Romeo and Juliet

Watch the Ballet Talk with Rex Harrington

About the Ballet

Shakespeare's dramatic genius has inspired numerous adaptations of his work for ballet, but perhaps no choreographer has managed to capture either the richness and power of his characterizations, or his sublime gift for emotional nuance and thematic depth, as John Cranko.

In his Romeo and Juliet, first performed at La Scala in 1958 and revised four years later, Mr. Cranko created a virtually note-perfect re-imagining of the Shakespearean moment in balletic form. Unlike previous versions of Shakespeare's plays, Cranko's adaptation sought to marry the narrative impulse of the original story of the star-crossed lovers with a pure dance aesthetic. The resulting work proved a landmark in modern ballet and has been performed countless times the world over. Cranko himself set the ballet on The National Ballet of Canada in 1964 and since then it has come to be almost a signature piece for the company and for the many dancers, male and female, who have taken its principal roles.

The production that the company dances today was re-designed beautifully in 1995 by Susan Benson. That design, combined with Prokofiev's intensely dramatic score, helps to make this Romeo and Juliet one of the most theatrically powerful and unforgettable expressions in dance of the ardour and yearning of youthful passion.

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