La Légende de Roméo et Juliette

While filming his piece La Légende de Roméo et Juliette, Jean-Claude Gallotta focused his attention on the characters: close-up shots of the dancers in the title roles, an editing style which follows the direction of the narration. In its attempt to remain visually concise, the film evades the scenography of Cassagne, which plays an important role in the piece. It stays close to the characters sketched in the book by Claude-Henri Buffard.
Termed DDM (dance, drama, music), this iconoclastic revival of the great myths sounded in a new era for Gallotta’s company. The company acquired a corps de ballet which became available for big crowd scenes, but it also oriented itself towards the idea of a total performance, as part of which Jean-Claude Gallotta puts forward an all-encompassing vision of the stage, including passages of text without movement, in a type of popular contemporary opera.