Casanova. The name echoes through the ages. Even today, a notorious ladies man earns that nickname from jealous buddies. But the remarkable life of Giacomo Casanova (1725-98) was about more than a few hundred amorous conquests, noted his English biographer Ian Kelly.

“He wrote 42 books, eight opera libretti (texts), he spoke six languages, traveled 78,000 kilometers all over Europe,” Kelly said in a video conference call. “A TV series couldn’t do him justice.”

Instead, the Englishman collaborated on a ballet scenario with fellow countryman Kenneth Tindall, a respected choreographer who premiered his work with England’s Northern Ballet in 2017.

This weekend, dance lovers — and fans of the legendary lover — will catch the opening of Tindall’s “Casanova,” performed in a lavish, full-length, sweepingly romantic production by Colorado Ballet in the Ellie Caulkins Opera House.

In case you’re wondering, please leave the children at home. Everyone onstage remains fully clothed, but there are “encounters” (one on a table!) and a simulated orgy. That said, Kelly reported that he took his young teenage daughter and her girlfriend, and the two had a jolly good time.

But turning the saga of Casanova into dance?

“It couldn’t be anything other than a ballet,” Kelly insisted during a recent panel discussion in Denver.

“It’s about human connections,” he later told The Denver Gazette. “It’s about the joy and rapture of his life and how it led to depression.”

Born in Venice, Casanova first sought life as a priest, but dropped out (“He had held dangerous ideas of the Catholic Church,” Kelly noted). And so he began his journey of travel and discovery, later writing a detailed 3,600-page memoir, peopled with the likes of popes, kings, princes, Mozart, Catherine the Great, Voltaire and Madame de Pompadour, Louis XV’s mistress and the most powerful woman in France. Around a dozen players appear in Tindall’s ballet, including Voltaire and Madame de Pompadour.

“This is so important,” Kelly said. “Everyone on stage portrays somebody who really existed. The dancers are also actors, re-creating an extraordinary world on the cutting edge of a new era. This work shows that dancers can do a lot more than just … dance.”

Jonnathan Ramirez is certainly doing more than merely dance the title role in four of the seven performances.

“Casanova is onstage the entire time, except for a minute-and-a-half to change clothing,” the company’s principal remarked. “But that’s the beauty of ballet — I use my exhaustion to my advantage. I implement it all together — the acting and the dancing.”

Ramirez has made efforts to inhabit Casanova.

“But it’s not just me. Everybody (in the cast) tried hard to understand their character.”

And there are several figures swirling through Tindall’s non-stop choreography: Brugadin, described as “a Venetian dignitary besotted with Casanova;” the mysterious M.M. (Ariel McCarty partnered by Ramirez), “an aristocratic nun;” Bernis, “an ambassador and voyeur;” and Bellino, “a woman masquerading as a man.”

Ramirez was aglow about the five weeks of work with Tindall’s assistant, Heath Gill.

“After all the rehearsing, none of us felt uncomfortable,” he said.

Even in those intimate scenes?

Some duets (known as pas de deux) do call for new, um, positions.

“All the steps are natural, without being vulgar,” Ramirez reassured. “What was really challenging for me was exchanging partners (this is Casanova, remember). I have six or seven, and everyone is different. But my training prepared me for all this. The world of ballet has been changing – it’s not a dying art form.”

Keeping up with shifts in dance styles and audience tastes offers a challenge to company artistic director Gil Boggs. Since his board of directors had to give approval to new repertory, one wonders what was their reaction when this spicy subject was presented. No jaws dropped, apparently.

“There was a lot of curiosity,” he said. “I detailed some of the scenes, but I was not a hard salesman, after the success of (last season’s) ‘Jekyll and Hyde.’ We attracted a large younger audience for that show during the second week. Word of mouth. This one should help develop a new audience of ballet-goers. I hope our people have faith in us. The sets, costumes and music are out of this world.”

Kelly had also raved about the production values, praising the sets and costumes of Christopher Oram and the original score by Kerry Muzzey. Alastair West designed the lighting.

With all those characters and dramatic interplay, will audiences be able to remain engaged in the story? Kelly isn’t worried. “It’s a memory piece, traveling back and forth. Sometimes a tale is best communicated without words.” Besides, there’ll be a lot of – well, you know …