British dance company unveils Britney, the ballet

The very public problems of US pop singer Britney Spears are rarely out of the headlines, but now her troubles are being put on the stage by one of Britain's leading modern dance companies.

The Rambert Dance Company have set the 26-year-old's battles to music and dance in an interpretation called "Meltdown" that takes in her hounding by paparazzi photographers and when she shaved off her hair in a tattoo parlour.

Early Thursday, Spears was taken to hospital by ambulance in Los Angeles for the second time this month, according to the celebrity gossip website TMZ.com, due to fears over her own safety and that of others.

Choreographer Hubert Essakow said that like many people, he became interested with the singer's problems about a year ago and thought it would provide good material for a show.

"I thought this was a really modern day tragedy, this reversal of fortune. I saw somebody who had such great hope and was adored by millions of people then goes down the wrong route," he told BBC television Thursday.

"I thought it would make an interesting story and try to translate this into dance."

In an extract of the show in the broadcaster's report, Britney is seen dancing in a pink crop top, black PVC hotpants and a pink stetson and harassed by photographers in menacing black costumes.

She is eventually carried off by dancers dressed as doctors in white coats.

Music for the piece is by Richard Thomas, who worked on "Jerry Springer -- The Opera", a musical based on the US television show host.

The show will be performed Friday as part of the Rambert's new season of choreography at London's Southbank Centre.
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