New YouTube Video: Margot Fonteyn and Ivan Nagy dance Skibine’s Romeo and Juliet

Gramilano has just uploaded a video to YouTube with Margot Fonteyn and Ivan Nagy. They are dancing the balcony scene from George Skibine’s ballet Romeo and Juliet, which uses music from Berlioz’s choral symphony Roméo et Juliette. The extract was part of a gala in 1976, when Fonteyn was 57.

George Skibine’s first choreographic work was Tragedy in Verona, an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet for the Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas in 1950 using Tchaikovsky’s ‘Overture-Fantasy’ of the same name. Skibine returned to the story, again for de Cuevas, in 1955 with his wife, Marjorie Tallchief, as Juliet and Skibine himself as Romeo. The first performances were given in the open air at the Cour Carrée at the Louvre.

Biographer and critic Herbert Weinstock wrote,

Thousands of us had come to see what the Comité Officiel des Fêtes de Paris and the Marquis George de Cuevas had made of Berlioz’s “Roméo et Juliette.” What they had made of it proved to be an opera-ballet of unparalleled pomp, theatrical effectiveness, and visual magnificence…

…Skibine’s realization of Romeo’s despair and suicide was that of a truly great dancer.

Gramilano Editor

Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Carla Fracci.

Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.

He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.