Before New York-based singer-songwriter Rachael Sage embarked on a career in music, she attended The School Of American Ballet and danced in The New York City Ballet productions like "The Nutcracker" and "Coppelia". With her twelfth album Choreographic (2016), Sage continues to pay homage to her first love, recreating the success that some of her previous work achieved via relatively high profile placements on Lifetime TV's Dance Moms.
Choreographic (2016) has been described by Sage as ‘ballet pop’; she claims to have “envisioned each song as a fully-choreographed multi-media experience”. The recent music video for the single "I Don't Believe It" delivers on this promise, featuring 3-time national dance champion Kaci King performing a ballet routine choreographed by Megan Carvajal. The video also makes a visual nod to some of the world-class instrumentalists that provided the orchestral elements which synergized with the record's artful piano-based chamber-pop: violinists Rachel Golub (Adele) and Lyris Hung (Indigo Girls), cellist Dave Eggar (A Great Big World), drummer Doug Yowell (Joe Jackson).
As Sage notes, the message of the song is direct and crystal clear: a reassuring anthem for everyone greeted with scepticism, cynicism and disapproval in their pursuit of something important to themselves: "“‘I Don’t Believe It’ is a song about rising above someone who is putting you down—whether it be a strict teacher, parent or other authority figure, or a bully. As someone who experienced bullying throughout my grammar school and later my high school years, and who also struggled to reconcile some of the harsher teaching methods during my ballet training, I wanted to write an empowering song that was fast-moving and literally compels you to shake off doubt" (2016).
Sage's personal inspiration may be from the realm of dance, but the song's message strikes a universal chord, helping everyone shake off the shackles of doubt and negativity to strive towards their most improbable and unrealistic aspirations. If you don't believe in yourself, it may not matter if those around you do - or don't.
