'Star-crossed homies' from Rennie Harris

Rome & Jewels

is dancer/choreographer Rennie Harris' tale of "a pair of star-crossed homies" who live in Philadelphia.

But those homies' names are not Rome and Jewels - they're Rome and Tibault.

Harris' Bessie Award-winning production was performed Thursday at the Kimmel Center's Perelman Theater as part of the 15th-anniversary celebration of his dance company, Rennie Harris Puremovement.

While the piece is based loosely on Romeo and Juliet (and more closely on West Side Story), the female love interest never appears on stage. Instead, the story focuses on Rome and his hip-hop dance crew, the Capulets - a.k.a the "Caps." Tibault's rival crew is the Montagues, or "Monster Q."

"Through Rome, we see Jewels," explained the narrator, Ozzie Jones, who was also the production's dramaturge.

Harris wrote the script, with additional poetry and text by Jones, Sabela Delvin Grimes, and Rodney Mason. A bit of the Bard was included, as well as references ranging from MC Hammer to Grease.

Most of Harris' work is autobiographical, and the character Rome is based on himself as a young dancer often wrongly believed to be a gangsta, the choreographer said in an onstage post-performance discussion.

While he may look like a tough guy, Rome, danced by Jefferey Cousar, is really just looking for love. And he finds it in Jewels - Tibault's girlfriend. (In Shakespeare's play, Romeo is a Montague, and Juliet and her cousin Tybalt are Capulets.)

"Rome, wherefore art thou?" is not a question from the young man's lover, but a war cry from his romantic rival, Tibault.

The balcony scene is cleverly handled with a beam of light shining down from where Jewels' window would be, and in a very modern twist, Jewels invites Rome upstairs. Cousar's ensuing solo was a sexually charged scene that borrowed movements from the sun salutations and crow poses of yoga. It was beautiful, if a bit intimate given that there were children in the audience.

The piece ended in a competitive dance scene that turned into a rumble. It was a spectacle of fabulous dancing - one-armed handstands, fast back-handsprings and aerial movements - that ended with knives and gunfire. Rome was the last to die.

An excellent pair of onstage DJs, Tracy Thomas and Ramon Gilmore, provided the music. They performed a high-energy act of their own - scratching records using their hands, mouths and backs, and even taking very fast turns on the same record.

The evening began with an excerpt of PrinceScareKrow's Road to the Emerald City (PSK), Harris' solo for himself. Displaying a deep array of emotions and amazing isolations, he showed why he is a master of hip-hop dance.