RADIO AND JULIET Comes to Columbus, 10/27

Ballet Maribor's nationwide tour of their groundbreaking production, Radio and Juliet, will stop in Columbus for a one-night-only performance. This innovative, modern ballet is choreographer Edward Clug's translation of the world's greatest love story set against the epic work of alternative rock band Radiohead.

CAPA presents Ballet Maribor's Radio and Juliet at 8pm on Thursday, October 27, at the Palace Theatre (34 W. Broad St.). Tickets are $25, $30, and $35 at the Ohio Theatre Ticket Office (39 E. State St.), all Ticketmaster outlets, and www.ticketmaster.com. To purchase tickets by phone, please call (614) 469-0939 or (800) 745-3000. Students between the ages of 13-19 may purchase $5 High Five tickets while available.

Struck by the tragic sensibility of Radiohead's sound, Clug selected ten tracks from their existing albums to score the ballet. Starting with Juliet finding Romeo dead beside her, the ballet unfurls as a memory. How Juliet arrived at this unavoidable ending is the beginning of Radio and Juliet.

The staging is intentionally spare, without the lavish sets and costumes of many productions of Romeo and Juliet. Gone too are the crowds and characters that offer comic relief and secondary storylines. Clug has reduced the cast to seven dancers, six men and one woman, opening to the larger than life flickering of grainy, black and white images. The ballet strives to interpret the delicacy of love with the cold hand of mechanization in the modern world.

The piece was created in 2005 at Maribor's opera and ballet house. Following their enormously successful performances at Pittsburgh's International Festival of Firsts in 2008, and Jacob's Pillow in 2009, the ballet has toured the world, including Belgium, Greece, Croatia, Portugal, Italy, Serbia, France, Netherlands, Israel, Singapore, and US.

About choreographer Edward Clug
Clug was born in Romania in 1973, and began studying classical ballet at age 10 at the National Ballet School in Cluj, Romania. He became a soloist for National Theatre Maribor (Ballet Maribor) in 1991, dancing in productions of Don Quixote, Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, and Carmen before being appointed head of ballet in 2003.

Clug began receiving recognition for his work in 1996 when he served as choreographer for Theatre Maribor's production of Babylon directed by Tomas Pandur. He was awarded first prize for original contemporary ballet staging at the 1998 Varna International Ballet competition for his piece, Blind Tango, and a bronze medal for choreography at the 9th International Ballet Competition at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.

In 2005, he was awarded the Preseren Fund, the highest award presented in Slovenia for achievements in the arts. In 2006, National Theatre Maribor's opera and ballet houses premiered his work, The Architecture of Silence. That same year, the Dutch company Station Zuid presented Clug's Requiem for two chairs. The following year, Station Zuid presented his production of Sacre du Temps.

In February 2008, Clug presented his new work, Prêt-á-Porter, at SNG-Maribor with the composer Milko Lazar, and in October 2008, created Four Reasons for the National Ballet of Lisbon.

About Ballet Maribor
In 1919, Slovenia founded its first opera house in Maribor. Active under the name Slovene Municipal Theatre from 1921-41, the opera house, which also housed a professional theatre and ballet school, later became known as National Theatre Maribor.

The first performance at National Theatre Maribor was the operetta Mam'zelle Nitouche, which premiered on May 1, 1920. The following season, there were nine operettas, including The Beautiful Galatea and The Flittermouse. In April 1949, National Theatre Maribor premiered its first ballet, Mozicek (Little Man). The first whole evening performance was Coppelia in 1949, choreographed by Maks Kirbos and conducted by Heribert Svetel.

To date, National Theatre Maribor has had more than 500 opening nights and many guest appearances around Slovenia and abroad. The mix of classical and contemporary Slovene repertoire and foreign ballet repertoire has helped National Theatre Maribor rise to its position as one of the most noteworthy performance companies in eastern Europe.

Photo Credit: Linda Lenzi