Romeo & Juliet - Up Close
With the international stage hit Romeo & Juliet – Up Close, Iceland Dance Company brings a gripping and compelling battle of lust, despair and conflict. Intense and breathtaking – an unforgettable experience for anyone who wants to experience love, and dance, in their most merciless form.
Festival Julidans
Programme section Julidans On Stage
Dutch premiere
Location Internationaal Theater Amsterdam
Venue Grote Zaal
Run time 120 minutes, incl. intermission
Language Language no problem
Romeo & Juliet - Up Close
Romeo & Juliet - Up Close presents Shakespeare's famous tragedy in an utterly unique way, with different stories and perspectives running in parallel. Love here is a many-headed monster that makes passion, desperation and intensity fight for precedence. The production, originally created with the dancers of the Gärtnerplatztheater in Munich, earned the choreographers Erna Ómarsdóttir and Halla Ólafsdóttir a nomination for the prestigious German Faust Award.
In Iceland Dance Company's performance, too, we do not see classical ballet steps or aesthetic romanticism, but a raw, instinctive dance and visual language that exposes the layers and emotions of the story. Here, Shakespeare's famous tragedy is an intense battle between passion and destruction. The dancers throw themselves into each other's arms, cling to each other in despair or are cruelly separated from each other. Bodies collide, fall, bleed. Hugs are steeped in longing and despair, the confrontations feel like real fights.
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The stage is as ruthless as the fate that haunts the lovers. The dance floor transforms from a safe cocoon into a battlefield, where blood spatter and traces of sweat emphasize the physical suffering of the characters. Sometimes the choreography moves synchronously with the dramatic sounds of Prokofiev's music, but more often it pinches. The rhythm accelerates to an inevitable end, drenched in blood and tragedy – there is no escaping it.
In their work, Ómarsdóttir and Ólafsdóttir rigorously break with traditional gender roles. They show powerful, authentic bodies that express themselves in the purest form of expression. Romeo & Juliet - Up Close debunks the limiting notions of romance, with an unrelenting perspective on how we see and experience love.
More about Erna Ómarsdóttir
Erna Ómarsdóttir is choreographer and artistic director of the Iceland Dance Company. Her work fuses movement, music and visual art into raw, ritualistic performances. In collaboration with Halla Ólafsdóttir, she created Romeo <3 Juliet and The Juliet Duet – feminist reinterpretations of a classic love story.
More about Halla Ólafsdóttir
Halla Ólafsdóttir is a choreographer and performer with an MA from Stockholm University of the Arts. Her work explores choreography through the lens of gender, pop culture and collective authorship. Together with Erna Ómarsdóttir, she made Romeo <3 Juliet and The Juliet Duet – bold duets blending humour, physicality and critique.
Credits
artistic directors and choreographers Erna Ómarsdóttir, Halla Ólafsdóttir
music
Sergei Prokofiev, Skúli Sverrisson (Watching Water)
prokofjev Romeo and Julia performed by Londens Symfonie Orkest
conducted by André Previn
set Chrisander Brun
video Valdimar Jóhannsson in samenwerking met Erna Ómarsdóttir & Halla Ólafsdóttir
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costumes Karen Briem, Sunneva Ása Weishappel
lighting Pálmi Jónsson
dancers Bjartey Elín Hauksdóttir, Elín Signý Weywadt Ragnarsdóttir, Erna Gunnarsdóttir, Eydís Rose Vilmundardóttir, Félix Urbina Alejandre, Inga Maren Rúnarsdóttir, Luca Pinho Seixas, Saga Sigurðardóttir, Sarah Fisher Luckow, Shota Inoue
