One of the most famous love stories of all time will be danced by Ballet Quad Cities in Davenport, in a new version seen for the first time in its entirety since its debut 11 years ago.
“Romeo + Juliet,” choreographed by company artistic director Courtney Lyon, will be performed Feb. 21 at 7 p.m. and Feb. 22 at 2 p.m., at Galvin Fine Arts Center, St. Ambrose University, Davenport, that reimagines the classic Shakespeare tale of star-crossed lovers. Lyon’s contemporary ballet (premiered in 2015) blends timeless romance with a modern twist, all set to the dramatic and heart-pounding score of Sergei Prokofiev.
Lyon originally conceived her version of the iconic 1597 story, first done in collaboration with Orchestra Iowa, performed in Cedar Rapids and at Moline’s Scottish Rite Cathedral (today’s Spotlight Theatre). In addition to the 2026 title characters -- Dagny Ingle as Juliet, paired with Marcus Pei as Romeo, there is the key role of Fate, here performed by first-year dancer Emerald Pease. Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin, is played by Sierra DeYoung, and Juliet’s mother is Madeleine Rhode.
The three main characters of Fate, Romeo and his Juliet “will challenge you to ask the question: are any of us in charge of our own fate, can we change our destiny or are we living the life that has always been ours?” the BQC program says.
“It's a unique approach that I chose,” Lyon said in an interview Friday, Feb. 13. “I did not necessarily want to be influenced by any other production.”
Lyon didn’t want to recreate the classic Shakespeare, in this abridged 65-minute version (plus intermission) and pretty much everyone comes in knowing the lovers (spoiler alert) will die by the end.
“Maybe there's someone out there that did not study it in grade school or high school or has not been exposed to it. But I think the majority of people understand that it's really a tragic love story,” she said. “However, Romeo and Juliet don't know what's going to happen to them. So that's why I thought that having Fate on stage, like almost like a narrator, an all-knowing presence to guide Romeo and Juliet. So I really focused on the star-crossed lovers -- like they did not have a choice in what was going to happen to them.”
Shakespeare’s prologue of the feuding families (Montagues and Capulets) notes:
“Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.”
“It was always going to end up the way it was going to end up. So I take the very end of the ballet and I put it right in the beginning of the ballet,” Lyon said, noting we see the crypt at the start. “And then at the end of the ballet all the questions have been answered. So we start in the crypt. We see women, I call them my angels of death. We see women in the crypt at the beginning of the ballet and Fate walking through at the very end.”
“So then the audience understands like that that story was going to play out that way no matter what choice was made,” she said. “Because there were a lot of adults, if you remember Shakespeare, there's a lot of adults that could have stepped in and stopped Romeo and Juliet. There's a lot of information that didn't get where it needed to get.
“Sometimes I'm frustrated, like where were the grown-ups that let these kids do this?” Lyon asked. “Bittersweet is not even the right word. It's not a big enough word to know what you feel when you see these youngsters who are so innocent and they're just going on a path, you know what's going to happen to them.”
Personifying Fate
In the ballet, they have personified fate, and Lyon called that the star.
“It was written in the stars. It's like it was always gonna happen,” she said of the teenagers’ romance and tragedy. “They were meant to be together.”
Even though ballet is without dialogue, the actions onstage should make the story clear, Lyon said.
“I really try to embody distinct emotions for each scene. That way, if someone has knowledge of the Shakespeare, that makes them more comfortable,” she said. “The dancers do such a beautiful job. And the music, I mean, the music is great, but the music tells such a beautiful story. And I did so much research with that story, so I really used the theme.”
This ballet is timeless and ageless, the choreographer noted.
“It's not set in a particular time. It could be in the future, in the past, could be in someone's memory,” Lyon said. “And Emerald has a presence on stage that has nothing to do with how old she is. I'll just say that she can handle a stage and she can draw attention. She can draw audience's attention, and she can really command emotion on stage. She's absolutely the right person, despite age.”
And genders of the dancers don’t matter (for example Tybalt here is a woman, and in 2015, Fate was a man).
“They're just to try to accomplish a universal experience for people,” Lyon said. “So no matter what religion they are, how they think about the universe, what they've experienced in love, I try to find a universal. There's something for everyone to get out of that.”
Pei (in his third BQC season) and Ingle (in her first) admire Fate as embodied by a dancer.
“It creates, to me, this ominous presence that's always sort of watching what's happening,” Ingle said Friday. “Obviously the way Courtney says it is, the audience knows what's gonna happen to Romeo and Juliet. It's just Romeo and Juliet that don't know, but fate knows. And fate feels different things about it. Fate can't help that it's going to happen, but is sympathetic to their story.”
“Also, Emerald is doing an amazing job,” she added of Pease.
Fate is not a villain in the story, and doesn’t control the characters, Ingle said. “She just kind of watches and draws your eye to what's coming next because so much of it is abstract. I think it helps the audience understand where you are in the narrative.”
Fate interacts with Romeo in one scene, which Pei called “an extension of my anger. And fate is maybe an extension of my mind,” he said.
“There's a trio in the second act that I think is much more supposed to be inside Juliet's head when she realizes that Romeo's killed her cousin Tybalt, and she's like, trying to make up her mind about what she should do,” Ingle said. “Fate is there to sort of guide her through her thoughts as very tender. It's much more caring instead of being aggressive or angry.”
To the QC via Georgia and Iowa City
Ingle is a 25-year-old native of Macon, Ga., who’s been dancing since she was 4.
“I was just a really overactive child. I would put on shows at home before they ever put me in classes,” she said Friday. “So my parents were just doing it as a way to like get my energy out.”
Pei, a 28-year-old Iowa City native, performed in 2010-11 as the lead role in the first national tour of “Billy Elliot the Musical.” He also attended Canada’s National Ballet School for six years, graduating in 2015.
For the 2016-2017 season, Pei danced with Ballett am Rhein in Düsseldorf, Germany. Returning to Iowa City, he completed two bachelor’s degrees at the University of Iowa. He performed in the Iowa Dance Festival, danced pieces by Shannon Alvis and Michael Sakamoto in U of I’s Dance Gala, and performed in works by Marc Macaranas and Sarah Olson. At Ballet Quad Cities, Marcus has danced a range of roles including the Cavalier in “The Nutcracker,” Oberon in Courtney Lyon’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and the Toreador in Lyon’s “Carmen.”
At 15, Ingle was invited to study with the Atlanta Ballet pre-professional academy, later receiving a scholarship. In 2020, she began her professional career with Bossov Ballet Theatre in Maine, later joining Louisville Ballet’s Studio Company, and most recently Alabama Ballet as an apprentice.
Her favorite roles include Cygnet in Robert Curran’s “Swan Lake,” Mirliton in Val Caniparoli’s “The Nutcracker,” Friend of Coppelia and Betrothal Pas de Deux in Roger VanFleteren’s “Coppelia,” and The Crocodile in Christopher Stuart’s “Peter Pan.”
Ingle wanted to move to the QC for colder weather, after being so long in the South.
“I never liked the heat and humidity. I'm super pale. I wasn't built for that,” she said. “I always wanted to live somewhere where it snowed. So when I sent out audition materials, I focused on places in the U.S. that were like, beautiful and smooth and snowy and like homey. And when this place reached out and let me audition, it just all kind of fell into place.
“A bucket-list role”
Ingle called dancing her first Juliet “a bucket-list role.”
“I'm also getting to do a lot more contemporary ballet work than I have in the past. And then, of course, I did not expect this, but I'm getting to do my first ever principal cast with this ‘Romeo and Juliet’,” she said.
Pei has never done “Romeo,” aside from reading and studying the play in 9th grade, in Toronto.
He didn’t move to the QC for the winters, but its location, close to family (in Des Moines and Chicago).
“I don't like the cold, but it's good for my family to be able to drive two hours and see me,” Pei said. He likes the small size of BQC, which gives him the chance to dance big roles like Romeo.
“That's one of the main draws for me to be here and to stay here is, I get to dance classical roles, which I probably wouldn't be dancing in other big companies,” Pei said. “I'm only 5’ 9”, and I was actually the shortest male in my graduating class. They were all 5’ 10” and above, so most of them got positions at companies, bigger companies that required that height.”
“So I'm just grateful that this company can see dancers for their ability to dance and less of the, I guess, the look,” he said.
Pei enjoys the chance to dance with different artists, like Ingle, who are new to the company.
“I always welcome the opportunity to work with new partners. It's like an investment for the future because you never know how they're going to cast you,” he said. “And the ability to work with as many partners as you can as a dancer is advantageous because then the next time you dance together, it's even better.”
Lyon’s balcony scene pas de deux (duet) with the couple is 11 minutes long, “which is crazy,” Ingle said, noting the set doesn’t include a literal balcony, but the program and moonlight make it obvious, the closing scene of Act I.
At BQC, she also teaches in the ballet school, dancers in 8th to 12th grades.
“I have such a deep appreciation for some of the teachers I've met, especially at Atlanta Ballet when I was their student, because they were so dedicated to solving, my limitations,” Ingle said. “Every dancer, whether it's a mental or physical limitation, they were always problem solving.”
“And over those three and a half years I was there, I became a completely different dancer,” she said. “And so I want to give that same hope to my students. I want to be that analyzing force. Like, it's very satisfying. You can help a student become a better dancer in one class. Amazing. And then they come back next week, and they're super excited to tackle something harder.”
Pei also teaches during summers, and Ingle feels like every dancer is a “conglomeration of all the teachers they've ever had.”
“So if you do decide to teach, or if you have a passion for teaching, you are speaking with the voice of all people that have helped you before,” she said.
Tickets for the BQC production are $30 general admission, and $15 for children 12 and under, available HERE.
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