By Sheila Orysiek
SAN DIEGO– In Paris, in 1841, the ballet Giselle was danced for the first time. It was part of an entire repertoire in the various arts which became known as the Romantic Era; dance, literature, poetry and music. This milieu envisioned the female as ephemeral, not quite human; a sylph, a swan, a wili, a spirit. Love was unfilled, unrequited – the lovers were parted – usually by death. Having recently added pointe shoes to their armamentarium, the ballerinas were particularly suited to this oeuvre; poised on the tip of the toe they seemed to take flight across the proscenium stage into a spiritual world.
One hundred and sixty-eight years later, Giselle is still being performed by every major ballet company in the world and still presents the dancers with not only considerable technical challenges, but significant acting opportunities. It is considered the equivalent of Hamlet for the ballerina. Within the structure of the choreography she is given ample time to develop her vision of how a young girl living in a woodland village responds to being duped by a nobleman pretending to be her societal equal and professing his love and honorable intent and so claiming her heart.
To convince the modern audience that one can indeed die of broken hopes becomes more difficult with the passage of each decade that this ballet is performed. Equally, the male dancer as Count Albrecht has a great deal of latitude – more than in many roles for the danseur – to transcend the choreography. While he is living a lie and we condemn him in the first act – he must also claim our sympathy so we will believe his grief in the second act.
There are several other roles of importance requiring both dance and acting throughout the ballet: Giselle’s mother, Albrecht’s “other” betrothed the Countess Bathilde, Myrtha as Queen of the Wilis and Hilarion a village swain in love with Giselle who in his attempt to save her is instead the vehicle for her dementia and demise. And equally important is a strong, cohesive corps de ballet. They are the setting for the jewel – and if the setting is akilter – the jewel is flawed.
The challenge of this ballet – of any of the Romantic Era ballets – is to take the flesh and blood difficult choreography and make it exquisitely ethereal. No sense of difficulty can be allowed to peep through, A stray foot, an incomplete hand, an uneven diaphanous skirt – and we are jerked back from the imaginary “other” world to the realities of this world.
Dancers today are asked to essay a large number of different styles from hip-hop in pointe shoes through Balanchine and back to ballets rife with history such as Giselle. This difficulty is compounded because that long history includes ballerinas such Alicia Alonso, Galina Ulanova, Margot Fonteyn, Carla Fracci – the visions of those dancers still glow in the collective memory. So, accepting this challenge and joining that list is no small matter.
City Ballet of San Diego has added this quintessential Romantic Era ballet to its repertoire and in the performance I attended on November 8, at the Spreckles Theater – itself a classical jewel – the Company showed again it is moving from strength to strength. The choreography of Jules Perrot, Jean Coralli and Marius Petipa also included the hand of the Company’s resident choreographer Elizabeth Wistrich. It was a pleasure to see that nothing was done to excess – penché didn’t go much past the accepted Romantic height, and except for a few foot to the ear moments (ah well, I do have to realize that time goes on) – the structure of the Era was respected.
The first act Peasant pas de deux danced by Janica Smith and Geoff Gonzalez was fun with only a momentary fix now and then. He is occasionally a bit choppy in the quick terre a terre sequences – almost as if there’s not time enough for the stretch and release in the knee. However, they made visible the foreshadowing of the second act pas de deux of Giselle and Albrecht. Also enjoyable were Giselle’s friends and the other village inhabitants. They participated in the action without being too fussy. And, there too, some of the corps choreography foreshadowed the second act.
I’ve enjoyed watching Tara Formanek over the past several years as she moves from challenge to challenge. She was an icy Myrtha. It is a difficult persona to play since being icy and remote without being stiff and obscure is the problem. She did well with both. I would like to see her not simply step into her piqué arabesque/attitudes – but “place” them. Give that moment meaning.
Leo Goykhman, was one of the better Hilarions I have seen. He made him a man in love with a woman – several steps below the social hierarchy than the nobleman he is contesting – without being awkward. He may be a peasant but he is not a clod. He has principles though his plan goes awry.
Gerardo Gil as Albrecht has also given the role thought and made good choices. His grief was neither maudlin nor self absorbed – it was not about him – but about the woman he lost. It is difficult for the modern male dancer who doesn’t spend a great deal of time dancing the Romantic ballets to fully absorb this very special style without crossing the line to florid absurdity. Gil was never absurd – but he shouldn’t be afraid of a softer approach in the upper body.
Ariana Samuelsson, as Giselle, gave a well thought out mad scene. When the audience falls completely silent with not a rustle nor a cough to be heard, then the ballerina knows that she has taken a role danced hundreds of times before and made it new again. She made the tension palpable. Samuelsson was in her element. During the mad scene she kept the audience totally absorbed in her drama – watching once again the old story unfold and though knowing how it would end – still entranced in the action. In the second act she floated as a spirit but loved as a woman – and so kept both Albrecht and her audience in her hands.
And finally, the corps de ballet which is the rock without which the ballet dies. The only niggle – if the majority has time to fully point the jumping foot in chassé sauté arabesque – then everyone has time to do it. The crossing voyagés were beautifully done – no bouncing legs, no hiccupping chests, and no jerking reflex in the arms or head. A triumph, for sure. They, too, silenced the theater with their art. In their final tableau, as they stood across the back of the stage with arms straight out to the side, on pointe in fifth position- not a wobble in an ankle – not a throb out of place. It was an eye catching moment that will stay in my memory.
Made up of mostly young musicians, the City Ballet orchestra under the direction of John Nettles accomplished the task with satisfaction – playing for dance is an entirely different kind of challenge than playing in a musical concert. Hopefully, they too, will move from strength to strength.