Staging Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' in the Language of Classical Ballet

Abstract

This thesis will analyse the classical ballet approach to Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet'. After defining classicism in ballet and a historical perspective, dealing with several most significant theories of art and their implications on the staging of Shakespeare's work, the focus will narrow to Prokofiev's score and the four selected different choreographic versions (Lavrovsky, MacMillan, Preljocaj and Maillot). In that manner it will analyse various choreographic attitudes towards the same drama libretto and music score that are a product of diverse historical, political, social and artistic perspectives. It will show how successful the choreographers were in transmuting Shakespeare's text into the medium of ballet and how the approach to narrative ballets evolved throughout the 20th century.