Margaret Qualley & Shameik Moore Take Romeo and Juliet to L.A. Through Dance for Benjamin Millepied
•March 2, 2026
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Why It Matters
The performance demonstrates how classic narratives can be revitalized through modern dance, attracting younger audiences and fostering innovative collaborations between film, music, and ballet.
Key Takeaways
- •Contemporary dance reimagines Romeo and Juliet in Los Angeles.
- •Margaret Qualley and Shameik Moore embody iconic lovers through movement.
- •Benjamin Millepied’s choreography blends Shakespearean dialogue with modern rhythm.
- •Visual storytelling emphasizes urban isolation and youthful yearning.
- •The piece highlights cross‑disciplinary collaboration between film and dance artists.
Summary
The video showcases a new dance interpretation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, transposed to a contemporary Los Angeles backdrop. Choreographer Benjamin Millepied enlists film star Margaret Qualley and musician‑actor Shameik Moore to embody the star‑crossed lovers, using fluid movement and urban set pieces to translate the classic tragedy into a modern narrative.
Millepied’s choreography intertwines fragments of the original play with kinetic beats, allowing the performers to speak the text through gesture rather than spoken word. The piece emphasizes themes of isolation, youthful longing, and the clash between tradition and the fast‑paced city, while the dancers’ chemistry underscores the timelessness of the lovers’ emotional stakes.
Key moments include a whispered exchange that mirrors the balcony scene—“Oh Romeo, wherefore art thou?”—delivered in breathy, syncopated motion, and a climactic duet where the two protagonists collide amid neon‑lit streets, visually echoing the fatal miscommunication of the original play. The production’s visual language borrows cinematic framing, reinforcing the cross‑medium collaboration.
By marrying Shakespearean romance with contemporary dance and LA’s urban aesthetic, the work expands the audience for both ballet and classic literature, suggesting new pathways for interdisciplinary storytelling and reinforcing the relevance of canonical texts in today’s cultural landscape.
Original Description
Casting Margaret Qualley and Shameik Moore as Shakespeare’s fated star-crossed lovers, French director-choregrapher Benjamin Millepied reframes Prokofiev’s iconic ballet through a contemporary lens for the short film Romeo + Juliet.
A dance-narrative hybrid, shot on the streets of Los Angeles in 2019, Millepied enlisted Qualley and Moore to retell the universal love story from a modern, everyday setting, incorporating his propulsive choreography to build a new climax around the play’s famous balcony scene. The film went on to become the foundation of Millepied’s multimedia production ‘Romeo & Juliet Suite’, created for L.A. Dance Project, in which choreography, theater, and live cinema interweave on stage, distilling the narrative to its core emotions... read more at nowness.com
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