American Ballet Theatre’s performance of Giselle last Thursday evening at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts was a staple curatorial acquisition to this year’s programming. First premiered in 1841 at the Théâtre de l’Académie Royale de Musique in Paris, the ballet tells the tragic story of a young peasant girl who dies from unrequited love and joins the ethereal Wilis, spirits of women who have been deceived before their marriage, in the afterlife. It’s a quintessential example of 19th century ballet at the height of its romantic era and continues to be on ABT’s touring and home based repertoire time and time again. Upon first glance, the ballet seems simplistic in its dressed down choreography, but in this reviewer’s opinion, that is where the casting and staging really shine. ABT’s beautifully nuanced interpretation of the ghostly tale hit harder and stronger this season than in years before.
Hee Seo in ABT’s “Giselle” – Photo Gene Schaivone.
Act I’s joyful innocence really came to life by Giselle, performed by Hee Seo, and Count Albrecht, performed by Cory Stearns. Currently two of ABT’s principal dancers, the chemistry of the pairing was an honor to watch. Seo played Giselle as a virtuous and youthful girl, while Stearns conveyed the Count as a confident, but not arrogant, infatuated young man. Both of their performances were sincere and full of heartbreak. Act I’s deception made Seo’s intimate gesturing and Stearns compelling persuasion all that much harder to watch knowing how it all falls in the end. The scenery, by Gianni Quaranta and costumes by Anna Anni were also particularly mesmerizing and a gifted addition to Act I’s softness. With beautifully embroidered tulle skirts, silk and taffeta gowns, velvet robes trimmed in gold, nobody felt forgotten to the background of staging. Each villager, prince, and count squire was in distinguishable garb. Quaranta, with staging by Kevin McKenzie, incorporated two real live dogs on leashes, and a life sized dummy roasted pig during the royal party returning from their hunt. Giselle’s choreography sets up the art of balletic storytelling better than any other ballet of its time. It’s easy to fall in love with the art of love, and also the art of dance, as Giselle persuades her mother Berthe, performed by Nancy Raffa, to let her join the Wine Festival celebrations in dance over and over again, only to be met by her untimely death.
Cory Stearns in ABT’s “Giselle” – Photo: Rosalie O’Connor.
Act II’s moonlit forest, a transcendence between light and dark, life and death, joy and sorrow is immediately introduced in the ghostly white costumes of the Wilis, and the subdued lighting and fog by Jennifer Tipton. It’s in this supernatural realm that we see Seo interpret Giselle in a more fragile light, but with a stronger personality and presence. She is summoned by Myrta, Queen of the Wilis, and performed by the elegant Fangqi Li. The Wilis, an eerie and haunting beauty, lure men into their enchanted forest only to make them dance to death. The powerful display of their eerie and vengeful spirit is met with floating choreography and wispy movements of the feet, as if to float on stage. Seo and Stearns perform a pas de deux showing Giselle’s sorrow but emotional strength, and Albrecht’s unspoken regret and longing for her even in death. It is a haunting setting of intense choreography after Jean Coralli, Jules Perrot, and Marius Petipa with slow and controlled adagios, both in solo and pas de deux. Not to mention the Wilis perform impressive ensemble work by holding an arabesque while delicately interweaving their pose between each other.
Hee Seo and Cory Stearns in ABT’s “Giselle” – Photo: Rosalie O’Connor.
In the end, Giselle refuses to let the Wilis destroy Count Albrecht, and protects him until the Wilis lose their power at dawn. Despite the vengeful and malefic character of the Wilis, Giselle still holds compassion and love for the Count, in a heartbreaking and tender farewell as she falls back into her grave at daybreak. It is this simple act that keeps all of us under the spell of this momentous ballet. It tracks universal feelings, such as love and loss, but also redemption. Despite the fact that Giselle was deceived by the Count, she chooses to meet him with compassion, grace, and forgiveness. She charges the emotion in us all to not only let go, but to forgive in this life and the next. In a world of lies, and malicious behaviors, the ballet offers a poetic master class in the strength of the human spirit, and the emotive power of imagination.
To learn more about American Ballet Theatre, please visit their website.
To learn more about the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, please visit their website.
Written by Grace Courvoisier for LA Dance Magazine.
Featured image: Hee Seo in ABT’s “Giselle” – Photo Gene Schaivone.
