#TBT: Alessandra Ferri in Romeo and Juliet (1984)

June 23 is finally here, and we couldn’t be more excited! Tonight, internationally acclaimed ballerina Alessandra Ferri, 53, returns to American Ballet Theatre to reprise the role of Juliet alongside Herman Cornejo in Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet. For some, tonight’s performance is one more opportunity to see the former ABT and Royal Ballet star dance the role she’s most famous for. For others, it is a chance to see her legendary Juliet live for the first time.

Until then, let’s enjoy this 1984 clip of Ferri, then a newly promoted Royal Ballet principal, in the bedroom pas de deux. With youthful ardor, she breathes life into the Shakespearian heroine. Ferri and her partner, former principal Wayne Eagling, abound in bashful and impassioned embraces, their movements across the stage both dramatic and fleeting. My favorite moment starts at 0:16, as the couples’ gentle cambrés give way to fiery, abandoned lifts.

We thought we had seen the last of Ferri when she retired in 2007. Yet she made an unexpected comeback in 2013, and has since starred in Martha Clarke’s Chéri, John Neumeier’s Duse at Hamburg Ballet, and The Royal Ballet’s production of Wayne McGregor’s Woolf Works. We’re anxiously waiting to see how Ferri’s matured perspective influences her latest performance, and we can’t wait to see what else the future has in store for her. Happy #ThrowbackThursday!

Ferri and Roberto Bolle at her farewell ABT performance. (Not farewell for long!) Photo by Nan Melville via NYTimes.

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