Timeless Romance

Joshua L. Peugh is an award-winning choreographer from New Mexico. He is a former dancer with Universal Ballet in South Korea and is the founder and Artistic Director of Dark Circles Contemporary Dance, in addition to his freelance choreography work. He is a choreographer-in-residence at Verb this winter and was commissioned to create a new full length ballet, Romeo & Juliet. He has choreographed over 40 new works for major companies including BalletX, Ballet Memphis, and Tulsa Ballet. We sat down with him to talk about his new commission.

You trained as a classical ballet dancer. Tell us about your experience and influence in becoming a contemporary dance maker. I graduated from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. I felt very strongly that I was and should be a classical ballet dancer and I took a job dancing with Universal Ballet in South Korea. On my first day of work, we auditioned for and worked on Ohad Naharin’s Minus 7. As a classical ballet dancer, I began my career dancing for a very contemporary choreographer and it completely shifted my mind. It changed how I imagined myself as an artist and as a dancer—and it reminded me of the pleasure that I had forgotten that comes from movement and

dancing. I ended up dancing that work for the next six years—even after I left the company, I would come back as a guest and dance just that work. Ohad [Naharin]’s philosophy and movement really shaped and shifted me as an artist.

What three words describe your choreographic style? I don't know if I can pick three words to describe my style. I would say that [my work] is a collage—it is a collection of things in no particular order. I like to take things from here and there with movement styles and blend them, paste them together, order them, and reorder them to see what new thing can be produced.

Tell us about how this opportunity came to be at Verb? I ended up at Verb by sending an email. I sent some samples to Verb and said I'd love to create something for your company. I was fortunate enough that that Dr. Carlson called me and said, “how do you feel about doing “Romeo and Juliet”? I said: “Let's make it happen.” I've always wanted to do Romeo and Juliet. It's a big leap of faith and I'm really grateful for the opportunity. One of the special things about this company is there's an adventurous nature here about the work and what it can be. It’s not easy to let someone into your company and give them the reins to create something that takes this much time and resources.

How did you prepare for this residency? I did a lot of preparation for this project. I studied the script and the music and a did a lot of dreaming. Once I got here, I decided what to hold on to and what to let go of so that all of us the artists involved in the project could make something unique, alive and explosive.

Tell us about your process working with the dancers? As a rule, I don't generate movement before I get in the studio with the people that I'm creating for because I think it's important to get information from their bodies. When I start choreographing, I begin in a circle so that I can see everybody and see the choices that they're making. It allows me to see everyone and how their bodies guide their intuition. I really try to create a space that feels safe enough for people to be curious and make big choices. These dancers helped me shape and build this production. Once we finish, it will belong to them—it'll be a house that they have to live in and decorate after we've built the structure together with the set design and the costume designer and all those other people.

What has been the biggest challenge on this project? A challenge on this project is that the shape of the ballet and the play don't match. Theatre people can do in language that we can't do with the body and there are body stories that don't come through in language. The great thing is that Shakespeare is so poetic and dance is a poetic form. They're similar in a lot of ways. There are certainly parts of the play that have to go out the window because this is a ballet and does not translate into movement. It’s been challenging but exciting to find interesting ways to solve those kinds of problems.

How did you build the framework of the ballet? This dance production is based on the Shakespeare text. A few years back I had the opportunity to co-direct the play Romeo and Juliet with some friends from college. Working with them and building that production really helped me understand the language in a new way and clarified a lot of things for me about Shakespeare. It made me fall in love with that work again. We’ve taken speeches and text from the play and used them to essentially build an interpretive dance.

Do you have a favorite quote from Romeo and Juliet? My favorite quote from is Friar Lawrence's line, which turns out to be really ironic later on. He says, “Wisely and slow, they stumble that run fast.” That line in particular sticks with me because that's the story. Romeo and Juliet happens so quickly —everything rushes towards the end and with that impatience, passion, desire, and in some characters’ cases thoughtlessness. I think that line sums up the whole story pretty well.

What do you hope the audience will take away from the show? You want it to lobby in people's minds. I hope that we'll be able to share these human stories. This play is over 400 years old and somehow, we still care about this story. I think that's the beautiful part about this story—that it erupts from the inside out and everything rushes to the tragic end. Even though it ends poorly, the thing we remember about Romeo and Juliet is the romance.

What do you think of Ohio? I’m having a really nice time being in Ohio. The snow has certainly been something. I’m a snow shoveler now, so that's new. I’ve enjoyed making this work while it's snowing outside and there's some frostiness in the air. Romeo and Juliet takes place in the summer, but there's something about making it now that feels right.

Don't miss Romeo & Juliet!

Previews February 17-19, 2022 7:00pm Cleveland Public Theatre World Premiere February 26, 2022 7:30pm EJ Thomas Hall