You’ll fall in love with PNB’s ‘Roméo et Juliette’ again and again

Dance review

An uncanny thing can happen while you’re watching Pacific Northwest Ballet’s transcendent production of Jean-Christophe Maillot’s “Roméo et Juliette”: You feel like you’ve never seen it before, as if those beautiful movements onstage are simply unfolding for the first time, shiveringly fresh and new like first love.

I’ve seen the ballet multiple times since its PNB premiere in 2008, but when this happened to me on Friday’s opening night, I thought, well, it’s been a few years since the last production, so it makes sense that it would feel surprising. But then I went again Saturday night, and it happened again. Such is the magic of Maillot’s work, and of the wonderfully skilled artists performing it: This ballet about star-crossed love makes you fall in love with it anew, every single time.

And speaking of magic: How is it that PNB principal dancer Lucien Postlewaite, 17 years after his debut as Romeo, makes us forget about the passage of time? On Friday night, just like on another night back in 2008, Postlewaite transformed into a blissed-out, reckless youth whose grand jeté floats in the air like a silk scarf. With his Juliet, soloist Clara Ruf Maldonado (making her debut in the role), this Romeo movingly surrenders to love, falling to the ground as if weightless, lifting her as if she’s merely an extension of himself, shaping himself around her so as to become one. Maldonado, likewise, seemed to be made of air, of eagerness, of beauty. Their playful connection in the glorious balcony pas de deux — a masterpiece of pushing away and pulling near — was a joy; their final moments, with a beautifully whirling lift and a kiss that seemed strong enough to hold them both aloft, were devastating. We all know how this story ends; it’s to these dancers’ credit that we hope, even at that final moment when the music becomes the only breath we hear, that it won’t.

Among other fine debuts in the opening night cast were Christopher D’Ariano as a haunted Friar Laurence, whose endless limbs tried desperately to push back the tragedy; Sarah-Gabrielle Ryan as a soulful, sweet Nurse; Kyle Davis as a swift-footed Mercutio. Saturday night brought principals Angelica Generosa and Dylan Wald beautifully making the central roles their own: Generosa, in particular, brought her trademark joyfulness to Juliet, making the character’s emotional journey all the more moving. On both nights, Jonathan Batista was a standout as an electric, swashbuckling Tybalt, practically cackling with glee as he soared through the air.

And on both nights, the audience roared approval even before the ballet began: “Roméo et Juliette” begins with movie-style credits projected onto the stage, with the audience cheering for favorite dancers (which included, it seemed, everyone) as their names popped up. How lovely it was, during difficult days, to disappear into an evening of absolute beauty — to ponder the fluidity of a hand flying like a butterfly, the precision of a foot planted as if it might take root, the strength of a razor-sharp kick to the sky (Elle Macy, as the opening-night Lady Capulet, has a superhuman way with a battement), the rapture of Prokofiev’s score (played with delicate emotion by the PNB Orchestra), the quietness of two young people for whom the world has fallen away. I’d go again tomorrow in a heartbeat. So could you.