‘Freddie: Break Free’ ballet promises ultimate homage to Queen frontman and his legacy

Ballet Co.Laboratory’s Ordway debut will be much more than a ballet set to rock music — it’s a retelling of a timeless story of inclusion, discovery and authenticity

St. Paul-based professional ballet company Ballet Co.Laboratory’s upcoming Ordway Center debut, “Freddie: Break Free,” an interpretive performance of the life of Freddie Mercury, has been in the making for nearly a decade.

Choreographer and Ballet Co. artistic director Zoé Henrot says that a gala that merged pop music with ballet at the Cowles Center in Minneapolis 10 years ago planted the initial seed, and that managing director Rachel Koep brought up the specific idea of a Queen and Freddie Mercury-inspired ballet.

“I knew that Freddie was queer, but I didn’t know a whole lot else about his life,” Henrot says. “So I started researching right away, and I fell in love pretty quickly.”

Indeed, before we began our interview, Henrot ran off for a “costume change.” She returned wearing a black T-shirt proudly proclaiming, “I (heart) FREDDIE.” The way she talks about the legendary Queen frontman feels like she did, in fact, know and love him.

The show was initially set to debut in March 2020, a bad time for anything to take place. After years of revisiting and reassessment, “Freddie” is set to debut on the Ordway stage April 10-12.

“(Rachel and I) agree, in hindsight, in 2020, we weren’t ready for this type of production, especially the way that we wanted to make it,” Henrot says. “And I don’t think that we had the right mélange of company, either, quite honestly, to tell this story authentically. I think it’s happening at exactly the right moment.”

It also seems that Ballet Co. is the right company to put on the show. Besides her love for Mercury and knowledge of his life, Henrot founded the company, now Minnesota’s largest professional dance company and school, to challenge the medium’s notorious restrictions. In other words, by uplifting dancers of all backgrounds and body types, Ballet Co. breaks free from expectations.

“There’s a lot more queer representation (in classical ballet) now, but there were no public, non-binary dancers when I was younger,” says company member Kit Ornelas, who plays Queen guitarist Brian May. “So being able to be in this space and a part of this production is so special and exciting.”

The time “Freddie: Break Free” took to incubate also allowed Henrot to expand the production beyond a ballet set to rock music. Along with 15 professional dancers, the show will also include live music from the Queen tribute band The Crown Jewels, a full choir and community members living with HIV/AIDS in partnership with the Aliveness Project, dancing while dressed in a variety of iconic Mercury looks. 

Founded in 1985, a year after the release of the show’s namesake song, “I Want To Break Free,” the Aliveness Project has spent the last 40 years supporting the community living with HIV/AIDS, the same condition that took Mercury’s life in 1991, through medical services and community building.

“This is a deeply personal story for many of the people in the HIV community as well as the Aliveness Project,” says Kaizer Eikleberry, Aliveness Project community engagement coordinator. “A lot of our members are disenfranchised and face many barriers, and it’s super exciting that they get this opportunity to be on stage and perform a story that is personal to them and resonates with them.”

In a more subtle nod to those lost to HIV/AIDS, Ornelas, who is also the show’s costume designer, took inspiration from Keith Haring, the iconic ‘80s visual artist known for geometric figures that emphasized movement. Haring died of AIDS in 1990, a year before Mercury.

In this light, “Freddie” tells an over-40-year-old story that has never really ended. Eikleberry mentions how the federal government terminated $600 million in HIV and STD prevention and surveillance grants last month to four Democrat-led states, Minnesota included. In mid-February, a judge temporarily blocked the cuts to the Minnesota Department of Health after state Attorney General Keith Ellison filed a lawsuit, according to MPR.

“Even though it may seem like a problem from 30 years ago, we’re still dealing with it today,” Eikleberry says. “Minnesota sees a new HIV case every single day, so averaging over 300 (per year). And those cases are continuing to rise and not go down like we would expect 30 years later.”

Despite his larger-than-life persona, Mercury was a real person affected by HIV/AIDS. By highlighting those real people today, Ballet Co. seeks to paint a picture of how personal authenticity and curiosity about others can combat the prejudice that is shaping today’s cultural climate.

“A general theme, especially in this country, is othering. I think we saw a bout of that during COVID, which was very much reflective of the time in the ’80s with the HIV/AIDS epidemic as well, just by the way that certain communities were being treated,” Henrot says. “But now we’re seeing that again, you know, and now it happens to be over immigration, over trans rights, over so many things.”

Henrot and Koep agree that art can be a unifier in divisive times, and they both hope that “Freddie: Break Free” will help bridge gaps, build community and challenge notions about who ballet is for.

“My hope is that we have someone who has a lot of experience with ballet, sitting next to someone who’s never been to a ballet, sitting next to someone who’s a rocker, sitting next to someone who has HIV,” says Koep. “People from all these different backgrounds coming together and sharing a moment.”

She adds, “You get a ballet, and a rock concert, and a choir concert and a drag show, all these things, all in one evening. What could be more fun than that?”

This article was updated April 2 to update a reference to Ballet Co.Laboratory that could be confused with a different ballet studio in St. Paul and update an erroneous reference to the Kohl Center in Madison, Wisc., to accurately reference the Cowles Center in Minneapolis.