Romeo & Juliet review
by Susan Stein

The National Ballet of Canada recently performed the ballet Romeo and Juliet at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto.

On Saturday, February 3rd, the New Tecumseth & Area Arts Council presented Romeo & Juliet as a one-woman show at the Cookstown United Church with Clayton Scott, a founding member of the National Ballet School Foundation. She is a musician, a dancer, a piano teacher, lecturer, a performer and a raconteur.

Clayton Scott's performance of Romeo & Juliet was a testimony to all these attributes.

With the music of Sergei Prokofiev, who composed the music to the ballet and slides depicting the high points of the ballet, Clayton Scott read the story of the doomed lovers.

To give the show the necessary background, she gave a short outline of the story of ballet. First introduced as an art form in the 17th century at the French Court, it became a full length ballet only in the 1860's with Prima Ballerina Marie Taglioni in the role of Juliet.

As an introduction to her show, Scott described the intricacies of this art form: The ballet shoes needed to be "on point", the tu-tus worn by the dancers, the costumes by the male dancers and the use of leg warmers to keep the muscles supple. For the early ballet performances, the audience brought in candles for light, then came the gas lamps and finally electric light.

Memorable first performances were given by the Stuttgart Ballet, by the Bolshoj in St. Petersburg with Prima Ballerina Ulanova to Prokofiev's rewritten score. On the Canadian stage, Veronica Tenant, Karen Kain, and James Kudelka,were the first to perform it.

With eloquence and dramatic dance movements, Clayton Scott brought the story of the star crossed lovers alive and made this a memorable night for New Tecumseth Arts Council and the audience .