When Park City Opera presents Charles Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette” Friday and Sunday at the Eccles Center for the Performing Arts, audiences will get an additional performance experience on top of the singing, sword-play and storytelling. They will get a dose of dance from members of Ball et West II, Ballet West’s pre-professional company, said Michael Waldrop, faculty and contemporary program manager at Frederick Quinney Lawson Ballet West Academy. “There will be eight dancers,” he said. “So, while you’re getting this high-level performance of principal singers and a choir, you will get the same from the dancers.” Before Waldrop began working with the dancers two weeks ago, he immersed himself in Goundod’s score, which is different from the Sergei Prokofiev music that is regularly associated with a “Roméo Juliet” ballet. “As ballet dancers, we have our own perspective of the story through the Prokofiev music stand point, but all of a sudden things change with the music and then you add opera,” he said. “You still get the same point across through singing and acting and all of those perspectives, but it’s a little different because it’s not the same music.” Waldrop familiarized himself with Gounod’s competition during almost every waking minute. “My research was not watching how ‘Roméo and Juliette’ was done throughout the world,” he said. “My research was how do I spend time with the music and the story and how to find ways to bring a new perspective to life. It still plays on my Alexa as I make breakfast and while I’m in my car. It’s such a beautiful piece of music that these dancers perform to, and I wanted to capture the nuance of the music from the start.” Lisl Wangermann, who cofounded Park City Opera with Lena Goldstein and Benjamin Beckman, is directing “Roméo et Juliette” and helped Waldrop get into the right mindset of the production. “It’s been a collaboration between me and her to make sure the story is being told and for me to bring the music to life,” he said. “She has been so instrumental in making sure my brain and the dancers’ brains are right in the context of what is happening in the story.” Waldrop’s performance background in mixing ballet with opera also helped him set goals for this production. “When I was dancing professionally, I danced in Germany,” he said. “As part of a contract with a lot of the state theaters there, you are part of the ballet, and you are part of the opera. So during my five seasons there, I was part of a lot of operas.” While performing ballet in those operas, Waldrop found himself wanting to showcase more of what his body could do. “There wasn’t always the space for that,” he said. “But the beauty of this production is that there is such an idea of dance tied to it. So, I wanted to bring the fullest version of the dancers I could to this opera.” Waldrop’s choreographic perspective is to bring the music to life. “I learn the melodies, and I learn every note that exists,” he said. “I sing it back after I go through it, so, the movement vocabulary is organic as much as I hear the music and I make sure whatever comes out through my body is visually representing what we hear in said music.”  Waldrop created some challenging and quick choreography that included complex pas de deux and partner work. “I feel it’s a beautiful showcase of what the dancers are able to do, and that was an important goal for me,” he said. “I started out by asking how could I, in these short little vignettes, show everything these dancers can do, so someone walking away after the show will say, ‘Wow! Look at Ballet West II.’” Waldrop taught the whole Ballet West II company the choreography. “I was spoiled because all the dancers are so good,” he said. “That was awesome for me because I could do whatever I wanted choreographically, knowing these dancers could deliver right away.” The pas de deux and partnering segments emerged out of collaborations with the dancers, according to Waldorf. “It’s hard for me to choreograph a pas de deux with just me in the studio because I need a partner with me,” he said with a laugh. “So, I’ll give an idea to the dancers, and the dancers will try the idea. Then the movement will morph and change from my original concept.” Once everyone learned the movements, Waldrop had to select only eight dancers for the show. “The worst part of a choreographer’s job, the one I hate, is the casting part,” he said. “But I knew I wanted to have a cohesive group of dancers.”  This weekend’s performances will be the second time in just a few weeks that Ballet West will have a presence in Park City. The company, including Ballet West II, presented the Ballet West Dance Summit July 15-17. “I just love what Park City Opera is doing,” he said. “It’s new. It’s innovative and fresh. Their perspective with Roméo and Juliette is not to repeat what has been done, but to find ways to modernize it and reimagine the way we see the opera. There is generally a nuanced audience that is generally associated with attending an opera, and I think they are trying to broaden that. And that’s what I want to do with the dancing.” Still, working with the Park City Opera wasn’t something Waldrop expected. “While performing with the opera in Germany the meetings of the different mediums of art was so incredible, but I hadn’t thought that would continue to be part of my future,” he said. “So, when this came up and was a possibility, it was super exciting for me.” “Roméo et Juliette” is the first opera Waldrop has choreographed. “A lot of choreography I’ve been doing over the past 10 years has been for the stage of pure dance,” he said. “I’ve done 10-, 12- and even a 45-minute piece for pure dance. So to find a way for my choreography to fit within an opera, within the narrative and fit within dancers and nondancers alike who are on stage, was a new challenge for me. And, again, kudos to Lisl for keeping me in my mindset.” Charles Gounod’s ‘Roméo et Juliette’ by the Park City Opera, with guests Ballet West II When: 7 p.m. Friday and 3 p.m. Sunday Where: Eccles Center for the Performing Arts, 1750 Kearns Blvd. Web: parkcityopera.org and balletwest.org The post Ballet West II leaps into ‘Roméo et Juliette’ appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less