
Company Dancer Mollie Sansone as Juliet. Courtesy of Nashville Ballet, photo by Marianne Leach
Nashville Ballet will open its performance season with the return of Artistic Director Paul Vasterling’s Romeo & Juliet September 20-22 to tell the impassioned tale of a love so powerful not even life can contain it.
“There’s an inherent universality to Shakespeare’s writing that makes something like Romeo and Juliet feel relevant each time we present it,” Vasterling said. “The range of emotions explored in the storyline makes the work feel personal and accessible for each audience member, while also challenging our dancers to deepen their connection to the work.”
Vasterling conveys Shakespeare’s original storyline about the romance of these young, star-crossed lovers through passionate choreography, theatrical performances, and an emotionally-laden score from Sergei Prokofiev, performed live by the Nashville Symphony. By combining those elements with expansive sets, lush costumes, and exhilarating fight scenes, he fully transports the audience to fair Verona in this grand-scale production.
A fight scene in Nashville Ballet’s Romeo and Juliet.
Created in 2004, and last presented by Nashville Ballet in 2013, Vasterling’s Romeo and Juliet draws inspiration from a variety of sources. Though the story takes place in Shakespeare’s time, and many elements of the costumes, sets, and choreography remain authentic to that period, Vasterling’s version also features modern influences from works like West Side Story and Franco Zeffirelli’s iconic 1968 film adaptation for a production that pays perfect homage to the Bard’s beautifully tragic love story.
Integral to the authenticity of the work, Nashville Ballet enlisted London-based fight director Tim Klotz to work alongside Vasterling to develop the choreography in the ballet’s highly-regarded fight scenes. Klotz’s extensive experience in stage combat instruction offers Company dancers guidance on making the ballet’s sword fighting appear lifelike and action-packed. What’s more, Klotz’s industry knowledge helped Vasterling create fight choreography that draws directly from the cape fighting styles traditional to the Shakespearean era, a quality unique to Nashville Ballet’s Romeo and Juliet adaptation. “This is a work filled with swagger [and] machismo…In fact, the production’s stylish and realistic sword fighting is part of the dance,” writer and arts critic John Pitcher expressed after seeing the production in 2013.
Escape to Verona in a whirlwind of forbidden passion and swoon-worthy romance. Tickets start at $35 and are available for purchase in person at the box office, by phone at 615-782-4040, or at NashvilleBallet.com.
Effective March 7, 2022
To help ensure the health and well-being of our audiences, artists, staff, and volunteers, TPAC has updated its Patron Entry Policy:
For our complete entry policy details and updated health protocols, visit TPAC.ORG/PatronHealth.
It means you’ll be unable to see the entire stage from those seats.
We sell these seats because for many fans the limited view is not a problem, and the tickets are clearly labeled at time of purchase (see photo below). Limited view seating varies event to event and could be something as small as a tiny corner of the stage being blocked from view. Call our box office at 615-782-4040 for additional information on limited view seating.
Seats marked with “Limited View” during purchase path
Many shows impose ticket limits to allow as many people as possible to have equal access to seats. This is done as a deterrent to third party vendors, i.e. scalpers, who may purchase large blocks of seats and then resell them online at an inflated cost. The term “household” refers to any shared information on one or more accounts. This includes, but may not be limited to matching names, mailing and billing addresses, email addresses, phone numbers and credit card numbers. Any households that purchase more than the allowed number of tickets may have their order(s) refunded without notice.