ABSTRACT
Romeo and Juliet has been adapted for the dance stage more often than any other Shakespearean text. This chapter analyzes ten different adaptations produced between 1940 and 2015 in the genres of ballet, modern dance, and hip-hop. The first part of the chapter traces the influence of Leonid Lavrovsky’s 1940 ballet version, which was choreographed to Sergei Prokofiev’s iconic score, on four subsequent adaptations. While all aim to create a legible narrative and intelligible characters, they are heavily influenced by the musical and choreographic heritage provided by Prokofiev and Lavrovsky. The second part of the chapter explores five recent productions that create dystopian visions for the play, using visual and choreographic means to portray Shakespeare’s Verona as an oppressive society. In these works, Romeo and Juliet are doomed by systemic surveillance, violence, and dehumanization. While two of these dystopian pieces use Prokofiev, the other three deliberately reject the music’s dominance in favor of composite scores by Tchaikovsky, hip-hop artists, and the rock band Radiohead.
