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Why was Sergey Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet initially rejected by the Bolshoi Ballet?

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Portrait of composer Sergey Prokofiev, circa 1938, wearing round glasses, a suit, and a tie, looking slightly to the side. — Sergey Prokofiev Sergey Prokofiev.

When Sergey Prokofiev offered his ballet Romeo and Juliet to the Bolshoi Ballet, the company's dancers rejected the work because they deemed it impossible to dance to the score.1

Following this rejection, Prokofiev adapted the music into two orchestral suites, which were performed publicly before the complete ballet finally reached the stage in 1938 in Brno, Czechoslovakia.1