It's always a challenge to step into these touring companies and prepare for openings with both a dress rehearsal and a performance on the same day. I guess it's all a function of cash flow, especially at highly union houses like the Kennedy Center, where they have to cut costs and hold expenses down at every opportunity. We locals aren't being paid all that much, but to bring us in for more rehearsals or more days involves all kinds of union dancers, musicians, directors, stage and backstage crew, and other support personnel, not to mention additional housing, food, and travel costs for the touring company artists. Thus, we end up, essentially, dancing two ballets in one day.
Not a problem, I suppose, for the young teens and twenty-somethings who dance and train daily, but I'm twice their age and haven't danced since July 2005, and it's days like yesterday that make me think I'm getting too old for this sort of thing.
Since it's not in the production budget, I'm still seeking volunteers to buy/give me a massage!
We got wigs yesterday. For acts I and II, I have a lovely, mouse brown, page boy. In act III, I change characters, hence hair, and move into a black wig; I'm told it makes me look like Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra.
Now, a few notes about the production. This is a great show.
Everybody knows the "Romeo and Juliet" story (this is one of the first events in D.C.'s year-long Shakespeare in Washington festival). The music is from the Sergei Prokofiev 1936 score that was actually commissioned by the Kirov Ballet. Because of several orchestral suites from the score often played at classical concerts and the use of themes in various movies and television show sound tracks, many people will recognize bits and pieces of the music. The 1940 Leonid Lavrovsky choreography used this week also originated with the Kirov.
The stage director has done a great job with the large, busy, interesting crowd scenes. There is lots going on simultaneously and it never feels stilted (often a great problem for "fake-feeling" ballet crowd scenes). Costumes are lavish and varied.
The Kirov is a very athletic dance company with a big (and competitive) group of male dancers, so you'll see a lot of spectacular choreography for them. There is a lot of sword fighting in this show, and it's actual swordfighting, not just "stage movement."
The various Romeos (there are four who rotate throughout the week) have a lot of work to do lifting and holding their Juliets above their heads, including one scene where Romeo lifts and balances Juliet with just one hand. And, when Romeo dies at Juliet's bier, he has to fall backwards down the stairs!
There is a definite advantage to the Soviet/Russian tradition of identifying and training dancers from the time their are pre-school aged children. They develop levels of technique and flexibility I can't imagine in many of the American dancers and athletes I know. For example, I like to watch the dancers stretch and warm-up before dressing for a show. "Paris" walked in to the rehearsal room and the very first thing he did was stand in one place and then lift his leg straight up until his toes pointed directly at the ceiling; then he switched legs. I saw one of the "Romeos" preparing, as well. He was sitting on the mat with his legs spread apart from side to side at a 180ยบ angle. Note that I said from side to side, not from front to back.
Lots of people are involved behind the scenes in putting this show together. Here are my dresser, makeup artist, wigger, and armorer:
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