universal importance of this performance. These aspects are not only
visible in the music but they are also shown in the dancing. No typical
cliché ballet movements to be found in this performance. But instead
ballet wit influences from the urban and the hip-hop scene is what you get
you to see.
So now the actual performance.
I immediately got curious for the performance, when walking into the
theater hall because of the exceptional décor visible on the stage. On the
one side of the stage was big grey wall, on the other side was also a big
grey block hanging on the ceiling. On the back there was a oblique
triangular shaped block. It made me think about the meaning of it. After
some long thinking i came with the conclusion that those grey walls
could be a metaphor for the ‘grey’ city in which they were living in. also
the musicians who were sitting in front of the stage, raised some
questions in me. Because when going to a ballet performance you don’t
expect to see several musicians with dreads and colourful clothes playing
the djémbe, the djambeon, tabla and so goes on.
When the performance started I decided to let my mind go along with the
flow of the performance and I would just see where it ended. The
dancers of the scapino ballet took you with them along the story of
Romeo & Juliet. All the necessary scenes were there and clearly
recognizable. The fights between the Capulet’s and the Montague’s, the
balcony scene, the death of Tybalt on the ball and of course the end scene
with Romeo & Juliet both dying. Because Ed Wubbe wanted to make a
clearly multicultural, and timeless performance he probably decided to cut
all the unnecessary details out of it for example: paris, the kingsman who
wants to marry Juliet, doesn’t take part in his performance. Maybe this is
something what can bother you, but personally I didn’t mind because
leaving out those details and just having the straight story fits better
within the vision of this performance.
Although a lot of characters were left out, the character of tybalt was
there. Tybalt is juliet’s cousin. And although Romeo & Juliet are the main
characters he played the strongest role. His actions and movements
showed such strength and discipline. Sometimes his movements were
even a bit animal-like. But more dancers had this. This could also be
because of the music. Those drums sometimes created an African vibe,
which could bring you and the dancers in a sort of trance.
The music was very important during the performance. The music
strengthened the movement done on the stage and could also help to
create a certain atmosphere. It also seemed like the music went seamlessly
into the dance. There was much interaction between the dance and the
music.
The only thing I didn’t like was the kiss in the balcony scene. For me this
version of romeo & Juliet was a very artsy performance, without all the
clichés and with a lot of unexpected elements. Like for example in the
balcony scene Juliet wasn’t standing on a balcony calling out for Romeo.
But in this performance romeo climbed down from the big grey wall to
Juliet who was standing at the bottom. For me this also stood for two
cultures who came together and embraced. So that I liked but after that
there was the kissing scene. I didn’t like it because it was too much of a
cliché in my opinion. In the rest of performance they showed the intimacy
while dancing. And so this kiss just didn’t fit in. It didn’t add anything to
the performance.
Despite this kissing scene this version of romeo &Juliet was definitely a
very good performance. A lot of diversion can be seen. There are strong
powerful group choreographies, but there also minimalistic smaller scenes
between romeo & Julia.