In The Juliet Duet by Erna Ómarsdóttir and Halla Ólafsdóttir, the two Juliets roam around the stage as two lovesick teenagers, as two menopausal dancers, as two underground nymphs, as two friends and as two lovers. They dance to ancient words. Their dance moves the words over and across the stage, sweeping the past away into a bundle of dust. Together they become poetry. Choreography and music become one and the voice becomes an invisible body in the room, whispering sweet secrets through its bloody dance.
The Juliet Duet is: Shaking, shifting, screaming, shaping, milking, bleeding, pretending, dancing, miming, breathing, growing, forgetting, remembering, writing, faking, aging, leaving, teenaging, rottening, mating, cooking, cleaning, jumping, stepping, turning, flying, stretching, drawing, forming, translating, understanding, tracing, misunderstanding and transforming.
The Juliet Duet is a dance performance inspired by Prokofiev’s classical ballet Romeo & Juliet. The idea for The Juliet Duet came out of Erna and Halla´s collaboration with the dance performance Romeo ❤ Juliet that premiered at Gärtnerplatztheater in 2018. The Juliet Duet uses the language of classical ballet, its technique, composition and pantomime, and merges it with aerobics, screaming practices, witchcraft filled with elements of housekeeping, prosthetic body parts, hair, confetti, fake blood, sweat, tears and love.
