AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE’S
principal dancer Misty Copeland, 37,
and soloist Calvin Royal III, 31, will
make history this spring when they
become the company’s first African
American partners to perform the
title roles in Kenneth MacMillan’s
Romeo and Juliet. The new produc-
tion, set to music composed by Sergei
Prokofiev under challenging condi-
tions in Soviet Russia in the 1930s
(and first performed there at the
Mariinsky Theatre in 1940), was ini-
tially choreographed by MacMillan
at London’s Royal Opera House in
1965, with lavish costume and set
designs by Nicholas Georgiadis. The
legendary dancers Rudolf Nureyev
and Margot Fonteyn received 43 cur-
tain calls on opening night. (Fonteyn,
who at the time was in her mid-40s,
had seen her career reborn by her
partnership with Nureyev, nearly 20
years her junior.)
MacMillan’s ballet famously
requires not only technical virtuosity
but nuanced acting as Juliet evolves
from a giddy, childlike teenager to a
young woman experiencing roman-
tic and carnal love for the first time.
“Juliet is my favorite role in my reper-
toire, but I first took it on without a lot
of experience,” Copeland says. It is a
role, she insists, that “you don’t know
until you are out there living it—it’s
impossible to prepare in the studio.”
And for the dancer playing Romeo—
who is onstage through much of the
performance: “I used to curse Mac-
Millan,” notes
In a histor y-mak ing
production of
Romeo and Juliet,
dancers Misty
Copeland and Calvin
Royal III play
star-crossed lovers
for our time.
By Hamish Bowles.
Photographed by
Col l ier S chor r.
TWO OF HEARTS
In May, Copeland (here in a Skims
bodysuit) and Royal star in American
Ballet Theatre’s production of Romeo
and Juliet. Hair, Jeff Francis; makeup,
Victor Henao. Details, see In This Issue.
Sittings Editor: Phyllis Posnick.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 183
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