Angry robot ballerinas will take the stage this weekend as dance meets drama and rock music in No Refund Theatre's (NRT) production of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.

Co-Producers Mike Still (senior-political science) and John Constantine (senior-English) developed the futuristic rock ballet based on the recent Flaming Lips album of the same title.

"It started out as one of those funny conversations between friends where you say, 'Hey, wouldn't it be great if we did this?' and we actually did," Constantine said of the show's beginning. "The album came out last summer, and Mike and I got it in our heads that we wanted to make a show based on it. Then we thought it would be great to make the whole thing dance. We borrowed heavily from the album and just filled in the blanks to give it structure for the audience."

The story begins in conflict. Humans have created robots with feelings and emotions to work alongside the people in their city. But the robots are misused and treated as machines for hard labor. As the play begins, the robots have revolted against the humans who created them.

Yoshimi, played by Summer Holmes (freshman-statistics), is a woman trained to fight the robots that are rising up against the humans of the city.

Julia Hynes (sophomore-Spanish and women's studies) plays opposite Holmes as the lead pink robot, 3000-21, who has created an army of robots for defense against the humans. Both women hope to show the audience the conflicts their characters face through the music and their dancing.

"The play is a futuristic West Side Story," Holmes said. "It talks about acceptance of others. Yoshimi has to question what she's known and why she is fighting. I want to show the audience her struggle."

Hynes said she found her role challenging because, although her character is a robot, these robots have feelings and emotions that need to be incorporated into their mechanical existence.

"Eventually Yoshimi and my character become friends, even though we are supposed to be enemies. I want to create sympathy for my character and also help the audience develop an understanding of the complex situation," Hynes said.

Jennifer Ellis (senior-English) choreographed the 40-minute production for NRT.

"This is a completely new venture for me," Ellis said of her choreography role. "It's totally opposite of everything I have ever done, but I've always wanted to do rock music and it was a really fun experience."

Ellis also said she feels the combination of the worlds of acting and dancing will make the performance much more dramatic.

"It's going to be a totally different show than anyone has ever seen before," Ellis said. "The dancers take what was in my head and make it come to life, and they make it even better than I imagined it."

Still and Constantine credit the success of the show to Ellis and the cast.

"For me, what was so neat was watching Jenn work with the dancers," Still said. "We had the vision, and she just took it from there. And the dancers are so talented; they are all so professional about it. It is an art they honed so well."

Constantine agreed.

"Mike and I are less the genius than our choreographer Jenn is," he said. "She is the show, she made it what it is,"

Ellis said she enjoys the story because it has several themes that pertain to the world today.

"Yoshimi feels sympathy for something that she is trained to fight. The story has a peaceful message to it, but it does not ignore that conflict exists," Ellis said. "It really looks at the personal aspect of solving conflict, rather than only focusing on the large scale."