Boy meets girl ballet

10 April 2012

Dance fans have no reason to grumble. After two weeks of New York City Ballet comes Stuttgart Ballet, the little-seen German troupe who dance Romeo and Juliet. London sees umpteen Romeos but this is the work of John Cranko, the South African born dance-maker who transformed the Stuttgart troupe in the 1960s, as well as ballet itself.

Cranko was uneasy with ballet’s aristocratic manners. He thought dance should be of "life itself" and convey authentic emotions in naturalistic ways. In his Romeo, first made in 1958, you see him cast off the old imperious formality, making everything fresher, younger and sexier. You also see how much of the spadework he did for Kenneth MacMillan, whose own Romeo (the one danced by The Royal Ballet) is much influenced by Cranko’s.

The Stuttgart dancers are pretty good, if artistically immature. Their interpretation of the story is strictly boy-meets-girl, although Friedemann Vogel (Romeo) and Katja Wunsche (Juliet) are a great boy and girl. He has an awesome leap, and nice floppy hair, and she is gentle and sweet. However, there’ s no deeper resonance, no friction between their emotional boldness and our romantic timidity, and without that we’re rather in the realm of photo love stories.

That said, there is some terrific dancing. The Act I pas de trois for Romeo, Mercutio (Filip Barankiewicz) and Benvolio (Marijn Rademaker) is tip top, as is the carnival dancing in Act II. The balcony duet for Romeo and Juliet includes ingenious turns and rapturous lifts. Other good touches include Mercutio twanging Tybalt’s sword, implying his impotence, and Romeo stroking Juliet’s hair in the bedroom scene, a gesture he repeats as they die. There were also great sword fights and sets and costumes that conveyed the balminess of an Italian night.

Until 30 March (0871 911 0200, www.eno.org)

Spring Dance At The Coliseum: Stuttgart Ballet: Romeo And Juliet
London Coliseum
St Martin's Lane, WC2N 4ES

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