You’re relatively junior dancers in a major ballet company, cast to make your debuts in two of the most coveted roles in the dramatic repertoire.
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You → ’re → repertoire
Normally, this would be shielded from media view in the middle of a run of performances after those higher up the ladder have commanded the spotlight.
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those → shield → spotlight
But no; you’re given opening night.
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you → give → night
Instead, under the gaze of current and former artistic directors and more than 200 company alumni including such legendary ballerinas as Veronica Tennant and Karen Kain, you’re launching the National Ballet of Canada’s 75th anniversary season.
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you → include → season
On Saturday night, that was the responsibility thrust on 23-year-old second soloist Isabella Kinch and corps de ballet member Oliver Yonick, 24, as, to the delight of a packed and enthusiastic Four Seasons Centre audience, the National Ballet opened an 11-performance run of “Romeo and Juliet.”
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Ballet → thrust → Romeo
If Kinch and Yonick had made it through this ballet of many moving parts and extravagant dramatic demands without significant missteps they’d have more than earned their stripes.
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they → make → stripes
In fact, they merited distinguished service medals for performances that touched the heart.
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that → merit → heart
Not only did they prove their suitability for the title roles — Kinch all blossoming womanhood; Yonick yearningly romantic — theirs was an onstage chemistry that glowed with increasing intensity from the moment Shakespeare’s “pair of star-cross’d lovers” set eyes on each other.
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pair → prove → other
A triple-Kleenex tragedy that kills off at least a half dozen of its characters might not seem the obvious choice for a birthday celebration but, in this instance, it makes perfect sense.
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it → kill → sense
Nowadays ballets fuelled by Prokofiev’s musically prescriptive 1935 “Romeo and Juliet” score abound.
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ballets → fuel → score
But in 1964, when the National Ballet first danced the work, this was not the case; nor at that point had its choreographer, South Africa-born John Cranko, become world famous.
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choreographer → dance → point
To acquire the work was a coup and artistically a big step up in the company’s development.
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acquire → acquire → development
Reviving it now after a 17-year absence is a reminder of its historic importance, but also of the logic behind former artistic director Karen Kain’s decision to replace it in 2011 with a new, custom-fitted version by the renowned choreographer Alexei Ratmansky.
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Reviving → revive → choreographer
Stylistically, Cranko’s version is beginning to show its age but that’s not the same as aging out.
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that → begin → age
It’s still a darned good show, ideal for newcomers and seasoned ballet fans alike.
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It → ’ → newcomers
It stands on its merits.
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It → stand → merits
As for Ratmansky’s more Shakespeare-adherent version, Hope Muir, the National Ballet’s current artistic director, told the Star it has not “been binned.”
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it → tell → Star
It’s just having a rest.
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It → have → rest
Cranko died in 1973 at age 45 — on a return flight from a Stuttgart Ballet tour to New York — but he had already breathed fresh air into the art of dance drama, vaulting the sometimes-staid conventions of classical ballet to offer a more human, naturalistic and psychologically compelling approach.
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he → die → approach
In April 1964, Arnold Rockman, reviewing the Toronto opening for the Star, was clearly taken aback.
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Rockman → review → Star
“For the ardent balletomane,” he wrote, “Romeo and Juliet may seem to have too little ‘ballet.’
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Romeo → write → ballet
In Cranko’s day, the Soviets had established what you might call the muscular-heroic style of male partnering.
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you → establish → partnering
Cranko’s pas deux are physically just as challenging, mechanically perhaps more so, but done right, what they deliver is an expression of human emotion, not an athletic feat.
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deliver → do → emotion
This is the lesson Kinch and Yonick have clearly absorbed.
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Kinch → absorb → ?
Each of their major pas de deux, distributed through the ballet’s three acts, told its own story.
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Each → distribute → story
As a character Juliet has more to chew on than Romeo.
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Juliet → have → Romeo
He gets the sword fights and the joshing around with the bros.
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He → get → bros
She gets the high drama of confronting the horror of an arranged marriage and taking drastic steps to avoid it.
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She → get → it
You could see the resolve building in Kinch’s Juliet with every step, every glance, every gesture, each one measured for its dramatic intent.
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resolve → see → intent
And just think, Kinch is only now starting her Juliet journey.
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Kinch → think → journey
Veronica Tennant, who first danced the role at age 18 in 1965, kept developing it right until her retirement a quarter century later.
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who → dance → retirement
Yonick, tall and handsome, makes a fine figure of a Romeo.
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Yonick → make → Romeo
Donald Trump, in his current obsession with the male form, would doubtless commend Yonick’s physique.
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Trump → commend → physique
He has his long limbs firmly under control to be deployed expressively; and he can turn like there’s no tomorrow.
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he → have → control
It is a wonderful vehicle for displaying the artistic range of a well-seasoned company that spans the generations, from the sexagenarian Rex Harrington as the Duke of Veronica — so much gravitas — through highly accomplished mid-career dancers such as Ben Rudison (Tybalt) and Donald Thom (Mercutio) to a spring-footed youngster like Tom Cape making an impressive debut as Benvolio.
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that → display → Benvolio
And how gratifying to see an unforgettable former Juliet, Heather Ogden, graduate so effectively to the mother’s role as Lady Capulet.
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Juliet → see → Capulet
(Come next week Ogden will even get to boss her real-life boss around when Muir costumes up to perform Juliet’s nanny.)
Altogether, a night to remember.
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Muir → come → nanny
The Aporia
