'Ocean's' 2: A Martins-McCartney ballet

Collaborations are hardly news in the dance world.

Merce Cunningham is impossible to imagine without John Cage. George Balanchine did some of his most revolutionary work with Igor Stravinsky. Back in early 20th century, impresario Sergei Diaghilev made modern-art electricity by matching up choreographers with scenery by Picasso, scenarios by Jean Cocteau and music by Satie and the young Stravinsky.

A century ago, Diaghilev famously commanded his artists, "Astonish Me!" It's an inspiration and guilt trip that has prodded artists ever since.

What's happening at the New York City Ballet this fall may or may not turn out to be creatively astonishing. Even in our been-there, done-that era, however, "Ocean's Kingdom" -- choreography by ballet-master-in-chief Peter Martins, music and story by Paul McCartney, costumes by Paul's star-designer daughter Stella -- sounds like news.

This unlikely collaboration began 18 months ago at a gala for the company's school, when Martins asked McCartney if he would like to write music for a ballet. McCartney, considerably less a ballet fan than Martins has been a Beatles fan, jumped at the challenge. He also came up with paintings for each scene, which will be projected as background. And he suggested -- why not? -- that Stella McCartney dress the dancers.

The result (danced five times in January and four times this month after a gala benefit premiere Thursday) is a 45-minute fairy tale ballet about cross-cultural love between a sea princess and a royal earthling. There are villains -- what McCartney calls "baddies" -- and unspoken messages about bigotry and the need to protect the precious sea.

That's right. No yellow submarines. No octopus' garden. And, most surprising to anyone unaware of McCartney's mixed success with four recorded journeys into so-called classical music, no pop songs and no lyrics. This collaboration has nothing in common with the crossover pop-dance breakthroughs in the '70s, when Twyla Tharp made headlines by making serious dance to the Beach Boys.

SEE PHOTOSPaul McCartney

"This is not Beatles music," Martins confirms between matinee and evening performances last weekend. "I imagine a lot of people will be surprised, especially the general public. Who knows? Maybe they will be disappointed," he pauses before deciding to add, "So be it."

Perhaps more surprising is the size and scope of McCartney's participation. "This is his ballet in every way," says Martins, who has run the company through downs and ups since Balanchine's death in 1983. "I think this is the closest collaboration I ever had. Paul and I saw each other once every month or every two months, then during rehearsals, often every day. I can't remember ever spending this much time with a composer."

Except for "A Fool for You," an 1988 ballet set to existing songs by Ray Charles, and "Jazz," a 1993 ballet with a commissioned score by Wynton Marsalis, this is the closest Martins has worked with a composer with a huge popular presence. The choreographer's taste in live musicians has mostly been reflected in such knotty classicists as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Charles Wuorinen and the less knotty but hardly pop John Adams.

Not only did McCartney respond with parts of a full orchestral score, but as Martins sweetly recalls it, Sir Paul also told him "I have a little outline of a story. It helps me write the music.' " He gave it to Martins with a humble disclaimer. "Look at it, then use it or not. Maybe it should just be an abstract ballet."

Martins read the scenario and listened to the music. "It is very narrative music," he concluded, "too programmatic to lend itself to abstraction."

Thus began work on one of the company's few old-fashioned story ballets. Martins has done a full-length "Swan Lake." Balanchine did "The Nutcracker" and "Don Quixote." For the most part, however, City Ballet has been built around Balanchine's uncompromising modern belief that "movement is visual logic, a story in itself."

How did Martins like creating a work basically made to someone else's specifications? "It has been a blast," he says. "I'm very impressed with him. He's very smart, very perceptive. He has fantastic ears, of course, but also very good eyes. And sometimes he stands up in my office and starts to make these moves. I say, 'Do that again, Paul,' and put it in the choreography."

Martins seems a bit helpless when asked about the costumes. "I don't know how to describe them," he says with playful diplomacy. "They're very different -- I don't mean in a bad way. I just saw them for the first time on people and am rather pleased. Some I thought: 'Whoa! What's that?' A lot of them are also Paul's ideas."

Peter, Paul and Stella met in London one day. "He was telling her how he envisions the look of these characters. She took notes."

McCartney may have broad interests but, until now, they didn't include ballet. "He talks about seeing 'Giselle' a few months ago," Martins says, "That's probably the only ballet he has ever seen. But I think we whetted his appetite." Similarly, although elements of McCartney's two oratorios and other classical music have been compared to the British romantic orchestral tradition of Elgar and Vaughan Williams, Martins says McCartney cannot point to any influences. "He says, 'I just come up with the tunes.' But I know he does like Tchaikovsky."

Given the high-profile, big-budget commitment, what could Martins do if he didn't like what the former Beatle made? First, we get the altogether expected reply: "I would have told him." But then Martins continues: "There are times when collaborations can be a nightmare. But as we worked together, I made suggestions and questioned certain things in the story line. He said 'good idea' and would change them. And vice versa.

"He said the only person he ever collaborated this closely with was John. I guess I am in good company." I guess they both are.