Performance Review: "Giselle"

"Giselle," A ballet at the Fox Theatre, Oct. 26-29, 2006.

Close your eyes and imagine the soft pitter-patter of feet, beautiful leaps and twirls, gentle music and brilliant costumes made to represent a past time. Got it? Well, you are either special or exactly like me. I couldn’t see that whole picture in my mind until I saw it with my own two eyes at “Giselle,” a ballet performed at the Fox Theatre.

I am no ballet connoisseur, but I can say that this performance entranced me from the very beginning.

Now for those of you who are like me and have not one clue what a rone de jamb e or pirouette is, don’t worry. You don’t need to know any of that stuff to feel the emotion and dynamics of this dance.

“Giselle,” an early 19th century story, is based around a triangle of lovers. In Act One, Giselle, the village beauty, falls in love with Albrecht, a disguised prince. Albrecht and Giselle claim their love for each other and their eternal faithfulness until Hilarion, who is also deeply in love with Giselle, discovers Albrecht’s disguise and reveals the Prince’s identity to Giselle. She then, being so overwhelmed and distraught by this claim, loses her mind and dies of a broken heart.

Act One was my favorite. The dances were upbeat and fun. The performers were fully clad in bright colorful dresses and many of the dances included the whole group with spurts of solos intertwined throughout.

However, the most important part was understanding the plot and message they were trying to reveal. I can’t imagine trying to evoke a message with no words, but the director, John McFall, did a wonderful job doing this in the first act.

Soft and hard hand and feet motions helped the dancers express their emotions. The music repeatedly switched from a light and soft melody to a loud thunderous roar allowing the audience to feel the struggle between the lovers and the set was constantly lightened and darkened to reflect the mood of the play.

Act Two was a little more confusing. The set and costumes were nicely done. You could definitely tell you were in a cemetery surrounded by a bunch of angry ghosts, but the story line was harder to follow. I actually had to look it up and see that they were trying to portray the afterlife of Giselle. McFall had more difficulty delivering the story to an audience member like myself in this act.

However, I did find out that the second act was supposed to depict Giselle and other angry women ghosts at the graveyard that were killed right before their wedding day. These ghosts kill all the men that enter the cemetery. Hilarion, the one who exposed the Prince, goes to visit Giselle’s grave and is killed in a dance battle and thrown into a lake by the spirit of an angry ghost.

A little bit later, Albrecht also goes to see Giselle’s grave and is attacked by the angry mob of ghosts as well. He however, passes the dance of death because of Giselle’s deep love for him. As they say their final farewell, Albrecht recognizes Giselle’s true love and is forever touched with the memory of the delicate and beautiful village girl.

Giselle, danced by Naomi-Jane Dixon, Albrecht, danced by John Welker and Hilarion, danced byTamila, gave stellar performances. These characters, along with the rest of the cast, made the show enjoyable, exciting and very emotional for me. This standout cast worked extremely well together, were consistently precise in their dance movements and genuinely looked like they were enjoying themselves.

Every element, whether it was the characters, set, costumes or music, caught my attention. My eyes clung to the performers for the whole hour and a half. So, in my first experience with the ballet I realized one important thing, even though I didn’t know exactly what they were doing, I still found myself really intrigued, amused, and dying for more.

-Reviewed by: Kim Malawy