Whether or not Shakespeare knew it when he put pen to paper more than 400 years ago: Romeo and Juliet has become a story as old as time. For Les Ballet de Monte-Carlo, one of the most renowned dance companies in Europe, the tale is, at the very least, a story as old as 1996.
The company’s artistic director and choreographer Jean-Christophe Maillot re-envisioned the sordid tale of star-crossed lovers all those years ago. With Romeo et Juliette, he stripped the celebrated story of its theatrics in order for it to resonate more timelessly with generations of impassioned adolescents.
“The story is not the most important [thing], the most important [thing] is to feel the emotion of those young people fighting without knowing why, falling in love without being able to control it,” Maillot told tabloid!. “One day someone told me a nice compliment: ‘When you see it, you don’t think it’s the way you want to dance, it’s the way you want to live.’”
Now, after more than 300 shows across the globe, the show will land in Dubai for three consecutive nights on January 15, 16 and 17 at Madinat Arena in Madinat Jumeirah, marking its Middle Eastern debut. Maillot said it was scary to think of how similar the current production is to what it was 20 years ago, shedding its skin in small ways whenever the cast rotates.
“There’s no sword, there’s no poison, there’s no knife — every thing is done in a very poetical way, so I guess people sort of understand the story,” he said.
Indeed, the ballet differentiates from other versions of Romeo and Juliet through a “very simple and very abstract set” and basic costumes that allow for the dance to breathe and take precedence over the fantastical visuals. Maillot describes it as a kind of “living movie on stage” which is emblematic of the company’s vision across the board.
In 1993, Malliot joined Les Ballets de Monte Carlo as their artistic director, helping breathe new life into the dance scene in Monaco. Reflecting on his time with the company and how he’s managed to keep a classic art form alive, he highlighted the importance of young dancers.
“I always say, I haven’t been [with the company] for 20 years, I’ve been there for 20 times one year. It’s true. Every season is a kind of new adventure, doing new creations,” he said.
“You shouldn’t forget that all my dancers, they’re around 25, 28. Some are 18, 19. There are 25 different nationalities in the company. Those people are the modernity. It’s difficult for a choreographer to get old when you only work with young people, and they force you to be aware of what is the reality of the world today,” he added.
