November 18, 2009
The ENB present a revival of Mary Skeaping's delightfully romantic and glittering staging of Giselle. This is traditional ballet, complete with sparkly dresses, Christmas cake cottages and bulging tights, and it is none the worse for that. The choreography involves quite a lot of charade-style mime, and the staging is colourful as a story-book and fully engaging. However, that's not all - the piece is presented with a contrasting amuse-gueule: Men Y Men, Wayne Eagling's new modern mini-piece to show off the skills of the men of the company (who mostly don't have an awful lot to do in Giselle). The combination of the two pieces works extremely well.
The story in brief: rural German peasant girl Giselle is courted and then jilted by a nobleman in disguise, and dies of a broken heart. In the second act, she resurfaces as one of the Wili, ghost girls who have been abandoned at the altar, who now flit through the forest capturing men and forcing them to dance till they die of exhaustion. Re-enter nobleman. Can she save him?
The ENB take full advantage of the contrast between the acts - the village drama is bright and upbeat; the forest tale dark and gloomy and the corps de ballet really do float like ghosts with their sparkly blue lace and pale thin arms. The lighting is well-used and works intelligently with the set: you really believe that there's a lake glimmering away at the back of the stage.
Erina Takahashi played Giselle, and was agile and appealing as a kitten. Her quivering craziness when she realised her duke was not what he seemed was heartbreaking. Laura Bruña Rubio played the Wili Queen with a sure-footed imperiousness all the more admirable because she was substituting for the original artist who was unable to perform that night. We were also particularly impressed by James Streeter, who brought a great deal of expressiveness and pathos to the relatively small role of the love-struck game-keeper.
And Men Y Men? Short, but practically worth going to see by itself. The men of the company, bare-chested, black-trousered, dance with and through each other in an arresting, elemental piece set to Rachmaninoff. They dance with partners and as an ensemble and also take on highly individual yet cohesive solos. They spin in and out of the light like autumn leaves, appearing for a moment in a golden glow and then sinking back out of sight into the blue. It made me think of autumn, mortality and Remembrance Day, but I imagine everyone will bring their own associations to it. It's a great bonus to watching the beautiful classic of Giselle this week, and I thoroughly recommend that you catch them both.
The story in brief: rural German peasant girl Giselle is courted and then jilted by a nobleman in disguise, and dies of a broken heart. In the second act, she resurfaces as one of the Wili, ghost girls who have been abandoned at the altar, who now flit through the forest capturing men and forcing them to dance till they die of exhaustion. Re-enter nobleman. Can she save him?
The ENB take full advantage of the contrast between the acts - the village drama is bright and upbeat; the forest tale dark and gloomy and the corps de ballet really do float like ghosts with their sparkly blue lace and pale thin arms. The lighting is well-used and works intelligently with the set: you really believe that there's a lake glimmering away at the back of the stage.
Erina Takahashi played Giselle, and was agile and appealing as a kitten. Her quivering craziness when she realised her duke was not what he seemed was heartbreaking. Laura Bruña Rubio played the Wili Queen with a sure-footed imperiousness all the more admirable because she was substituting for the original artist who was unable to perform that night. We were also particularly impressed by James Streeter, who brought a great deal of expressiveness and pathos to the relatively small role of the love-struck game-keeper.
And Men Y Men? Short, but practically worth going to see by itself. The men of the company, bare-chested, black-trousered, dance with and through each other in an arresting, elemental piece set to Rachmaninoff. They dance with partners and as an ensemble and also take on highly individual yet cohesive solos. They spin in and out of the light like autumn leaves, appearing for a moment in a golden glow and then sinking back out of sight into the blue. It made me think of autumn, mortality and Remembrance Day, but I imagine everyone will bring their own associations to it. It's a great bonus to watching the beautiful classic of Giselle this week, and I thoroughly recommend that you catch them both.