As The New York City Ballet approaches it’s upcoming premiere of a brand new ”Romeo and Juliet”, a very lucky dance audience from around the world gathered here in Stuttgart on Saturday to witness Shakespeare’s tragic tale being performed while catching an extremely rare and exciting glimpse into dance history.

Marcia Haydee, one of the world’s greatest ballerinas and an absolute cultural icon in Europe, turned 70 years old last week and decided, along with our brilliant artistic director Reid Anderson, to mark the occassion with an exclusive shindig! It was decided that Cranko’s ”Romeo and Juliet” would be the the perfect selection for such an event and when some of Marcia’s many illustrious colleagues from over the years got onboard, the idea blossomed into what was to become a ballet feast!

Sue Jin Kang, Germany’s freshest ‘KammerTanzerin’ (see my previous post), breathed extraordinary life into the role of Juliet. Lucia Lacarra and Maria Eichwald were both meant to perform but couldn’t due to injuries. Sue Jin, however, turned out to be the perfect choice for the occasion. I know that several critics particularly prefer Sue Jin’s dramatic pressence in roles originally created by Haydee and on this special night she was able to share that with three different Romeos!!!!…one for each act! Jason Reilly, Filip Barankiewicz and Friedemann Vogel’s interpretations altogether were so diverse and the three of them proved an excellent Romeo team. I thought it was particularly cool that three very young(though famous) dancers were able to captivate the audience the same way I imagine their predecessors once had. Infact, what made this evening so special was that many of those very idols from the Ballet books took the stage to celeberate aswell! It was quite a trip to have the likes of John Neumeier (choreographic genius and founder of the Hamburg Ballet) reprise his original role of ‘Pater Lorenzo’ and Egon Madsen(ballet star, former artistic director of Netherlands Dans Theatre III and one of the most amazing personalities I have ever met) back in the role of Lord Capulet. (I think Madsen has probably danced close to every role in the ballet…and if he hasn’t, easily could! ) Paul Chalmer(former star dancer and now the director of the Leipzig Ballet) and Tamas Detrich (Kammertanzer and our current assistant director in Stuttgart) went as far as putting their tights back on to return to the challenging roles of Paris and Tybalt and did so with seriously amazing aplomb! Paris has a very difficult pas de deux with Juliet in the first act and Tybalt’s fight and death scenes in second act demand utmost athletisism!

There are so many wonderful roles in Romeo and Juliet and the revered guest stars mentioned above set the stage for even more exciting dancing from some of the company’s more recent talents. Former principal, Marion Jaeger, with one of our current ballet masters, Rolando D’Alesio slipped into the roles of Lady and Lord Montague and current principal Alexander Zaitsev split the role of Mercutio with retired Stuttgart fan-favourite Krystof Nowogrodski.(who whipped out some serious dancing and quite an emotional death.) Eric Gauthier (also adored by the audience and just about ready to move on from the ranks of the company and open the doors to his new contemporary-based troupe ‘Gauthier Dance Company’) injected Benvolio with his usual quick-witted style. Principals and soloists were sprinkled throughout doing smaller roles just to be part of the surreal action that was unfolding onstage! Alicia Amatriain was a glamorous Rosalinde, Marijn Rademaker was a candied carnival-king and Oihane Herrero, Katja Wünsche and Elisa Cabrera had a blast getting back into their amazonian gypsy characters. I danced my old part from the first scene (man with a wandering eye for the ladies with a very stern wife… ) which only lasts for about 5 minutes but was the perfect role to get back onstage after my long-ish injury. Besides, I wouldn’t have missed out on this kind of festivity for the world….
The character’s I enjoyed the most were the Duke of Verona and Amme, Juliet’s nurse. Marcis Lesins was a character artist with the company many years ago and is sort of a legend as far as his powerful acting goes. His tall, burly appearance was a bit startling to me at first but while talking to him after the show I discovered that he was an extremely kind and genuine man. His ‘Duke’ was so incredibly nuanced and seemed so real! I was in awe. The whole company was eagerly anticipating Georgette Tsinguirides playing the part of Amme because she is one of the Stuttgart Ballet’s oldest surviving ‘antiques’ as she, herself, calls those who are old enough to have experienced the very beginning of the company’s being. Georgette is the choreologist who was there when John Cranko and those that followed created their many wonders here. She still goes all over the world setting the signature Cranko steps and will be turning eighty(!) next year. She is tiny and seems frail at first, but it doesn’t take long for anyone who meets her to realize that Georgette is full of animated spirit! She rehearses and prepares us on a daily basis and she doesn’t mind when the boys lift her…infact she encourages it! She knows every single role in the Cranko repetoire whether it’s male, female…whatever! Seeing Georgette in costume and in action on Saturday night was a thrill for everyone and there were severeal moments where she was this close to stealing a scene..;) Marcis Lesins and Georgette Tsinguirides definitely do not look alike but share alot in their supreme dexterity and command of the stage. We are so lucky to have Georgette with us on a regular basis.

The audience seemed enchanted at the end of the show and the ovation was certainly not short. Some of Germany’s most elite came out, along with polititians, balletomanes from as far as Japan and South America aswell as some of the dance world’s biggest luminaries such as Ivan Liska, Oliver Matz, Steffi Scherzer, Manuel Legris and many, many artistic directors from accross Europe. A surprise appearance by none other than Richard Cragun absolutely made my day. I can only assume that he is an idol not just to me, but to any guy who also happens to have a love for dance.

It was a truly fascinating spectacle to say the least and I can’t imagine anything similar taking place for quite sometime. The Stuttgart Ballet has truly had a glorious past with remarkable people leading the way ever since John Cranko founded it.(Tetley, Haydee, Anderson..) In being given the chance to taste some of that past first hand, we are given the means to an artisctically inspired and exhilerating future!

(Marcia Haydee as Lady Capulet)

Barankiewicz, Reilly, Haydee, Neumeier and Madsen.

Haydee and Cragun

Posted by Evan McKie