05/26/2026
🚨🚨 NEW VIDEO ALERT 🚨🚨
What's up, everyone?! Please enjoy this brand-new video from the March Madness Marching Band made from footage from our SPY VS SPY stage show from last September at the Lyric Theatre! This piece, Bolero Rakadu, is an original composition by our music director, Tripp Bratton, and this performance highlights the talents of special guests Rakadu Dance Theatre and Ellie Ruth!
To see and hear this beautiful (imo) composition and performance, click the video below! To learn more about this piece, keep reading!
-------------------------------
While the name "Bolero" is probably most familiar to people because of the famous 1928 composition by Maurice Ravel -- featured prominently in film, on TV, in advertising, and so on -- the title of Ravel's famous work actually comes from a genre of dance popular in the late 1700s and early 1800s.
A bolero is a Spanish dance in 3/4 time, characterized by a rhythm infused with triplets -- listen to the way the drums go "dun dununun dun dununun dun" throughout. A traditional bolero features guitar and castanets at a moderate, slow tempo.
Bolero Rakadu is an original composition by Tripp Bratton, inspired by and named for the Rakadu Dance Theatre, dancers from which performed this piece with us at the SPY VS SPY stage event.
Keep reading for performance credits!
-------------------
Bolero Rakadu is an original song for MMMB, composed and arranged by Tripp Bratton
Rakadu Dance Theatre: Teresa Tomb, Melissa McCartt Smyth, and Laura Calmes
Guest violist: Ellie Ruth
MMMB musicians: Jen Adler (tenor sax), Heather Auman (crash cymbals), Elinor Blankenship (clarinet), Sonya Blaydes (trumpet), Chelsey Boston (snare drum), Emily Bradford (alto sax), Tripp Bratton (melodica), Billy Coleman (bass drum), LeaAnn Coleman (trumpet), Brian Connors Manke (trombone), Karen DiGirolamo (flute), Zach Dilliha (trumpet), Leif Erickson (trumpet), Sara Jo James (trumpet), David Lowry (alto sax), Adrienne McKinney (French horn), Justin O'Connor (baritone sax), Catherine O’Neal (flute), John Pope (trombone), Gabe Robitaille (guitar), Debra Schweitzer (clarinet), Carl Trammel (sousaphone), Jeff Watts (suspended cymbal), and Derek Wingfield (sousaphone)
Audio recording and mixing: Duane Lundy, The Lexington Recording Company
Videography: Brent Allen Turner and Daniel Miller
Video editing: Jennifer Miller
Recorded September 14, 2025 at MMMB presents: Spy vs. Spy, at The Historic Lyric, Lexington, KY.
Thank you to our sponsors, including The Josephine Ardery Foundation, Smiley Pete Publishing, 10 in 20: A Lexington Recording Project, and Energy Insurance Agency. LexArts provided funding support to MMMB presents: Spy vs. Spy through its annual Fund for the Arts campaign.
www.m-m-m-b.org
www.facebook.com/MMMBLexington
