'Romeo and Juliet' at the Boston Opera House

I have history with the 'Romeo and Juliet' ballet. It was the first full-length ballet that I'd ever seen and it's the one that made me fall in love with the art form. I saw the Macmillan version danced by the Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House - Steven McRae was Romeo and Iana Salenko was Juliet and they'll be the benchmark for every performance I see. So when I saw that the Boston Ballet was dancing the John Cranko version during my trip to Boston I had to get a ticket. And I'm so pleased that I did. The story is the same but the telling is different.

The Boston Opera House is rather unimpressive from the outside, with a narrow entrance corridor to get into the theatre proper. Then the glass and the gold and the lights start gleaming and you realise you're somewhere posh. I went upstairs to the balcony to find the Mezzanine seating and the very friendly ushers showed me to my seat with a perfect view of the very wide stage, perfect for leaping and jumping.

The lights dimmed and the curtain rose as the gorgeous score started and there was an empty stage with the marketplace scenery in place but where was the market? This was the first of the changes I noticed between the Macmillan and the Cranko versions of the ballet. In Cranko, the market is gradually populated rather than being ready and working when we join it. There are lots of little changes in the telling of the story but I was pleased that the three Happy Strumpets were still central to the market scenes (including throwing fruit in defence of Romeo).

Romeo loves a lady but dallies with the Happy Strumpets when we're introduced to the rivalry between the noble houses of Capulet and Montague. Our hero defies convention with his chums by going to the rival house's ball where he sees Juliet for the first time and is entranced by her. They fall in love. But Juliet's brother isn't happy and seeks a fight with Romeo and challenges him to a duel which he declines since he can't possibly fight his future brother-in-law. Mercutio saves their honour by taking up the glove but is sadly killed so Romeo must seek revenge and kills Tybalt. Disaster. The lovers marry in secret and spend one night together and dance their love. The next day Juliet just marry the man chosen for her but she gets a potion from her priest that will render her dead for a time but Romeo finds her dead and kills himself. Juliet comes to and sees her lover dead and commits suicide herself.

The dancing was excellent, the costumes and ensemble moments were great and it was fun watching out for the Cranko moments. One of the things I noticed early on was a dance move by the men where they held their knees together and moved their feet rather than their bodies - clearly one of his signature moves since it cropped up a few times. The ensemble moves were good too, with all those dancers moving in unison in their astonishing costumes.

Paulo Arrais was our Romeo and Misa Kuranaga was our Juliet and both gave top notch performances. I particularly liked the 'one of the lads' moments when lord Romeo joshed with his mates - that was really effective. I'd also single out Derek Dunn as Mercutio who brought his personality and acting to the role as well as some astonishing dancing. He ought to look to the Royal Ballet for his next career move.

I really enjoyed this production with excellent staging, costumes and, of course, dancing. While I'm delighted to have seen this production I think the Macmillan version is better and Steven and Iana remain my Romeo and Juliet.