scene from Ballet Quad Cities' 2015 "Romeo + Juliet"
On February 21 and 22, the Quad Cities' professional dance company Ballet Quad Cities will treat audiences to a two-act rendition of composer Sergei Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet, the 1935 masterpiece enjoying a two-performance run at St. Ambrose University's Galvin Fine Arts Center. As Valentine's Month options go, Shakespeare's tale of thwarted love between a teenage Montague and Capulet is certainly devastatingly romantic. Those aware of its ending know it's also devastating, full stop.
Yet as choreographer and Ballet Quad Cities Artistic Director Courtney Lyon understands, feeling bad about doomed love can, in this context, feel awfully darned good.
“I think there are many levels to people's love for it, based on the age of the audience member,” says Lyon of Romeo & Juliet. “And for some of us, it's about looking back at your youth, and remembering what it feels like to have your first love. Remembering what it feels like to think that the world is your oyster and you have everything in front of you.”
Despite the tragic nature of its young leads' ultimate journey, Lyon says, “I think there's something really specific about that first-love feeling, recalling what that feels like. And Prokofiev does give us a beautiful ending that I've interpreted as the afterlife – whatever that means for you. Where Romeo and Juliet are united for eternity. Forever. It's written in the stars. It'll always be there.
“So when I watch it, there is a hopefulness in the ballet for me. Maybe these two couldn't be together in this life, but maybe they will in another life. And maybe we've all experienced that in a way. Knowing that in this lifetime, 'Oo-o-o-oh, that person is not right for me … .' The timing's not right, or the family situation's not right. So [Romeo & Juliet] soothes your heart, in a way.”
Although Ballet Quad Cities staged an abbreviated version of its current Romeo + Juliet: A Love Story at Davenport's Outing Club in 2022 as part of the company's Love Stories series, this will be the first time in 11 years that dance fans will be witnessing Lyon's take on Prokofiev in full. Well, not precisely that, because as the choreographer says with a laugh, “It's a two-act, but not the full full Prokofiev, because that's, like, seven hours long.”
She adds that while her St. Ambrose production features the same choreography and structure employed for the 2016 rendition, it's still a novel experience for the dancers. “Emily Kate Long was in it, but now she's on staff (as BQC's artistic associate). And I think Mahalia Zellmer was in the ballet school at that point, because she remembers seeing it as a child. But really, it's new to everyone. Even though not a single step has changed, it's very unique, and very specific, and very difficult. And the dancers are loving it.”
So is Lyon, who says that her staging of Shakespeare's famed “balcony scene” remains one of her favorite takes on the Prokofiev.
“I love the romantic pas de deux between Romeo and Juliet, when they first spend time together. And it's a long pas de deux. It's 11 minutes, and for a dancer, that's pretty heavy. But Prokofiev's pacing in it is brilliant. He paces his timing so that the dancers, if I follow his score well, will have built-in breaks.
“I'm also proud of that dance,” Lyon adds, “because it builds and it builds and it builds, and then it drops down, and then it's tender … . I love the ride we go on. The journey of love, developing over 11 minutes.” She laughs. “That's all it takes me. Eleven minutes for love.”
With Lyon's contemporary take on Shakespeare, as she says, “not set in fair Verona, and not really set in any particular time period,” Romeo + Juliet: A Love Story features Marcus Pei as Romeo, Sierra DeYoung as the doomed Tybalt, and Emerald Pease as the agent of Fate who dictates the title characters' tragic romance. Fellow company members Eleanor Ambler, Madeline Kreszenz, Corbin Phillips, Sarah Pfeiffer, Madeline Rhode, Kira Roberts, Caitlin Sendlenski, Jillian Van Cura, and Mahalia Zellmer dance as Montague and Capulet street fighters, angels, and attendees of the Capulet Ball. And Dagny Ingle, in her debut season with Ballet Quad Cities, portrays Juliet, Lyon adding that none of her performers are given too much in the way of dramatic coaching.
“I do talk about character choices,” Lyon says. “But I don't want them to overact, and the music, which is phenomenal, really could lead to people being melodramatic. There's so much power and strength in the dancers' bodies and the staging that I prefer them not to act much with their faces. It's not necessary. The entire atmosphere brings you the feeling of love – or the strife, or the fear, or the loss. So I spend time talking about the intentions behind my choreographic choices when I'm instructing the dancers, and then they internalize it and bring it on stage.
“I also cast the way I cast because of the possibilities or potential that particular dancer has to engage in a role,” she adds. “And Dagny, our Juliet, is a natural.”
I Was Really Going for Romeo
To say that Dagny Ingle was not anticipating being cast as the female lead in Romeo + Juliet: A Love Story would be, as she admits, an understatement.
“This is very unexpected,” says Ingle. “I just joined Ballet Quad Cities this season. And this is not only my first season here, but also my first-ever principal role. So I did not see this coming. I remember the cast list went up in January, and I was not running to go check it. I let the cool people check it out first. And then a friend was like, 'Dagny, you've got to come over here.' I remember not really believing it even as I looked at it. And the first thing I said was 'Darn, I was really going for Romeo.'”
Giving what she calls “a shout-out to my home studio that I danced for until I was 15 years old,” Ingle says, “I'm from Macon, Georgia, and went to the Madison Studio of Dance Education. Believe me, my family could not afford dance education. So that studio made it possible for me to train. Specifically, Jane Madison, who owns it. She's amazing.
“But I really decided to take the professional track when I turned 16,” she continues. “I auditioned for the Atlanta Ballet school, and that program is designed to help students, within a matter of three to four years, not only graduate from high school, but also get a track for their future plans. Whether that's gonna be college, whether that's gonna be companies you're auditioning for – the whole thing is designed to kind of give you the education you might get from your first couple years if you decide to go to a fine-arts university.
“We did dance history; we took several different styles of dance. When I reached the top level of their school, we were dancing from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. So,” Ingle says with a laugh, “it's like being a professional, except you have teachers correcting you the whole time.”
Since then, Ingle says, “I've been several different places. I had the unlucky experience of graduating from Atlanta Ballet's program in 2020. So in the spring of 2020, I watched as, not only did everyone stay home and the world shut down and auditions stopped happening, but companies no longer knew what contracts they may have available, because they didn't know when they were going to reopen.
“But I ended up somewhere awesome, actually, and I'm so glad I had the experience. I joined Bossov Ballet Theatre in Maine. I was there for one season, and then I joined Louisville Ballet for a season in their Studio Company, and then for the last three years, before coming here to Ballet Quad Cities, I was with Alabama Ballet in Birmingham.”
So what made Ingle want to head north?
“To be frank, I wanted to live somewhere outside of Birmingham, Alabama. In my audition process, I was looking for companies that were somewhere colder [in terms of temperature], and a little less busy. I thought life was quite distracting in Birmingham. Also, the cost of living was high. And very luckily, all the cards fell into place, and here I am.”
Regarding her turn as Juliet, Ingle says, “The rehearsal process has been really nice. This is my first time doing such a long and complicated pas de deux with a gentleman partner. In this case, my partner is Marcus Pei. He is really fantastic. I'd never partnered with him before. I guess Courtney was just like, 'We'll see what happens!' She put us together and, happily, it's working out. We've been referring to this really beautifully edited video from 2015, when it premiered. We watch that all the time. Prokofiev's music is not that easy to count, so we're always looking at that video to get the timing of the original dancers.”
Ingle adds, however, that watching a video doesn't necessarily give dancers a sense of the physical demands an 11-minute pas de deux will require.
“I do personally have an exercise regimen,” she says. “I know most of the dancers cross-train, because so much of what we really need is stamina. We're usually pretty strong, pretty flexible, so cardio is huge. When I was training as a student, we would do yoga and Pilates to help with breath work. That helps you figure out when you can breathe heavier and when you should probably hold in your oxygen when you're on stage.
“Those are some of the things we've been figuring out through this rehearsal process. In our very first studio run, we ran the whole Act I all the way through. That was a little shocking,” she says with a laugh. “You obviously learn from that and decide when and how to pace yourself.”
Yet despite the thrill of performing Juliet for Ballet Quad Cities, is Ingle now regretting the decision to come here given the frequent days and nights of freezing-cold temps?
“Not at all,” she assuredly states. “It's just what I wanted. I was born and raised in Georgia and I always hated the heat and the humidity. I always resented that it was never cold enough to form ice or snow. So this is awesome.”
Ballet Quad Cities' Romeo + Juliet: A Love Story runs at St. Ambrose University's Galvin Fine Arts Center (2101 North Gaines Street, Davenport IA) February 21 and 22, with performances on Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Admission is $15-30, and more information and tickets are available by calling (309)786-3779 and visiting BalletQuadCities.com.
