Ballet West is to recreate its 1999 success “Romeo and Juliet” for the 2005-6 season. The company has come along way since first performing Shakespeare’s enduring tale of passion, murder, feud and tragedy in mediaeval Verona to Prokovief’s emotional score.

Ballet West is a young ballet company that uses a mix of professional dancers with students in the final stages of their dance training. Over recent years, the company has developed a significant reputation in producing very high quality, classical ballet, which is developing loyal audiences in venues throughout Scotland.

Productions of “The Nutcracker”, “Swan Lake” and, most recently, “Coppélia” have had sell-out performances in many venues including Eden Court Theatre, Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Dundee Rep and Perth Theatre. The response of the press and the public is overwhelmingly positive and family-based audiences particularly enjoy the work of the company.

Romeo & Juliet will be produced by the same successful team that have developed the company’s recent productions including Kenn Burke, former acting artistic director at Scottish Ballet. The principal roles of the star-crossed lovers will be danced by brother and sister team Sara-Maria and Jonathan Barton. These principals are Adeline Genée medallists and have performed with companies such as Birmingham Royal Ballet, English National Ballet and Scottish Ballet. Sara-Maria was described by one reviewer as “being distinguished by a clearly focussed style of simple elegance” in her role as Swanhilda in “Coppélia” and, in the 1999 production, she “danced the role of Juliet with winning charm and assurance. She has a lightness of step, a supple grace and an actress’s ability to convey pathos with more than just movement”.

“Charming and delightful performance”
The Courier on “Coppélia”

“Very Impressive..Catch them if you can!”
Perthshire Advertiser on “The Nutcracker”

“Ballet West…dancing with panache and professionalism to full houses”
Perthshire Advertiser on “Swan Lake”

CONTACT
e-mail balletwest@btconnect.com