Beer. Nachos. Arena. Ballet?

It feels like youre in a pop concert, said Sheila Kiss,53,a medical researcher,describing the atmosphere at the Royal Ballets performance of Romeo and Juliet at the massive O2 arena in London recently. The stands were filled with some 10,000 people,young,old and the casually dressed. In between watching the dancing they were also doing a fair amount of munching and gulping.

But in a way that was the point. The performance,and three more over the weekend,were meant to be a grand experiment in democracy,a way for ballet to break free from its rarefied,elitist image. The idea was to attract younger and larger audiences.

The plan presented a number of daunting challenges,among them the logistics of transporting the whole production50 crew members,225 moving lights,809 pieces of costume,500 pieces of footwear and 28 miles of cable,for starters. To solve the problem of how to make Kenneth MacMillans choreography visible to people in the cheap,far-away seats,the company transmitted the ballet live on three giant screens above the stage.

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra played in a narrow glass box above the stage.

As they captured the dancing,cameras were constantly moving,sometimes taking in the whole stage,other times zoo-ming in to focus on particular entrances. This allowed the audiences to see,for instance,Romeo and Juliets shared bliss andlonging in their first pas de deux,and Juliets anguish at discovering that Romeo is dead.

I love the close-ups, said Kisss husband,John,a 53-year-old high-school science teacher and soccer fan. I find the screens really distractingI didnt come all this way to watch the ballet on television he said.

Along with all the ballet novices,there were ballet admirers. Claire Brewer,29,said she had been drawn in by advertisements portraying Romeo and Juliet as a sort of sexy,vital and action-packed spectacle.

She came directly from work,wearing jeans. I worried,Am I dressed too casually? she said.

Im so pleased that its so popular, said Jo Moon,42,an advertising executive. I like how people from all walks of life can come here and be themselves.

But her companion Anja Tita,40 complained that many people seemed to have no compunction about rudely taking their seats even after the dancing had begun. The easy availability of messy sports-crowd food also irritated Tita. I dont like to see people eating popcorn during the ballet, she said,although Im on my way to buy popcorn myself.

But Richard McDermott,39,who works for an advertising company and who has seen Romeo and Juliet a half-dozen times at Covent Garden,said he found the production refreshing from his distant seats.

I think its great being at this height, he said. You get a real sense of the whole stage. Its a gamble to come into a massive space,but I think its paid off.