Romeo and Juliet and the Ballet

My favorite play of all time is Romeo and Juliet. I can't help it. I always envisioned myself playing Juliet, in my younger days. I knew most of the lines. I did bits of her parts in acting classes and such. I first became enamored of this play when I was in the ninth grade. I lived in Spangdahlem, Germany at the time and went to high school in Bitburg, Germany. The wonderful movie version of Romeo and Juliet was released during my freshman year of high school, and it actually came to our small Air Force Base in Germany. So, all of the high school English classes got to go to the theatre to see it. I was SOLD!! I loved the story then, and I still love the story today. I especially love the music that was written for the movie version. That tune is really special to me. A few months ago, the Romeo and Juliet ballet began to be advertised in the paper. I knew that I just HAD to go see it and take my daughter and my nieces. I kept this thought to myself, though, not knowing whether or not I would really get to go. Rachel used to take dance, and she was really good. My niece Lauren took dance at her school, and she loves ballet. So, I finally went to the Civic Center and bought the tickets this past week. I got seats pretty close to the front of the auditorium, and we all enjoyed being close enough to see the facial expressions as well as the dances. The classical music, by Sergei Prokofiev, is rather daunting and heavy, so the dancing was really slow and flowing. There were no high jumps, not a lot of spins across the stage, or any really fancy stuff, but the story was told very lyrically and beautifully. The choreographer did a wonderful job of storytelling through dance. The company that performed here is the State Ballet Theatre of Russia. They used recorded music, and that was not so great. I would love to see a ballet using a full orchestra, but that would cost loads of money and require a trip out of town somewhere like New York!! No matter, the ballet was great. I have been thinking about it all day, and I dreamed about it last night. I have done several YouTube searches today to see if any performances of other troupes might be there. Yes, they are. I can see that all of the ballet companies do the same sort of slow, lyrical dancing to Prokofiev's music. This experience was a great start to a long weekend. I hope you all have a great one, too.