This presentation approaches musicologically and phenomenologically the Romeo and Juliet thematic complex and observes it in cross-cultural perspective: while William Shakespeare’s original play, published in 1597, has been adapted countless times for a great variety of genres, predominantly in Western contexts, the goal of the current analysis is to critically underpin the transformation of the Romeo and Juliet significance beyond Western set-ups, e.g., in the Japanese all-female popular musical theater Takarazuka Revue’s eponymous musical performances since 2010. Based on Gérard Presgurvic’s highly successful musical play Roméo et Juliette: de la Haine à l’Amour (world-premiered on 19 January 2001 at Paris’ Palais des Congrès), Takarazuka Revue’s versions display paradoxical concatenations, both textually and contextually, underscoring conservative messages of masculinity and nation on the background of meta-narrative, subliminal associations of power, enlightenment and love. Presgurvic’s production has had an immense success worldwide, with the inherent dramaturgical modifications, but the current analysis showcases the conservative atmosphere of Takarazuka Revue’s version: at the core of the analysis stays the main song “Aimer” (“To Love”), translated into Japanese as 「エメ」 Eme detailing the marriage vows of the two teenagers, in which Takarazuka Revue’s (predominantly male) administrators inconspicuously distance themselves from the prevailing interpretation of Romeo and Juliet as a tragic love-story and re-imagine it as a site of female identity projection and fulfilment, transcending the conceptualization of “love” as yearning and desire into a vision of “love” as responsibility, self-awareness and existential coolness – lavishly encapsulated in the synthetic character of Romeo.

Choreographer Ohad Naharin’s unforgettable work for Batsheva Dance Company,
“Echad Mi Yodea,'' is a stirring study of choreomusicological embodiment: a rock adaptation of the traditional, accumulative Passover song, “Echad Mi Yodea” by Israeli rock band Nikmat HaTraktor, plays as dancers accumulate ever-intensifying choreographic phrases throughout the piece. The repetitions in the music and unyieldingly physical choreography demand acute sensory responsiveness to maximize the piece’s effect. Using Brian Massumi’s (2002) theories of proprioception, viscerality (interoception), and the autonomy and escape of affect, I address how the Batsheva dancers physically embody Naharin’s choreography and the musical viscerality of “Echad Mi Yodea.” Particular attention is paid to the music and movement’s interactions within my analysis to consider how “Echad’s” physical and sonic intensity produces a viscerality that has ingrained the piece into contemporary dance history. In doing so, my paper addresses the sonic-affective gap in Elinav Katan-Schmid’s Embodied Philosophy In Dance—the only book on Naharin’s philosophy of embodiment to date—through the 2016 performance of “Echad” by the
Batsheva Young Ensemble. My paper ultimately argues that “Echad Mi Yodea'' remains Batsheva’s most memorable piece because of the dancer’s embodiment of its physical and musical relentlessness.