World-famous choreographer Jean-Christophe Maillot has resisted creating a ballet for any company other than his own Ballet de Monte Carlo. But he has made an exception to his rule in order to work with the Bolshoi and interpret Shakespeare’s Shrew in a new way.
“Working with a new, unfamiliar company was a challenge I needed,” Maillot says in an interview published by Bolshoi.
Rising to the Shakespearean challenge, Maillot has delivered a ballet that conjures the beauty of Shakespeare’s words with movement to match, while still telling one of the Bard’s most erotic and politically incorrect love stories.
For the creators, though, this is not a story about breaking a woman’s spirit, but rather “an encounter between two forces of nature, who recognise one another at last.”
Minimal stage design and simple but eclectic costuming keeps the focus on the movement of the dancers. Raymond Stults of The Moscow Times describes it as “firmly based on classical tradition and dance vocabulary” with added “bits of quirky movement and strong element[s] of fantasy.”
The next performance of The Taming of the Shrew will be in October.
For tickets and more information visit the the Bolshoi Theatre website.
Your source for the bard
Follow Shakespeare Magazine
Quotemonger on… Shakespeare’s Roses
Everyone knows “A rose by any other name…” from Romeo and Juliet. But that was by no means all Shakespeare had to say about the world’s most romantic flower. Let’s have a look at five quotes on the subject of roses…
Leave a Comment