There is love, and then there’s undying love. What differentiates the two?
Sacrifice and a refusal to compromise. In ROMEO AND JULIETTE the teenagers accept death as the price for love. While developing the piece I was constantly picturing how young the two teens actually are and how courageous they have to be in order to stay true to their love. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict was flaring up at the time and it occurred to me I could think of the Capulets and Montagues in terms of those two different camps. So in my mind I was transposing the conflict and this enduring love into the present day.

What does this conflict tell us?
It drives Romeo and Juliet together. Even though they are kept apart, in the end the tale is one of redemption because their sacrifice results in the feuding families burying the hatchet. At least, that’s how it plays out in Berlioz’s dramatic symphony. For me this aspect is hugely important. It’s not the case that the two youngsters die and then it’s back to business as usual. No, there’s a ripple effect in society at large, or more precisely among these two warring clans, who agree to make peace.

What drives lovers apart today?
From what I’ve witnessed with my teenaged children, intimacy, the capacity to love and a readiness to take risks are all developing much slower nowadays because of social media. A major shift is taking place. Communication is going on on a quite different plane from the one I was on as a teenager growing up. People are communicating, yes, but in a less profound way. Back in my time there were a lot of parties, dances, social rituals and the like, which brought us closer together – in a physical sense as much as any other. Nowadays people remain physically distant to one another for much longer. It’s an interesting thing to witness.

Who do you feel closer to: Romeo or Juliet?
Juliet’s path is the more interesting to me. The way she emancipates herself! It’s so brave of her, as a young woman, to buck the authorities of the day in the way she does. I’m not sure I could have done the same. Berlioz gave Romeo more to sing; he has a long solo. But I’ve filled out the role of Juliet a little - compared to Shakespeare’s version, too. My Juliet may be a little more sophisticated, too.

How do you dance love?
I was aiming for a very lyrical, organic language, something that lets the audience forget the world outside. A language that hints at how the two lovers immerse themselves in a universe all their own. And I also stuck close to the music: you could say the choreography is intensely musical.

The performances at the Deutsche Oper are being danced by the soloists of the Paris Opera. What have the dancers from the Seine got that the Berliners don’t have?
I created the piece for the dancers of the Paris Ballet, but my dancers were involved in the creative process. I brought to Paris fragments of dance that I’d created with my company and I went on developing these fragments in the bodies of the classical dancers. And the two parallel strands are now part of the whole. It interests me to see dancers with a classical French background interacting with exponents of modern dance. How are their styles reconciled with my language of dance? How do they engage with each other? It’s a new thing for me, an experiment, a new departure. So I wouldn’t say that one side is bringing something to the mix that the other side doesn’t have. It’s two different schools engaging with each other.