“Romeo e Giulietta”. Un perfetto case-study per il balletto narrativo del Novecento

Abstract

This paper highlights some peculiarities and modes of the modern narrative ballet, taking as an example Romeo and Juliet by Prokofiev. The choreographic versions by John Cranko and Kenneth MacMillan can be representative of the way to understand and practise this genre of dance, in some aspects univocal, in others entirely personal and specific of a poetics. Among the themes are the pantomime and the new gestures, the libretto, the adaptation of the play, and the dancer’s training. The essay also considers the original version of the ballet, choreographed by Lavrovskij, and it points to the relationship between the English ballet and Russian one which in the 1930s restored the full-length ballet.