"I dance for those rare moments when everything comes together, when my body and mind cease to conflict and when I am absolutely present, when the steps just happen and I inhabit the music, when I don’t have to think because the dance has taken over." - Julie Diana, Pennsylvania Ballet Principal
Ever really thought about why you dance? Maybe reading the passions of another dancer will help to put your own into perspective. Here, Pennsylvania Ballet Principal, Julie Diana, shared with Dance Magazine about why she dances, and it might be just the words you need to read to get through a tough ballet class and keep pushing onwards and forwards! Why I Dance: Julie Diana
Here is the most famous scene from the ballet, with London's Royal Ballet greatest, Rudolph Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn. After this performance, their partnership became famous.
Plot
[Excerpt from dance.about.com] The ballet begins with feuding between the Capulets and the Montagues. Wearing a disguise, Romeo Montague crashes a party at the Capulet house, where he meets Juliet Capulet. He falls instantly in love with her. The two secretly proclaim their eternal love for each other, on the balcony.
Hoping to finally put an end to the family feud, Friar Laurence secretly marries the couple. But the feuding continues: Juliet's cousin Tybalt kills Romeo's friend Mercutio during a fight. A distraught Romeo kills Tybalt in a fit of revenge, and is sent into exile.
Juliet turns to Friar Laurence for help, so he devises a plan to help her. Juliet is to drink a sleeping potion to make her appear dead. Her family will then bury her. Friar Laurence will then tell Romeo the truth; he will rescue her from her tomb and take her away, where they will live together happily ever after.
That night, Juliet drinks the potion. When her distraught family finds her dead the next morning, they proceed to bury her. The news of Juliet's death reaches Romeo, and he returns home desperately grieving. (He never received the message from Friar Laurence.) Believing that Juliet is really dead, he drinks poison. When Juliet awakens, she sees that Romeo is dead and stabs herself.
Romeo and Juliet Trivia
Even though Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet back in the late 1500's, the ballet was not created until 1938!
Sergei Prokiev composed the score in 1935, after being commissioned by the Russian Kirov Ballet, but the full-length ballet was not presented until 1938 in Brno, Czechoslovakia. However, it is better known today from the significantly revised version that was first presented at the Kirov in Leningrad in 1940, with choreography by Leonid Lavrovsky.
The ballet did not premier in America until 1969, when it was performed by the Stuttgart Ballet. The first American ballet company to do the ballet was the Joffrey Ballet in 1984.
Here is a brief timeline of the ballet's most famous performances:
1962 - Stuttgart Ballet (Germany), choreographed by John Cranko
1965 - Royal Ballet in London, choreographed by Sir Kenneth MacMillan. Margot Fonteyn and Rudolph Nureyev brought new life to the characters.
1985 - Hungarian National Ballet, choreographed by LászlóSeregi in Budapest
1984-85 - Joffrey Ballet was the first American ballet company to perform the ballet
2007 - New York City Ballet, restaged by Peter Martins to the Prokofiev music
Lauren Cuthbertson as Juliet dances with Edward Watson as Romeo, of the Royal Ballet in 2006 Photograph: Dee Conway
Romeo and Juliet - Sterling Hyltin and Robbie Fairchild
With Valentine's Day upon us, it is only fitting to include a post about Romeo and Juliet! Here's a video where we see a different twist on the famous ballet - behind the scenes with New York City Ballet. It is an entire series, but I've chosen one episode where the dancers talk about dancing the lead roles. Enjoy!
