Spectacular doesn't begin to describe yesterday. These types of days can only happen in New York; one simply cannot experience them anywhere else.
We reached the first summit of the day around 1 PM. After donning protective shoe coverings and complimentary sunglasses, we climbed into an elevator to be launched up to the 93rd floor of the new One Vanderbilt skyscraper. The ascent was bladder-activatingly fast, noisy, and filled with flashing light. When the elevator door opened, the sunlight beamed in so brightly that it could have been that end-of-life moment that people talk about. We'd never before stood within a light so intense and so beautiful. But like a few other things in New York, it was mostly fake -- the light was created by floor & ceiling mirrors that reflected the sunlight with imaginative refraction. Make no mistake, it was still the most impressive view in our land of tall buildings.
Our second summit came mid-evening when Skylar Brandt and Herman Cornejo as Giselle and Albrecht transcended all definitions of spectacular. Stephanie Petersen danced a memorable debut as Myrta -- sometimes like cold steel, sometimes like the hot sparks that jump from the steel when the welder's torch hits it. Andrii Ischuk, a graduate of Edward Ellison's fine academy in Manhattan, continued the ABT tradition of making the role of Hilarion an eye-catching principal-level role with limitless opportunity for character development.
Act I of Giselle can be difficult to sit through if the principals are colorless. During the performance the night before this one, we wondered just how long it was going to take the paint to dry. We also wondered if the pandemic had somehow stolen our passion for this ballet. But a good night's sleep and an energizing bolt up 93 floors into the sky had a resilient effect.
There wasn't a sleepy nanosecond in Skylar's and Herman's Act I. We were absorbed by their full investment in the mime. They managed to convey the complexity of two people who love each other but shouldn't really be together because their core values are polar opposite: Youthful Giselle desires true love and faithfulness whereas mature Albrecht wants true love with Giselle while he's living a lie with Bathilde. Then when he breaks Giselle's heart and she dies, he acts like he's the victim. Oh but they did it with such style.
Every pirouette, the circles of jetes, the sweet ballonés -- they all clicked together like puzzle pieces to reveal a big picture. When Giselle played the little game of "he loves me, he loves me not" with the daisy and discovered that the petals didn't add up to happiness, Albrecht revealed early signs of duplicitous behavior by stripping a petal from the daisy to fudge the final count.
Act II was as phenomenal as any in memory and perhaps more so because of little touches like Skylar ascending to a full releve on pointe for the final revolution of her furious Awakening spin. The visual effect was stunning and completely unexpected. Her Giselle tore through the allegro as though possessed and unable to quiet the spirit within.
Herman delivered exceptional partnering, fine-tuned acting, and glorious solos. His dancing may seem to have a few vulnerabilities compared to what it once was, but he still blazes past everyone else at ABT.
Skylar's Giselle has been so lovingly detailed by Irina Dvorovenko and Max Beloserkovsky that it wouldn't be a stretch to say that those two were also stars of the show. Upon leaving the theater, we happened to walk by Irina and wanted to drop to our knees to kiss her stilettos and thank her for creating this jewel of a Giselle. Instead we walked on, sniffling as we remembered Irina's last Giselle which should never have been her final one.
Our H.H. Pump Bump Award, a Louboutin corpus 100 stiletto, is bestowed upon Skylar Brandt for her brilliant and beautiful interpretation of Giselle.
