The Greatest Love Story ever Danced
Find out what makes Nureyev's version of Romeo & Juliet so special.
Romeo & Juliet Costumes by Laurent LiotardoEnglish National Ballet
Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet has inspired many composers and choreographers. English National Ballet boasts of having two different productions in its current repertoire: Derek Deane’s in-the-round versionand Rudolf Nureyev’s, which was created especially for us in 1977 for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee.
Nureyev’s production won the prestigious Olivier Award for Best Ballet Creation that year. In 1978, the Company embarked on a US tour, performing it at New York’s prestigious Metropolitan Opera House as well as Washington DC. Nureyev would go on to adapt it for La Scala and Paris Opéra Ballet.
Members of the English National Ballet company in Romeo & Juliet by Bill CooperEnglish National Ballet
What makes Nureyev’s Romeo & Juliet so special?
Nureyev's version of the story is often described as “the most faithful to Shakespeare” (The Times, 1977).
Nureyev had an extraordinary memory and, when passionate about a subject, he delved deep into it. He knew the text of Romeo & Juliet extremely well, and even researched the earlier story it was taken from and the context in which it was written.
His production is “very different from its predecessors and absolutely fascinating” (New York Times, 1977) and “full of masterful touches” (Daily Mail, 1977).
Stunning sets and costumes bring the story to life, with all its excess, bawdiness, humour, passion and colours. Nureyev’s Verona is full of sex and violence, tricksters and bloody riots. Nureyev did not only show the darker side of life though: the Capulet’s ball is a truly magnificent affair.
The lead dancers must give their all. From sweeping leaps to tender lifts, the choreography’s high demands are what make the lead dancers’ performances in the title roles so unforgettable.
Alina Cojocaru dancing Juliet by Bill CooperEnglish National Ballet
Patricia Ruanne, the original Juliet, said:
“Nureyev tended to put you more at risk. He felt that each performance required a dancer to cross a personal barrier of skill and endurance, and certainly I never felt I had every aspect of the ballet under complete physical and emotional control.
However, I realized that this feeling of being faintly panic-stricken by the uncertainty of controlling events was, in his mind, the key to how Romeo and Juliet would have felt. All that remained was to accept and make use of the sensation within the production.”
Members of the English National Ballet company in Romeo & Juliet by Bill CooperEnglish National Ballet
The fight scenes are full-on. Nureyev wanted the fight scenes to look as real as possible, and brought in fight director B.H. Barry, who had worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company and on many Hollywood and TV productions, to help him stage them. Barry’s stylised fight scenes brought a raw aggressiveness to the opening street brawl, and rather vicious duels in the central act.
It showcases Nureyev’s inventiveness, by using cinematic techniques such as freeze frame and slow motion movement, and other dance styles. At the end of Act II the crowd suddenly freezes after Lady Capulet discovers the murdered body of Tybalt. Then, as Juliet watches Lady Capulet cradling Tybalt’s dead body, the crowd freezes once more whilst Juliet expresses her disbelief over the death of her murdered cousin.
Romeo & Juliet Costumes by Laurent LiotardoEnglish National Ballet
Patricia Ruanne said:
“The brief men’s dance in the Capulet ballroom scene can be loosely recognized in Fiddler on the Roof, courtesy of Jerome Robbins; and certain moments of the fight in Act I owe something to the rumble in West Side Story (Robbins again).
Some steps in the acrobats’ dance in Act II will seem familiar if you’ve seen the waiters’ dance in Hello Dolly, and can be seen as a tribute to Gene Kelly.”
Alina Cojocaru and Isaac Hernandez dancing in Romeo & Juliet by Bill CooperEnglish National Ballet
For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.
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