Romeo and Juliet

The State Ballet Theatre of Russia returns to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center’s Prudential Hall on Friday, February 3, 2012 at 8pm for a one-night-only performance of Prokofiev and Lavrovsky’s take on Shakespeare’s timeless romance, Romeo and Juliet, performed in Newark with the full, cast and 45-person corps de ballet.

Tickets are $25-$80, and are available at www.njpac.org, at the box office at One Center Street in Downtown Newark, or by calling 888-GO-NJPAC (888-466-5722). This performance is made possible, in part, by The New Jersey State Council on the Arts and Discover Jersey Arts.

Romeo and Juliet’s score was written for William Shakespeare’s tragedy by Sergei Prokofiev under the commission of the Kirov Ballet. Prokofiev later said of the problems he had in creating the ballet that “living people can dance, the dying cannot.” Over a number of years, he solved the contradictions between the dramatic and choreographic needs of the ballet, and the work took its place as a centerpiece of Prokofiev’s oeuvre. It was choreographed by Mikhail Lavrovsky, former principal dancer of the Bolshoi Ballet and now a leading Russian choreographer for the Bolshoi and other companies.

Founded in 1870, the State Ballet Theatre of Russia has remained one of Russia’s most distinguished artistic companies. Their precise, traditional approach to the classic ballets upholds the elegant, expressive ideals of Russian classical dance. The company performed production of Cinderella and Swan Lake at NJPAC in the past.

Tickets: http://bit.ly/yWEhu0