The Rhythm of Shakespeare

Playwright, poet and Elizabethan wordsmith William Shakespeare is often associated with all things literary; however, as an actor as well as a writer, Shakespeare’s texts were crafted with the intention of physical performance. Created with specific attention to the musicality of the line and the literal heartbeat of the human body, Shakespeare’s plays are primed to be reworked as dance through their internal rhythm.

 Rhythm is the ‘beat’ of a play or a poem and sets the pace of the work. Created by patterns of unstressed and stressed syllables in a given line or stanza, many poets and dramatists play with the structure of beats and syllables to form a poem or a speech in a play. One of the most notable examples of this is, of course, William Shakespeare and the use of iambic pentameter in his plays.

Shakespeare’s use of iambic pentameter was not only a popular choice but also dictated the pace and rhythm of how his works were performed. In addition to the musicality of his line, Shakespeare consistently references dance in his plays. For example, in Much Ado About Nothing, Beatrice references a Scottish jig, and in Twelfth Night, Sir Toby says, “My very walk should be a jig” (Act I, Sc. iii), referring to the song and dance at the end of a show. Other dance references include popular Elizabethan and Renaissance era styles, including the Galliard (apparently Queen Elizabeth I’s favourite), the Pavane (a slow processional dance) and the Morris dance (traditional English folk dancing).

These dance formats often serve a narrative purpose, moving the plot along or conveying cues as to a character’s social standing or reputation. Through these dances Shakespeare comments on class distinctions and explores the relationship between characters. He also uses dance as a device to speak directly to the audience and redirect the tone of a scene. Shakespeare didn’t just refer to dance; he used it to make audiences feel the plot and the characters’ emotions.

In Shakespeare's text of Romeo and Juliet, the star-crossed lovers tellingly meet in a ball where dancing is the embodiment of both their separation and their romance to come. Ballet adaptations have neatly translated this emotional push and pull of young love through the Dance of the Knights and the Bedroom Pas de Deux sequences. 

Shakespeare lived in a time where the written word was viewed through its performative ability. His own physicality as an actor and expertise in conveying story through rhythm continue to provide choreographers the tools and inspiration in which to reframe his characters and stories for the dancing body on stage. From Romeo and Juliet to Christopher Wheeldon’s version of A Winter’s Tale, Shakespeare’s unique rhythms allow for his words to transcend the text and shine even within a wordless art form.