Artistic director Victoria Morgan weatches rehearsal. (Michael E. Keating photo) | ZOOM |

        It's nearly 7 p.m. and everyone looks drained. Women's hair, earlier neatly wound in buns, hangs in loose ponytails. Bulky sweats are layered on top of leotards to keep weary muscles warm.

        Dozens of dancers at the Cincinnati Ballet studios have been at it since mid-morning, priming their new production of Romeo & Juliet for Friday's opening. All-day rehearsals devoted to this single project have been going on for weeks.

        It's a labor of love to put one of literature's most endearing love stories to steps, and a challenge to find the right steps to do it.

        “We looked at everything from Zeffirelli (film director Franco) to West Side Story,” says choreographer and Cincinnati Ballet artistic director Victoria Morgan.

        Last summer, Ms. Morgan flew to Montreal to collaborate with dramaturge Eda Holmes. For one week the two friends dissected Shakespeare's drama scene by scene and studied “every video of every Romeo & Juliet we could get our hands on,” Ms. Morgan says.

IF YOU GO

• What: Cincinnati Ballet in Romeo & Juliet   •   When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday   •   Where: Procter & Gamble Hall, Aronoff Center for the Arts, downtown.   •   Tickets: $7-$49 at the Aronoff and Music Hall box offices, Ticketmaster locations, phone 241-7469 or online at www.ticketmaster.com; group rates of six or more 621-5282.

        In the months since, they have pieced together a version that best suits Cincinnati Ballet's dancers.

        The final product is Ms. Morgan's creation with “moments from just about everywhere,” she says. “Both Eda and I danced (choreographer) Michael Smuin's version for years (with San Francisco Ballet), so I'm sure there are bits and pieces of his without my even realizing it.”

        Her favorite version is former Royal Ballet choreographer Kenneth MacMillan's. “He had the best partnering,” she says. “It's some of the most beautiful pas de deux work — I'm sorry I can't just use it all.”

        She confesses to including one of his lifts. “I couldn't resist. But mostly I've not taken any choreography itself, but rather how the moments have been set up.”

The time was right

        Ms. Morgan came reluctantly to develop the dances for Romeo & Juliet. With a choreographic background in one-acts and opera, she knew she would face a lot of pressure in her first try at a full-length ballet. Along the way she discovered it was the right time to do it.

GUEST APPEARANCES

• Cincinnati Ballet artistic director emeritus Frederic Franklin as Friar   • Ballet master Raymond Lukens as Lord Capulet   • Executive director John Zurick as Prince of Verona   • Twenty-five Otto M. Budig Academy students and the Venture Dancers   • Various board members, dancers' boyfriends, school teachers and moms as supers (extras).

        “I have the energy and the experience. It's been wonderful — I've loved it. But I've been a delinquent artistic director,” she confesses, meaning she's missed a financial planning meeting or two.

        “With two or three hours of preparation before each six-hour rehearsal, I've been in the studio and not the office. I think the office staff feels ignored.”

        As choreographer, preparation includes listening to the music and figuring the counts and playing around with some of the steps. (Each step is done to a count in the music.) She carries around a big book full of notes on dances, scores, which dancer comes on when and exits where.

        Ms. Morgan has surrounded herself with a hand-picked team. Ms. Holmes and Bart Cook, a former New York City Ballet dancer and sometime coach for Cincinnati Ballet, are with her at most rehearsals.

        “With a background in both dance and theater, Eda's help has been invaluable. Bart is an amazing partner and has helped with the pas de deux (a dance for two performers) and the variations,” she says.

A "simple set'
        Directing the sword-fighting scenes are local actors Drew Fracher and Gina Ceremeli-Mechley (who also plays the Nurse).

        “We were looking for someone with a good sense of comic timing plus the maturity and experience to generate real pathos. She's a hybrid — she's done dance and theater — and after a fight rehearsal one day she casually mentioned she had played the Nurse. Eda and I both said "Really! You're hired',” Ms. Morgan says.

        Set designer Jay Depenbrock has pulled from previous designs — ballet and opera — for a “re-imagined” setting, adapted for this production. “With so many locations to figure out, he's solved all kinds of problems,” Ms. Morgan says.

        The result is quite simplistic, she says. “Some versions have sets that are opulent and busy. The action itself is pretty busy so we wanted a simple set ... with of course the expected balcony scene.”

        Tom Hase, who's worked with Cincinnati Opera and Playhouse in the Park, designed the lighting. Having set herself the challenge of no blackouts between scenes, Ms. Morgan counted on Mr. Hase to figure out how to do it. And he did.

        Costumes are being assembled by Diana and Laura Vandergriff from past productions with a few newly built ones for this production for the main characters, including Romeo and Juliet.

        But it's the music that forces the action when you're relying on movement, not words, to tell a story. In this case it's the Sergei Prokofiev version used by most choreographers because it's the most danceable. The music flows and pushes the action along.

        “The music has a libretto,” Ms. Holmes says. “It's obvious Prokofiev drew from the text, but it's still not a scene by scene replay of the play.”

        The challenge was to cut 3 1/2 hours of luscious music down to a playable two. “The question was where to cut. We would suggest something and (Cincinnati Ballet music director) Carmon (DeLeone) might recommend something else, because key signatures didn't match what went before,” Ms. Morgan says. With Prokofiev's version there's the possibility of 59 scenes; they've done some hefty cutting to 14 scenes.

        The best moments have come in the studio with one or two dancers. Sharing the leads for different performances are partners Rene Micheo with Meridith Benson and Alexei Kremnev with Anna Reznik.

        “I put the balcony scene together with Rene and Meridith. They have such a past of working together — it's a total trust. The way we pieced it together was by talking about it. We did the movement first and then put the music on and it worked — it's something I've never done before.”

        Ballet can seem a crazy business. Hours of work and oodles of money go into a project that runs one weekend. With a student performance and the Fine Arts Fund Sampler Weekend, Romeo & Juliet will get six performances — more than most — before it's stored in memories and put away in boxes.

Lots of preparation

        “This ballet is the very example of the tremendous amount of preparation and effort it takes. That's why we have to find other venues; we have to find other places to perform,” Ms. Morgan says.

        “Unlike big companies in New York and on the West Coast, regional dancers don't have the opportunity to grow into a role. We have to address this — if we want our company to grow we have to find opportunities to perform.”

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