After its sold-out premiere last year in France, L.A. Dance Project (LADP) brings the U.S. premiere of Benjamin Millepied’s Romeo and Juliet Suite to Segerstrom Center for the Arts for three performances this weekend. Described as a contemporary take on Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers through a new lens, that description subtly captures the emphasis on camera work that simultaneously captures and live-streams the dancing to an onstage screen that in France filled multiple performances with rock concert-sized crowds.
This Romeo and Juliet Suite is a streamlined version of Millepied and LA Dance Project’s first edition of Romeo and Juliet at Disney Hall in 2018 or the second version in summer 2019 at the Hollywood Bowl. Some may quibble as to whether this is a brand new work or a third edition, but reviews from the Paris performances and a recent open rehearsal are strong evidence that Millepied and LADP have retained the core of those initial efforts, including the triple threat casting, while going in adventurous directions with more extensive dancing, an abbreviated, recorded version of the Prokofiev score, and expanded, innovative the use of live-streamed video.
LA Phil with LA Dance Project in 2018 – Photo by Matthew Imaging
The first incarnation at Disney Hall in fall 2018 was a collaborative venture with the LA Phil that boasted Gustavo Dudamel conducting the full Sergei Prokofiev ballet score interspersed with L.A. Dance Project dancers performing live and live-streamed during portions of the music. A large screen in the concert hall helped the audience view dancing on the narrow apron in front of the orchestra, then later a danced section in an upstairs aisle behind the orchestra with Millepied filming with a shoulder-mounted camera, live-streaming the dancing on a large video screen above the orchestra.
Disney Hall in 2018 – Photo courtesy of LADP
The two plus hours of the full-length Prokofiev score were punctuated by dance outside the concert hall with the lovers’ pas de deux sheltered among gleaming swoops of Disney Hall’s stainless steel exteriors, chases through the LA Phil’s offices, and that deadly fight from an industrial basement. Every move live-streamed through that camera onto the giant screen inside Disney Hall until the final moments back in front of the orchestra.
July 2019 saw the second edition, an expanded mix of live dance and livestream, at the massive Hollywood Bowl where audiences already were attuned to watching the LA Phil on the multiple video screens. Dancing was onstage, in the aisles, from the parking lot as well as backstage environments the audience never saw. Again, all the off-stage action was live-streamed to multiple giant screens that line either side of the Bowl’s seating.
Janie Taylor as Juliet with the LA Phil – Photo by Craig Matthew Imaging
As Mark Swed wrote in the LA Times:
“The fight scenes took place in the aisles. You looked for the details on the Bowl’s giant screens while actually being in the center of the action. Millepied’s dancing camerawork gave a new physical sense to his choreography. And there was the full buck moon lighting. We could watch the way the choreographer wanted us to. Illuminating amplification gave Prokofiev a soundtrack character, yet it too could be understood as alive and real.”
LA Dance Project – Photo courtesy of La Seine Musicale
Both the Disney Hall and Hollywood Bowl performances had three casts with Romeo and Juliet as male/female, male/male, and female/female. Although noted in some reviews, the reports found the approach simply underscored that the story reached beyond traditional casting.
The success of these ventures fueled announced plans to expand the partnership to a full-length filmed version with dancing set in locations throughout metro LA and with the LA Phil and Dudamel providing the soundtrack. The spring 2020 pandemic shutdown derailed the planned film. Covid concerns also cancelled repeated plans to take Romeo and Juliet Suite to France until last year.
During those shutdown years, LADP was active with streamed performances as well as small audience events in the studio’s parking lot. Millepied also took on the director/choreographer role of the recently released film that reimagines Carmen.
Mario Gonzalez as Juliet and David Adrian Freeland Jr. as Romeo – Photo courtesy of La Seine Musicale
Still, the allure of Romeo and Juliet lingered. Last summer when LADP was able to resume its tour to France, the calling card was this new iteration. Romeo and Juliet Suite retains many elements and choreography of the original efforts, but now there’s an abbreviated recording of the Prokofiev score. The action has been transposed to a proscenium stage with three different casts, but still retains the offstage and backstage wanderings with expanded, adventurous use of video, this time wielded by LADP associate director Sébastien Marcovici.
LA Dance Project – Photo courtesy of La Seine Musicale
In bringing this new edition of Romeo and Juliet to the stage Benjamin Millepied said, “I love the idea of using dance, live performance and cinematographic images to express a timeless story that really speaks to the audience,. This production creates a comprehensive artistic experience while echoing current social issues, all with a cast that changes night by night.”
Reviewing the Paris performances for the New York Times, Roslyn Sulcas wrote:
“Millepied’s Romeo and Juliet aren’t necessarily a man and a woman. There are three casts playing the title roles during the 11-show run, which ends on Sunday: a heterosexual couple, two men and two women. It’s a simple idea but a powerful one to see represented in a ballet.”
The honor of the U.S. premiere goes to David Adrian Freeland Jr. as Romeo, Mario Gonzalez as Juliet. Both were in the Disney Hall and Hollywood Bowl performances but paired with other partners. Lorrin Brubaker is Juliet’s malevolent cousin Tybalt, and Shu Kinouchi is Mercutio with all three casts.
Saturday matinee has Peter Mazurowski as Romeo, Daisy Jacobson as Juliet. Saturday night belongs to Daphne Fernburger as Romeo and Naomi Van Brunt as Juliet. The other company dancers include Jeremy Coachman, Courtney Conovan, Eva Galmel, Oliver Greene-Cramer, Payton Johnson, and Hope Spears.
Mario Gonzalez as Juliet and David Adrian Freeland Jr. as Romeo – Photo courtesy of La Seine Musicale
At a recent rehearsal, some of the changes from the earlier versions were evident. Instead of dancing portions of the more than two hour Prokofiev score, the edited recording retains the most familiar scenes and allows for almost continuous dance. A big element is that cameras have gotten smaller and lighter, replacing the bulky, shoulder-mounted instrument Millepied had to maneuver while trailing the dancers.
Arriving a bit earlier than the scheduled rehearsal permitted a glimpse of the end of company class, a straightforward and demanding ballet class. It was a reminder of just how polished and well-trained the current contingent of dancers are. Millepied’s choreography requires explosive, off kilter contemporary moves that often disguise how much those moves require a bedrock of classical training.
LA Dance Project – Photo courtesy of La Seine Musicale
For the rehearsal, Marcovici is not just running the rehearsal. Since he will be handling the livestream camera for the three Segerstrom performances, Marcovici intermittently walks into the dancing with his hands raised to check on a camera angle. The rehearsal has a Saturday night cast with Fernberger as Romeo, Van Brunt as Juliet.
Daphne Fernberger as Romeo, Naomi Van Brunt as Juliet – Photo courtesy of La Seine Musicale
Except for taking a moment for water, all the dancers are masked as part of pre-show precautions. This creates a slightly humorous moment when the dancers mime putting masks over their eyes to sneak into the fateful party where the lovers meet.
Despite the different casting, the choreography is the same for all. Fernberger holds her own in the trio with Kinouchi and Jeremy Coachman, and smoothly maneuvers the partnering challenges in her pas de deux with Van Brunt.
Marcovici occasionally checks the laptop video before starting the music. Instead of the physical distance of swordfights, the fight scene involves fists and grabbing, generating a more immediate and visceral “fight club” feeling set against some of Prokofiev’s most dissonantly brutal music. Light saber-like tubes seen dramatically in videos were not at the rehearsal.
LA Dance Project – Photo courtesy of LADP
Unlike the initial editions with the full Prokofiev score with intermittent dance, this Suite flows from scene to scene. Beyond the four identified characters, the other dancers shift among Shakespeare’s characters without differentiation. The dancers and Marcovici suggest where the camera is following the action when it travels to offstage locations to be streamed onto the proscenium stage.
The choreographer has given each of the four main characters a strong solo section that showcases their dancing credentials. Each solo is acknowledged by applause from the other dancers. When the doomed lovers get together, Millepied’s choreography has Juliet as much in pursuit as Romeo. When Brubaker as Tybalt discovers the couple and chases Fernberger offstage, Marcovici follows the pair, practicing his camera angles. In an interview in France, Marcovici described the camera as “another dancer.” As a former principal dancer with New York City Ballet, he knows how to dance and how to translate that to the camera.
In a charming bit of marketing, the theater has promised a free ticket to the show to anyone named Romeo or Juliet. The announcement added that “Juliette” will also be accepted to receive a free ticket. Anyone named Tybalt or Mercutio has to buy their own.
LA Dance Project – Photo by Josh Rose
The video link at Segerstrom https://www.scfta.org/events/2023/romeo-juliet-suite and a French video (in English and French with subtitles) from La Seine Musicale give hints at the dance sparks and the light-show effects to come this weekend. Perhaps the Segerstrom shows will spark renewed interest in that filmed version with the LA Phil before the Dude departs for New York?
LA Dance Project in Romeo & Juliet Suite at Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Dr., Costa Mesa; Fri., May 12, 7:30 pm, Sat., May 13, 2 & 7:30 pm, $39-$99. To purchase tickets, please click HERE.
For more information about L.A. Dance Project, please visit their website.
To see the full season lineup at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, please visit their website.
Written by Ann Haskins for LA Dance Chronicle.
Featured image: LA Dance Project – Photo courtesy of La Seine Musicale
