SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – Shannon Rugani, a previous South Lake Tahoe resident, composed a full-length score based on Marilyn Monroe’s life for a ballet production with an all-female team, notably famous choreographer Dani Rowe. The ballet Marilyn will premiere at the Oregon Ballet Theatre starting April 4, then will be performed at Tulsa Ballet in Oklahoma, The Washington Ballet in D.C., and BalletMet in Ohio.

It’s rare to have female composers in ballet, and even rarer for them to take the path Rugani did. She grew up in South Lake Tahoe, taking piano lessons from local teacher Pam Grant. “She was a Mary Poppins of a piano teacher,” recalls Rugani. “She fostered my natural talent and good ear by teaching me how to compose and showing me music theory in a really fun way.”

But Rugani moved to San Francisco at 14, having received a scholarship for San Francisco Ballet School. While she no longer was taking piano lessons, the school had live accompaniment for dancers and a piano in every studio. That was how she began her composing journey—as something she did in her precious spare moments between dancing and school.

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Rugani had an 11-year career as a ballet dancer and on Broadway. During the COVID-19 lockdown, she returned to some of her previous projects and decided to pitch her music to choreographers, including Dani Rowe. Historically, men have been choreographers while women perform their work—but Rowe is one of the prominent female choreographers in ballet, starting in 2015 after she retired from dancing.

After a nearly missed connection, Rowe and Rugani worked together on “The Window” at the Pacific Northwest Ballet, all while Rugani was pregnant with her daughter. And on their work’s opening night, Rowe came to Rugani, asking her to write her first full-length score based on the life of Marilyn Monroe.

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Rugani dove into research on Marilyn Monroe after her daughter was born, trying to get in the headspace of the iconic star in order to write the music. She composed 90 minutes of music from May to November 2024 between taking care of her daughter and being a wife—often getting up in the middle of the night to chase a melody line before it vanished from her thoughts. She said, “Once I started writing, I couldn’t stop. I still can’t believe I did it.”

Rugani’s experience as a dancer and Broadway performer gave her an ear for accompaniment and what an audience and dancer would enjoy. “These strong melodies are really fun to dance to and my greatest gift to the dancers who will perform to this… I keep saying I’m jealous that I don’t get to dance to it,” she said.

The full ballet includes homage to two iconic Marilyn Monroe performances: “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend” and “Happy Birthday Mr. President.” Rugani said there was high pressure to compose a score that wouldn’t just recreate the music, but embody the spirit of how Marilyn Monroe performed.

Capturing her story in an empowering way was important for the team. Rugani recalled a time when Rowe asked her to reimagine the score for a scene with photographers. Rather than seeing them as sleazy paparazzi, Rowe told her that Monroe wanted to be photographed, as it represented a chance for her to climb up the social ladder. The team emphasized how forward-thinking and ahead of her time Monroe was, defying strictly defined roles that were imposed on her, and even choosing her own roles through her production company.

“It can be such a challenge to be a good mom, to be a wife, to have a career, and to create,” said Rugani. “As a new mom, I just think we are incredible. Women are superheroes, in my mind.” Rugani joined an all-female team including a costumer she worked with previously, Emma Kingsbury. Rugani added to that team by selecting a female mix and mastering engineer, Jennifer Nulsen, in a process that took six weeks.

Rugani also drew on her experience as a mother to write what she felt was one of the most heart-rending moments of the score: Marilyn Monroe’s miscarriage. “It was devastating to write that, but it allowed me to emotionally be there for Marilyn—and anyone in the audience that could understand how she felt,” said Rugani.

That emotional impact is what Rugani feels is most important about her work. “The performance and the stage is ephemeral, but the emotion stays with people. And the ability of music to retain that emotion creates conversations beyond that performance.”

Rugani is happy to be able to spend some uninterrupted time with her daughter and husband now that the composing process is complete. But she’s got plans in the works: a children’s book/musical that she is recording, along with working with other ballets now that she’s accomplished the feat of writing a full-length score. Once Marilyn officially has its world premiere, she plans to release the score onto streaming platforms.

“This music has been in my head and my heart for a long time,” said Rugani. “And I had the ability to write it all down thanks to Pam Grant. Now I get to let dancers, choreographers, and an audience hear it. I finally get to give it to the world.”

Eli Ramos is a reporter for Tahoe Daily Tribune. They are part of the 2024–26 cohort of California Local News Fellows through UC Berkeley.