sting said. \u201cI\u2019m always happy that they have a function. And here the function is to tell an important, worthy, wonderful story.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In a recent interview at City Center, Prince, Sting and the composer and arranger Alex Lacamoire discussed the refugee crisis, the challenge of setting Sting\u2019s music to dance and the role of art in times of conflict. Here are edited excerpts from the conversation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cMessage in a Bottle\u201d focuses on three siblings who are driven from their home because of war. What made you want to tell this story?<\/strong><\/p>\n KATE PRINCE<\/strong> I saw a photograph of Alan Kurdi, a young boy from Syria who had drowned and washed ashore. I couldn\u2019t shake that photo, and I couldn\u2019t shake the question of what would it take for me and my husband to pick up our daughter out of her cot, and put her in a boat and cross open water. How bad would it have to be for us to flee? It felt like story I had to tell. I didn\u2019t feel like it was a choice.<\/p>\n STING <\/strong>It is the story of our times. None of us can get away from this. Those people in the boats are us, or could be at some point. So we can\u2019t just say the refugees are a different species from us. We\u2019re human beings, all of us, and we share in this problem. This piece really does put you in the shoes of people like that. They\u2019re a family, like our families. They have the same needs, the same rights, as we do.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n How did the production come together?<\/strong><\/p>\n PRINCE<\/strong> I\u2019ve long been a massive fan of Sting and the Police. My first-ever concert experience was going to Wembley Stadium to see Sting. At our wedding, we had \u201cWalking on the Moon\u201d as part of the service. On my honeymoon I was listening to that song, and I started thinking: \u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to choreograph this. I wonder if anyone\u2019s already done it.\u201d And I wrote to my boss at Sadler\u2019s Wells, a dance theater in London, and managed to get a meeting with Sting, and he gave me permission to do a workshop.<\/p>\n STING <\/strong>I remember going to the workshop, seeing the bare stage, the dancers, no lights, no scenery. And I remember sitting, weeping. I was deeply moved to an extent that was totally unexpected.<\/p>\n