Thursday, May 6, 2010

"For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo."

Being the ever-so cultured person that I am (HA!), last night I attended the San Francsisco Ballet's production of Romeo & Juliet.

As a fan of Shakespeare in general, and of Romeo & Juliet in particular, I was very pleased with seeing it in a new way. The 1996 Baz Lurhmann film is still one of my favorite movies, and I have to admit, I did find myself from time to time imagining Leo and Claire up there rather than the actual dancers. And during the party scene, when Romeo and Juliet meet for the first time, I kept picturing the beautiful scene in the movie where they first see each other through the fish tank. And hearing this song:



Apparently I'm not as cultured as I thought, if I spent half the time imaging the movie while watching the dancers on stage.

In all seriousness though, I absolutely loved the ballet, and found myself wishing I could dance the way they did...maybe I should have taken dance lessons beyond age 5. It's amazing how beautifully they tell the story, without even saying a word. And I must say, those tights the male dancers were wearing didn't leave very much to the imagination!

Until next time... xo

1 comment:

Romeo & Juliet ballet fan said...

I'm a massive fan of Shakespeare and Romeo & Juliet in particular, and think it's probably the only one of his plays which I have seen successfully translate to ballet. If you're ever in London I would recommend you try and catch the Prokofiev/Macmillan production.

I do love the Baz Lurmann film also ;) the beautiful thing about Romeo & Juliet is the variety of ways it can be artistically interpreted!

Sam M.