The Stars All Align for the Star-Crossed Lovers!

This production of Romeo and Juliet was, without a doubt, among the very best I have ever seen. I’m not referencing small companies; I am recalling performances at Lincoln Center in New York by the Royal Ballet of England and the Stuttgart Ballet of Germany, and I can say that State Street Ballet’s R&J is truly among the very best in the world. 

Saori Yamashita was a perfect Juliet, with impeccable technique and a character portrayal that brought the audience right into the heart of young Juliet’s emotional turmoil. Yamashita takes her rightful place beside the great Juliets in the history of this ballet, including Carla Fracci, Alessandra Ferri, and Margot Fonteyn. Ryan Lenkey was a most captivating Romeo, both technically for his gravity-defying leaps and strong, elegant partnering, and dramatically, moving seamlessly through the various emotions that the role demands. 

Every single dancer in this production was a gem. From the delightful harlots (Brenna Chumacero, Akari Kato, and Gina Quiodettis) to the striking Tybalt (Tigran Sargsyan) to Juliet’s comical nurse (Hailey Maynard) to the tragicomic Mercutio (Ethan Ahuero), and all the courtiers and citizens of Verona, every dancer contributed their own unique perspective, making this story come alive. Like a crown of jewels, each dancer shone with their own particular sparkle, so that I can still see the individual Montagues and Capulets, harlots and villagers, in my mind’s eye. 

The collaboration between State Street Ballet (SSB) and the Santa Barbara Symphony made this production unique in the history of this ballet for having the orchestra on stage! Instead of being “heard but not seen” in the pit, the orchestra was high above the stage, like a heavenly choir. 

Quoting Maestro Nir Kabaretti, conductor: “There is a magic that happens when the musical accent meets the accent of the movement of the dancers.” And magic it was! The dancers hit every accent in the music, and the orchestra hit every accent and sword clash of the dancers!

I asked Artistic Director Megan Philipp how they achieved such perfect synchronicity when the conductor had his back to the dancers during the whole performance. She explained that Kabaretti came to the studio quite often, so he could “feel the pulse of the dancers.” Kabaretti explained, in his pre-show notes, how Prokofiev’s music “reinvents Shakespeare’s story through sound,” and “the music breathes with the characters.” Thus, even with the conductor’s back to the dancers, the orchestra and dancers were breathing together through the music. 

Said Executive Director Cecily MacDougall: “There’s a special kind of magic when the Symphony and State Street Ballet perform together. The musicians and dancers respond to one another in real time, creating something that feels alive, spontaneous, and distinctly Santa Barbara.”

The collaboration between the Symphony and choreographers Nilas Martins, Philipp, MacDougall, and Rodney Gustafson was absolutely spectacular, and signature Santa Barbara!

The set was perfect in the way I imagine a Shakespearean company would have staged it. Stone pillars, with a hint of sheer curtains that rose and fell across one side of the orchestra, high above the stage; furniture that was quietly brought on and off stage; chandeliers that descended silently from the rafters — all aspects combined to bring the audience directly into each scene. The simple and elegant costumes, too, were just right to clearly define each character.

The ballet opens in the streets of Verona, with members of the royal Montague and Capulet families arrogantly parading around, three cheeky harlots sexily trying to entice customers, and townspeople going about their business. We meet the fiery Tybalt, handsome Romeo and his companions Mercutio and Benvolio (Harold Mendez), when suddenly a sword fight erupts between Tybalt and Mercutio that grows until it envelops everyone. This sword fight, choreographed by SSB Founding Director Gustafson, was absolutely one of the most spectacular swordfights I have ever seen. All the movements were synchronized, and the swords clashed in perfect time with each other and with the music, giving extra power to the whole scene and making it really interesting to watch. 

And the women were not cowering behind the pillars. They were also involved, trying to pull their menfolk off each other. The fight ends when the Duke of Verona appears, and suddenly we see that, instead of the stage being littered with dead men’s bodies, one of the women has been killed. This unusual detail of a woman’s death early in the ballet presaged the tragedy that was to come, perhaps foreshadowing Juliet’s hopelessness and eventual death.

Another aspect of State Street Ballet that I love is the subtle social commentary they often embed in their story ballets. (Think: A Rat Queen in Nutcracker and a Little Mermaid who can sign!)

There were so many memorable moments in this R&J production, but I will highlight just a few. One such gem was the trio, often referred to as “Masks,” when Romeo, Mercutio, and Benvolio dare each other to crash the masked ball that the Capulets are hosting. When I spoke with Martins about his choreography for this section, he emphasized that he wanted to pay attention to the story told by the music. He wanted to portray the camaraderie and friendship of the three, to showcase their technique, and also their playfulness and sense of humor. It worked supremely well. The dance of the three friends showed all that the choreographer intended, and was ever-so-smoothly danced. They nailed all their multiple turns!

Sargsyan was the quintessential Tybalt. Usually listed as Rehearsal Director in programs and on the SSB website, I have not seen him on stage until this performance. He was jaw-dropping amazing! His jumps were so high that he seemed to hang in the air! In talking with the SSB directors and choreographers, they all mentioned how outstanding he is, and they hope to pull him on stage more often.

Perhaps the most famous scene, in the play and the ballet, is the balcony scene. Martins created the balcony pas de deux specifically for Yamashita and Lenkey. Philipp described how they both grew so much as artists through these roles that she was brought to tears in the studio!

The lifts in this “balcony pas” were so interesting and intricate, looking much more difficult than standard lifts, that I found myself wondering, “Dang! How did he do that?” Martins explained, “One thing that I pay special attention to is the dancers’ movements. In classical pas de deux they stay in one place for a long time. One of the most beautiful things is movement, covering space.” For the balcony scene he wanted to portray young people in love. “Youth is about movement, dance is about movement; young teenage love can’t sustain standing still. It was important for me that the balcony scene reflect that.” And so it did, splendidly.

Every tragic story needs some comic relief, and Maynard, as Juliet’s nurse, was boldly humorous. Maynard is a new recruit to State Street Ballet whom I have admired in performances of Selah Dance Collective (see my review of Palermo), so this was her first appearance with SSB. “Hailey is a rock star,” said Philipp.

Ahuero was a perfect Mercutio: playful and naughty, charming, handsome, and lovable. His extended dying scene, so difficult to sustain, was riveting, and so true to the Shakespearean character. The image of Ahuero playing his sword like a lute, as he made fun of death while dying, is one vision I won’t soon forget.

From the death of Mercutio, the story unravels. Romeo, having killed Tybalt, must flee Verona. The priest (Sergei Domrachev) who married the lovers gives Juliet a potion that will make her appear dead, but she will only be in a deep sleep. When Juliet drank the poison, I could taste its bitterness and feel the excruciating pain it caused her before she collapsed onto her bed.

The next morning when Juliet is to wed Paris, a lovely group of young girls with lilies dance in her bedroom, before anyone suspects that she may be dead. This elegant dance, choreographed by MacDougall, was performed by the State Street Ballet Young Dancers, trainees of the main company. MacDougall emphasized the importance of giving these pre-professional dancers the opportunity to be integrated into a full production, providing “an essential bridge between learning and artistry.” MacDougall explained that she sought to express the emotional complexity of Prokofiev’s music, portraying a “nuanced reflection of innocence, familial expectation, and the inevitable pull of passion that defines Juliet’s evolution.”

And, of course, as Juliet’s final sacrifice, when she awakens in the tomb to find that her newlywed husband has killed himself, she stabs herself with a nearby sword and dies. Yamashita’s grief as she clutched the shirt on Romeo’s lifeless body was so palpable as to bring the audience to tears.

“Dance, and ballet — the most beautiful, graceful and dramatic form of physical expression — can tell the story from a new and different lens,” said Martins. He met someone at the premiere who had not seen Romeo and Juliet as a ballet before, who was “totally taken by the experience of seeing the story visually, with all the emotions expressed physically.” He found it compelling “to reach out to an audience that perhaps has not been exposed to the story telling of Shakespeare’s R&J from the expressive and beautiful art form of dance.” 

The program notes describe how the first version of Prokofiev’s ballet had a happy ending, in which the lovers did not die. This so outraged the Soviet purists that the original Shakespeare ending was restored.

In true Santa Barbara spirit, on Sunday afternoon, after the second and final performance, Romeo and Juliet had a very happy ending indeed: The handsome Romeo proposed to the beautiful Juliet to the delight of the whole cast and the audience! 

And she said yes!