STAGE DANCE

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• Event Name: Romeo and Juliet
  "True Romance...plumbs the depths of young love"
  Comment posted by: Excerpts from Metro review, March 15, 06 from San Jose, CA USA, Jan 07, 2010
  

  Dennis Nahat's Romeo and Juliet balances subtext with clarity and blends drama with a sense of comic relief. Merchant carts fore, bridge and balcony aft, the town square hosts many a humorous scene... Expand

  Dennis Nahat's Romeo and Juliet balances subtext with clarity and blends drama with a sense of comic relief. Merchant carts fore, bridge and balcony aft, the town square hosts many a humorous scene featuring the ensemble cast in a symphony of action on all scenic levels. Juliet's nurse comes to deliver a message to Romeo [and] the jovial prankster Mercutio taunts the nurse...at one point [his] face pops out from under her billowy skirts. Juliet playfully refuses to give up her doll to her mother [but soon] Romeo will bring an end to her carefree life. Later in her chamber, she and Romeo dance a pas de deux undercut by ominous, ever-present low horns. Prokofiev's plodding, horn-driven music accompanies a variety of spectacular death scenes and fight scenes--Mercutio's slow, unsuspected death, Romeo's death by poison, Juliet's suicidal stabbing. This production rewards our familiarity with the poplar tale of the star-crossed lovers by instilling countless layers of revelatory treasures. Collapse

• Event Name: Romeo and Juliet
  "R&J Plays Out Its Dramatic Heritage"
  Comment posted by: Excerpts from independent review of Dean Speer from Seattle, WA USA, Jan 07, 2010
  

  I always find it a treat to visit the exotic locale of San Jose and enjoy Ballet San Jose. It's an attractive company with a deep array of talent, led by Artistic Director, Dennis Nahat. Nahat knows... Expand

  I always find it a treat to visit the exotic locale of San Jose and enjoy Ballet San Jose. It's an attractive company with a deep array of talent, led by Artistic Director, Dennis Nahat. Nahat knows how to tell a story. His handling of the material is clear and his choices each made for the elucidation of the story, with the dancing contributing to the narrative and emotional impact of this timeless and tragic love story. He also re-ordered some of the musical selections, which he felt made better sense in a different flow--and the success of the ballet shows he was right. While keeping the story moving, he also gives us pleanty of dancing--from townspeople and Gypsies to the nobility. I liked his treatment of the Capulet's ballroom scene which has probably some of the most famous music in it...and especially appreciate that he has the nobles do more than just strut about and drop pillows on the floor as they do in the original Bolshoi production. BSJ gives spice to your balletic diet. Collapse

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