Forgiveness used to work. That’s what Giselle reminds us. It was sometimes a path to realizing one's deepest single love. Not so these days, though. "So long” is an easy no-fault click away online. Everyone senses they have options that are better than what they have.
So why does Giselle still resonate? For starters, it’s easy to understand. It has love, betrayal, revenge, and forgiveness in equal amounts which are equally beautiful and justifiable. Viewers don't have to pick sides. We can like and admire everybody: the victims, the perpetrators, those dishing out life sentences, the King, and the poor. It’s a relief of sorts.
ABT opened its generous run of ten performances of Giselle last Saturday. Each of its nine principal women will get a chance to dance the role of Giselle, and guest artist Olga Smirnova is the tenth. The company’s production is and always has been fulfilling but it needs refurbishing of its costumes, sets, and lighting. The peasant costumes in Act I look like rejections from the free box at Goodwill that some local ballet school picked out for their amateur production. They’re horrible. They’re tasteless. They shouldn’t be tolerated. The lighting dims the production for all but the first dozen rows in the orchestra.
Saturday's matinee featured Christine Shevchenko and Calvin Royal III as Giselle and Albrecht. Both artists are long in line, elegant, and possess the same type of introspective reserve. This lack of contrast didn’t always serve the performance. Shevchenko’s Giselle was a classical beauty whose refined phrasings were akin to those of Olga Smirnova in the evening’s performance. Her detailed competence never came off as dry as some of ABT’s Giselles have been, but rather, Shevchenko’s Giselle was heartfelt and genuine. In Act II, especially, she floated like wispy cirrus clouds signaling the approach of severe weather.
There’s something to be said for a ballerina's spiritual devotion to academic standards. Olga Smirnova, a messenger of Vaganova Academy's values and peerless training, boasts physical blessings of length and line that almost look like they were created from a Prequel app that Disneyfies photos into perfection. In her Act I solos, her arms astonished for their length and their refusal to cross that invisible plane in front of her. She seemed intent on showing her artistic heritage and how the choreography can be beautiful without adding Western sauce. Except for some extraordinary albeit unnecessary detailing in Giselle’s mad scene, Smirnova came off as a thoroughly charming and naive Giselle. She already comes equipped with huge wondering eyes. When she stretched her eyelids open even wider to denote her descent into madness, she looked ophthalmic-ly weird. More importantly, while the insanity came through loud and clear, her victimization did not. After all, Giselle goes mad because she’s a victim of Albrecht’s fraud. The hurt and victimization should show through in addition to the insanity. Smirnova's Act II easily met the bar for being hauntingly beautiful. Every shape we expected was there. Every moment we anticipated fulfilled our expectations. We've never been a fan of having the tempo slowed to a crawl during Giselle's entrechat quatre so that she can jump higher. The fast, low to the ground entrechat quatre are far more theatrical and ghost-like.
Calvin Royal III as Shevchenko’s Albrecht was a sturdy partner with beautiful lines and picturesque leaps, but he muddled and shortchanged the entrechat six. There’s only one way to unload a full magazine of entrechat six when needed and that’s to practice them everyday. Royal’s Albrecht was sincere without an ounce of intentional cheat. He was a nice guy, but we never saw Albrecht’s flawed character. His overhead lifts of Giselle were exceptionally stirring and beautiful. All of the partnering including the lifted arabesque hops across the stage were gorgeous.
Daniel Camargo was a fully-considered Albrecht whose technique was impressively used to further his story. While we can’t say that Camargo and Smirnova approached our memories of that other Brazilian-Vaganova pair of Gomes & Vishneva, there was enough rapport between them to suggest that a couple of more Giselles might build into something extraordinary. Camargo's Act I Albrecht was sufficiently ambiguous when it came to the question of dalliance or devotion. His choice in Act II of combining a diagonal run of brises followed by the circling sautes in attitude was pleasant to watch but not as thrilling as a double dose of brises where Albrecht desperately falls to his knees so close to Myrta that her lowering spectered arm nearly meets him between the eyes. We’re recalling just such a performance of Stiefel’s Albrecht and Abrera’s Myrta that made us gasp and nearly stopped our hearts.
Chloe Misseldine’s Myrta in the Smirnova/Camargo cast had much more authority than when we first saw her in the role. Fangqi Li in the Schevchenko/Royal cast had some lovely moments that conveyed spectral intent but her overall dancing was small and ineffective for a Myrta. Neither artist evoked the horizontal wind-shearing effect in her grand jetes. Both seemed more intent on landing big jumps rather than long jumps that covered distance like a ghostly avenging spirit whistling through the wind. Again, we point to Abrera’s Myrta.
In both performances, Zulma and Moyna were disappointments. Zulma’s reversés by Zimmi Coker and Sierra Armstrong which are supposed to be huge and lingering were nothing to write home about. Nor were the pique penche arabesques. Here, we point to Leeann Underwood as having set the high bar for this role. Moyna as danced by Breanne Granlund and Remy Young could not have looked smaller or more unimportant. The expected artistry simply was not present.
Both Andrii Ishchuk and Joseph Markey were fine Hilarions—Ishuchuk was the more genuinely in love whereas Markey was more about rightful possession of Giselle.
The Peasant Pas de Deux was danced brilliantly by Lea Fleytoux and Jake Roxander. We hate how ABT is wasting Fleytoux’s value and career time on these secondary roles. This season should have been her Giselle debut under a huge spotlight. Ditto with the criminal underuse of Elisabeth Beyer.
The Corps de Ballet was mostly well-drilled but the mishmash of sizes and silhouettes disrupted visual continuity. A few did have a problem holding the arabesque line without wobbling in Act II.
The HH Pump Bump Award, a stiletto of simple elegance by Jimmy Choo, is bestowed upon Christine Shevchenko for her beautiful interpretation and clear dancing in Giselle.