So many famous choreographers have taken on Sergei Prokofiev’s 1935 ballet Romeo and Juliet — Leonid Lavrovsky, Frederick Ashton, John Cranko, and Kenneth MacMillan, for starters — that it’s not surprising Rudi van Dantzig’s 1967 version for the Dutch National Ballet should have slipped under the radar screen. Outside the Netherlands, it’s been performed in France, Italy, Greece, and Canada, but never in the United States. Boston Ballet will remedy that starting next Thursday when it opens van Dantzig’s R&J at the Wang Theatre.
Actually, as the cheerful, courtly choreographer explains, the original idea was to get someone else’s version. " In Amsterdam, my director, Sonia Gaskell, wanted to do Romeo and Juliet, and she sent me to Moscow to talk to Lavrovsky. And he asked me how big is the stage, and I said, ‘Well, this big,’ and he said, ‘Oh that’s much too small,’ because we didn’t have a very big stage at that point. So he said, ‘Impossible on a stage of that size.’ Then I went back to Amsterdam, and Gaskell said, ‘Well, you have to go speak to MacMillan, " and I went to MacMillan, and he wanted so much money. At that time, the company was not very rich, and I came back and she said, ‘Well, Rudi, it seems to be very difficult, why don’t you try to do it yourself.’ During my trips and talks to those people I thought, well, why shouldn’t I try, and so I did my first full-length ballet. "
The odd thing is that, at that point, he hadn’t seen the MacMillan. " No, I had only seen the Lavrovsky film [which was made in 1954], with Ulanova. For me that was a big inspiration, the way it was filmed and the way all the characters were, especially Ulanova. " And he hasn’t seen either of Boston Ballet’s two previous incarnations, by Choo San Goh (1984, ’86, ’89, and ’93) and Daniel Pelzig (1997). " Choo San Goh? He was in our company in Amsterdam. I didn’t know he did a Romeo. He created it here? Nobody told me! Because I knew Choo San very well. He must have danced in our Romeo and Juliet. Not a big part, though. How funny! " But he does have an explanation for why a company with two stagings in the bank would go after a third. " Mikko [Nissinen, Boston Ballet’s artistic director] danced it in Holland; he was Mercutio. He was in my company, too. I was his boss. I also was the boss of Anne-Marie Holmes [Nissinen’s predecessor]; she also danced in Holland. "
So how would van Dantzig characterize his Romeo? " Traditional. I hope it is not very far from Lavrovsky’s version, but I hope it is deeper than MacMillan’s or even Cranko’s. Most of the time people make Paris empty and even a bit effeminate. For me, if he has the same qualities that Romeo has, a very warm, attractive man who loves her, then it gives her choice of Romeo more value. And for me the nurse is very important, because she is more or less the mother of Juliet, so the mother is sort of jealous. And the marriage of the mother and the father is not very good, so the mother has a very emotional feeling with Tybalt. It’s the loneliness of the mother who is not a mother to Juliet and is not a wife to her husband because the husband is interested in money and eating. "
Van Dantzig’s Romeo has its own sets and costumes, by Toer van Schayk, so we won’t see the familiar ones by Alain Vaës. His is also bigger: " I made mine for a company of 70 dancers, so it is always a bit of a hassle to make it for a smaller company. " But he wants it to live on Boston Ballet. " I tell the dancers, ‘I don’t want to show you every arm movement, every way you fall on the floor, take people’s hands. That should be your own; if I don’t like it, I will tell you. I should believe that it is so important that it comes out of you. It should be very impulsive. That’s what makes it alive.’ "
Boston Ballet presents Romeo and Juliet at the Wang Theatre, 270 Tremont Street in the Theater District, May 8 through 18. Tickets are $12.50 to $82; call (617) 447-7400.
