Roberto Cisneros - The Romeo and Juliet Experience

              The Sacramento Ballet certainly has been filled with excitement these past two weeks and after a very restful day off, we are all back in the studio to begin week three of the Romeo & Juliet experience.  Currently I am rehearsing the featured roles of Mandolin Dancer & Mercutio – both of which I am extremely honored to have been cast as.  It almost seems as if these past two weeks have been surreal …as I have been quickly running in and out of different rehearsals, constantly having to remind myself of the different choreography, dealing with the soreness and aches that inevitably attack a weary body and somehow trying to remember the complexities of sword fighting!  Today however, among all this craziness, I had a costume fitting for Mercutio and for a brief time I was completely relaxed.  As I finished getting into my selected tunic, I was overcome with a great sense of pride – not only for my personal accomplishment for being cast in such a demanding role – but also for being apart of this wonderful company of dancers and directors and artistic staff who are spending their days preparing and creating a wonderful ballet.

         During this rehearsal period we are also all very lucky to have Dexter Fidler in the studios coaching us on the proper and safe way to handle our complicated sword fighting scenes.  Although I, along with many of the other men in the company were very excited to begin working on our new fighting skills, I doubt many of us expected how difficult it would be to learn the necessary technique involved in scenes such as the Act I “Brawl”.  The “Brawl” is one of the very elaborate sword fighting scenes in the ballet that involves most all of the men at Sac Ballet.  In order to make this scene seem chaotic, yet safe: Dexter devised five phrases (using the technique he had previously taught us) and then changed the order of these phrases for each couple of fighters and added some unique flairs to highlight the duels.  We have only just begun to piece together all our separate fights, and although I can’t actually see what anyone else beside my partner and myself are doing, I can only imagine from the clanging of rhythmic swords, the grunts of acted attacks and evasions and the smiles at the end of rehearsals that we are starting to look and feel more like Montagues & Capulets.

Dexter, in action, coaching the company on how to "safely" pull hair during our first rehearsal.  Don't worry, I was not harmed during this demonstration.

         This week should hold it’s own set of challenges and I am eager to greet them all as we continue our rehearsal process.  I know that right now I am struggling with my stamina, especially because the roles I am dancing are so very aerobic.  But I feel that once I am able to relax a bit more in the studio and find those moments to control and ease my breath, I’ll make it through everything just fine and will be able to concentrate on the refinements of my performances.  And just in case anyone was wondering….23 days until the opening of Sacramento Ballet’s presentation of Ron Cunningham’s Romeo & Juliet