Powell Rotunda to host Romeo and Juliet Italian Renaissance Ball

In Act 1, Scene 5 of “Romeo and Juliet,” the star-crossed lovers meet for the first time on the dance floor of a feast thrown by the Capulets. For one night, live music, dances and romantic intrigue will take over the Powell Rotunda as the eighth annual Romeo and Juliet Italian Renaissance Ball takes place.

The ball is one of several balls that are part of the Powell Vintage Ballroom Dance series, founded by Cynthia Harper and musicology alumnus James Zimmer and put on with the support of the campus’ ballroom dance clubs. The event organizers are aware that, for some people, the story of “Romeo and Juliet” is more widely known than the specifics of Italian Renaissance dance.

“Most people don’t go out … to go Renaissance dancing,” Harper said. “So we thought that (“˜Romeo and Juliet’) would be a good theme. Most people are familiar with “˜Romeo and Juliet,’ and that may peak their interest in doing some of the dances they would have done back then.”

The Romeo and Juliet Ball follows the same general format each year, according to fifth-year aerospace engineering student Monica Kracy, the president of the Historical Ballroom Dance Club. The night starts off with two hours spent learning different dances that gradually increase in difficulty.

“Usually the first dance is a really slow, very basic walking dance,” Kracy said. “It’s very simple, very easy just so you get used to it.”

In past years, groups of trained Renaissance dancers taught by world arts and cultures Professor Emeritus Emma Lewis Thomas performed advanced dances. Harper and Zimmer, past students of Thomas and the instructors of the ballroom dance clubs on campus, teach and demonstrate beginner-level dances learned by attendees.

“Before the dance is ever done to music, (Harper and Zimmer) walk you through how they do the dance and have you practice it,” Kracy said.

There is a break around 10 p.m., during which guests are encouraged to read from and re-enact passages from “Romeo and Juliet.” In previous years, there has been a screening of the ball scene from the 1968 Franco Zeffirelli film version of “Romeo and Juliet,” in which the dances being performed are the same dances taught in Powell.

The dances performed at the ball will be circle dances (performed in large circles), processionals (dances performed in long lines), buffens (dances involving sword play) and brawls (two steps) ““ the dances performed by aristocrats during the 15th and 16th centuries. Many of these dances involved play acting, Harper said.

“In terms of the Renaissance, some people (today) don’t realize how much fun these people had,” Harper said. “Of course the dances were all for nobility and for the royal court, but they often imitated the common person.”

One brawl style, or branle, dance inspired by the experiences of members of the lower class is the washerwoman. This dance mimes an argument between a washerwoman and a peasant. It begins with a two step that represents the argument building up, then escalates in clapping until the fight cools down, Harper said.

The main goals of the ball are to foster an interest in dance and provide an opportunity for the UCLA community to come together.

“What’s really nice (is that the ball) brings together the undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and alumni, and people from the community, and it gives people with no knowledge of dance the opportunity to learn about the dances of these different times in history,” Zimmer said.