The impact of the ballet Giselle can be so powerful that it inspires forgiveness and thoughtfulness within the audience that lasts past the lowering of the curtain. So went the Sunday matinee performance at the Kennedy Center where aspects of ABT’s somewhat lusterless production of Giselle suddenly looked like polished 24 karat gold. At the end, the audience exited particularly slowly while murmuring wows and exclamations of how touching the performance was. So true.
This performance was to have included the debuts of Skylar Brandt and Joo Won Ahn, but Skylar ended up stepping into the role a few days early after the company’s celebrina simply could not go on stage the night following a reportedly brilliant performance by Sarah Lane and Daniil Simkin. Deja vu three years ago at the Kennedy Center when the celebrina couldn’t come to terms with Devon Teuscher’s brilliant success in Swan Lake and sustained a thought-injury before withdrawing from her scheduled performance (Just thinking about the fouettes makes me hurt, she said). But this time, she may have had extra reason to feel bad about having to follow Sarah’s brilliance. Maybe even some guilt. Time will soon tell.
So Sunday’s matinee was Skylar’s second performance. At the outset, it was apparent that this was an ambitious interpretation which had been set on her by one of ABT’s great Giselles, Irina Dvorovenko, and Max Beloserkovsky. Their version, which may have been founded on the principle The difficult we do immediately; the impossible takes a little longer, was an interpretation that Skylar will grow into. However, we’re not sure that all of the difficulty designed into the variations will ever pay off in terms of risk-benefits. In Act I, for example, Giselle’s pique arabesques that roll down through the supporting foot and descend into penches were attempted with the face turned toward the audience from start to finish. The step is risky enough when the ballerina is focused on exactly where she is stepping and descending into the penche; not looking where one is going was, in this case, a rather perilous approach that resulted in some instability which carried into a few other moments in the variation. Further, the entire visual frame provided less foreshadowing of Giselle’s Act II deep penches.
We have to take exception to some of the dramatic choices made in Act I. Giselle’s little fainting spell was suddenly a Code Blue cardiac arrest with googly eyes bulging and opened mouth gasping for breath. This is a classical ballet not a Quentin Tarantino movie. Life’s experiences are represented by dance in a musical and choreographic fashion, not depicted with brute realism for the purpose of shocking the audience. This needs to be toned down in future performances and certainly long before Skylar ventures anywhere near Juliet’s bottle of nasty-tasting potion where the temptation to offer gagging realism is almost irresistible. Again, the ballet is a representation through the use of musical and choreographic movements. It’s not realism. Giselle’s Mad Scene was also overloaded with enough shaking hands and arms to warrant a straightjacket. Less is more.
But overall, Skylar’s Act I variations were exquisitely danced with beautiful phrasing and style. We loved the delicacy of her pointes, the lightness in the diagonal of hops on pointe, and the sparkling joy in the manège of pique turns. For most of Act I she had to carry the drama and entire story by herself. Our Albrecht was mostly absent although his technical dancing was admirable. Thank goodness this ballet has an Act II where both of our leads rose to the heights that we had hoped to see.
The Act II awakening spin began with an unusually low lunge and whirled as furiously as we’ve ever seen. The ensuing sissone-assembles and coupé jetés seemed to be fueled by some unstoppable force. The pas de deux showed tremendous promise with Joo Won finally waking up dramatically to dance a love story filled with guilt and desperation. Finally Skylar had someone responding to her which seemed to propel her performance to an even higher level of grace and beauty. Unfortunately, the second overhead lift did not go well, perhaps in part due to the sluggish musical tempo. In fact, the tempi were erratic and odd throughout the performance. It brought back the nightmare of Irina Dvorovenko’s final Giselle in which the conductor (the same one as Sunday) lost track of what he was doing and sent the orchestra awry like we’d never heard before.
Joo Won was beyond spectacular in his Act II variations — so spectacular that we instantly forgave his blankness in Act I. His diagonal of cabrioles must have been five or six feet off the ground and were punctuated with daringly dramatic backbends. His entrechat six were textbook perfect. And as equally important, he was convincing as Albrecht on his last legs, so to speak. The life had been sucked out of him and he was ready to give up until Giselle saved him with her love.
The supporting cast included Catherine Hurlin as Myrta, a new role for her. As everyone knows, Myrta is homicidal, and Hurlin brought that out clearly with her facial expressions of revenge and unforgiveness. She also displayed some fierce grand jetes and strong arabesque lines. Rachel Richardson and Lauren Post as Moyna and Zulma didn’t leave much of an impression. Nor did the Act I Peasant PdD danced by Cassandra Trenary and Tyler Maloney. There was a time at ABT when this Peasant PdD nearly stole the show from starry principals. Roman Zhurbin was menacing (in a lovable way) as Hilarion and died a great, great death. Such marvelous pathetic grovelling at Myrta’s feet we rarely see. Lastly, the Wilis were serviceable, but not more. A lack of uniformity was particularly evident when they jete’d upstage into the wings after dispatching Hilarion.
We’re going to pitch an HH Pump Bump Award, a Louboutin custom-made pump, to both Skylar and Joo Won for their impressive early interpretations of Giselle and Albrecht. Both are bold risk-takers in their dancing. They possess staggering amounts of technique but also a sense of vulnerability that could be exploited in other dramatic roles. Should the stars align so that they get a Giselle slot during this coming Met season, you won’t want to miss them.
