Yet Another Look at Romeo and Juliet

Ballet Maribor’s “Radio and Julietâ€� recalls Shakespeare’s tragic love story but strips away all the non-essential elements: colorful battling families, comical supporting characters, secret messages. This leaves men, battling each other, and the woman they are fighting over.  Like Mark Morris’ “Romeo and Julietâ€� that debuted last summer, this version, conceived and choreographed by Edward Clug, lets Juliet live. But to very different effect: Morris’ young couple lives happily ever after, dancing off into the stars. Here, Juliet is last seen, sitting alone, Romeo dead on the floor beside her. Set to a well-chosen suite of gloomily beautiful songs by Radiohead, this is a minimalist and very modern take on a very old tale.

   The 60-minute piece starts the same way it ends, with Juliet alone. In a grainy black and white film sequence, shot in a gloomy and ornate old mansion, Juliet, danced by Tijuana Krizman, lies awake in a white bed. Switching to live action, six men walk on stage, one at a time. They are shirtless, in black suits with lavender linings. Most of them look very similar - it never becomes clear, nor is it meant to, who is Romeo or any other specific character. Rather, they are all lovers, fighters, friends, enemies.

    The dancing is rapid and highly technical, blending ballet with club moves and European-style modern, with stabbing arms and plunging off-balance spins.  Only in the one pas de deux between the lovers is there much traditional ballet choreography - here we see a few arabesques and lifts, but otherwise Clug pares these away too.

   Though much of the choreography is abstract, the scenes track the essence of the play closely.  When the lovers meet, finding each other in a crowd, their dance is like two egrets, their arms clasp together and their heads undulate left and then right, accompanied by the words of Radiohead’s song “How to Disappear Completely.â€�

   The duet between Romeo and Juliet is lovely, but the most dynamic dancing happens between men: battling, showing off. Krizman is a very fine dancer and holds her own, but this performance is all about Radio, and Romeo. p

For information and tickets, call 413-243-0745.

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