Tudor's ROMEO AND JULIET

[rg]

the attached scans show two publicity photos from Antony Tudor's ROMEO AND JULIET, in its premiere year, 1943.

the scenes document:

1] the bedroom pas de deux with Hugh Laing, Romeo and Alicia Markova, Juliet.

2] the slaying of Tybalt, with Laing's Romeo, Dimitri Romanoff as Friar Lawrence, Lucia Chase as the Nurse and Markova's Juliet. Tudor himself is Tybalt.

[bart]

rg, can you tell us anything about how, and by what kind of photographer, publicity shots like this were taken? The 'slaying of Tybalt' strikes me as being one of the more static, artificial ballet photos I have ever seen, reminding me more of something from the days of Petipa than from the mid-20th century. On the positive side, it does allow us a clear look at the dancers' faces.

[sandik]

Wow. Just ... wow.

[rg]

i suspect, Ray, that your assumption about the methods of these photos is accurate.

i don't have any hard data but i suspect these shots were posed on Berman's set for publicity purposes with the first cast striking poses, presumably arranged by Tudor himself.

for one thing, to support their being posed rather than 'in performance,' i don't think any daggers were used in the staging, so either Tudor dropped them by the run or he felt he needed to add a steel blade to make the point of the scene for this 'frozen' moment.

but, to reiterate, i don't have any hard facts to state here about these photos per se.

i think, btw, these are among a spread of similar shots reproduced in Charles Payne's AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE tome.