COMPANIA NACIONAL DE DANZA.

COMPANIA NACIONAL DE DANZA

TEATRO REAL, MADRID SEPTEMBER 13-18, 1998

REVIEWED BY LAURA KUMIN

Nacho Duato has built a solid international career on careful decisions and calculated risks. Not one to take his challenges lightly, he waited a full seven years after assuming the direction of Spain's Compania Nacional de Danza before tackling his first narrative work and evening-length ballet. From the beginning Duato expressed his intentions of presenting a contemporary reading of Romeo and Juliet, emphasizing its timeless human dimension. He was also very clear about his confidence in having a company that could respond to the demands of such a project. The performances at the Teatro Real demonstrated that the choreographer's faith in his dancers was more than justified.

Duato's work has always been informed by a very visceral musicality that is more organic than emotive. In Romeo and Juliet, the Shakespearean classic and Prokofiev's powerful score give him the opportunity to go beyond his skill with movement, resulting in his most emotionally complex and vulnerable work to date. Duato's staging of the ballet is aesthetically rather austere, while Carles Pujol and Pau Rueda's stark but striking set and Lourdes Frias's costumes effectively conjure a Mediterranean interpretation of Shakespeare's vision of Verona.

When the curtain opens, the sense of bare space is disorienting at first, and the music seems almost too grand in proportion. A black paneled platform upstage forms an adaptable framework that unfolds in different configurations throughout the ballet to suggest benches in Verona's town square, the Capulets' grand ballroom, Juliet's balcony window, or the mausoleum. Duato makes elegant use of scrims that unfurl or are dramatically torn away, including an exquisite ivory curtain that forms a canopy over the opening scene and drops to reveal an etching of a palace when the Prince of Verona puts a stop to the first scene of conflict between the Capulets and the Montagues.

As always in Duato's work, the dancing comes first, and the company is in splendid form. The choreographer maintains his contemporary ballet vocabulary, flexible and intensely musical, while introducing certain formal elements, patterns, and steps to give the ensemble pieces weight. Duato takes his humor very seriously, to the detriment of the opening vignettes, which, although well constructed, seem somewhat contrived. In contrast, under Duato's direction his dancers portray their roles with depth and humanity as the ballet progresses, and on a smaller scale the element of humor plays a subtle and often touching role.

Duato crafts his characters and sets up the conflict between the two families with subtlety, introducing an element of class conflict between the two families exemplified not only by the costumes but also by the contrast between the contained decorum of the Capulets and the ribald buffoonery of the young Montagues. Small details abound, giving the characters dimensions that speak to contemporary audiences: Tybalt's protectiveness toward his family clan shades his aggressiveness toward its rival. Romeo intrigues the curious Juliet by producing a rose for her by sleight of hand at the ball. The young lovers are uncloyingly young, overwhelmed by love without quite understanding it. In their pas de deux Juliet tentatively reaches one arm around the door before stepping out to meet Romeo, who takes her hand and leads her out into the garden. The ensuing choreography is sometimes so intense that I longed for a moment of stillness so that the lovers (and the audience) could savor their feelings. When she finally leaves Romeo, Juliet playfully snakes her arm around the doorway once again before rushing out to proffer him a final kiss.

The ballet is a personal triumph for Mar Baudesson, whose radiant and complex Juliet is one of the most moving interpretations I have ever seen. Kim McCarthy's Romeo is also noteworthy, and Luis Martin Oya, Patrick de Bana, and Yoko Taira deserve accolades as Mercutio, Tybalt, and the Nurse. This Romeo and Juliet is visually, choreographically, and dramatically well crafted and astute. Duato's greatest merit in this production, however, is his ability to work with his excellent dancers, creating complex, interesting, and moving characters that transmit the essence of Shakespeare's play and make it come alive for today's dancegoers.