Alberta Ballet to dance ‘masterpiece’ Giselle
Dance fans in Alberta have rarely had the chance to see Giselle, despite the fact it is one of the most famous classical ballets. It was last performed here by the National Ballet of Canada in 2007, but Alberta’s own resident ballet company has never danced the classic Romantic-era piece before. Until now.
Artistic director Jean GrandMaitre sees the performance as a turning point in his company’s 48-year history. But with so few and far between exposures to the 160-year-old ballet, how will Alberta audiences even know what a successful Giselle looks like?
“When you watch the production, the way it was created and the way it was interpreted, you realize immediately that it is a masterpiece,” he says. “It’s like walking into an art gallery and if there was a painting by Rembrandt on the wall, you would know right away, that’s a masterpiece.
“There’s something about when they created this ballet — the story, the music, how they dance to the music and they tell the story, even today it touches you very much. … It is a poetry from another era, but if it is danced with sincerity and truth, it will touch people.”
Here are five things to know about Giselle before Alberta Ballet brings it to a Calgary audience: Giselle tells the story of love, betrayal and redemption. Based on a Victor Hugo poem, the ballet’s libretto follows a young peasant girl with a passion for dancing who falls in love with a prince in disguise. When she finds out he is betrothed to another, Giselle dies of a broken heart.
“People in the village love Giselle because she is the most pure and innocent soul, but they see the fragility in her character,” explains Grand-Maitre. “When she realizes Albrecht has betrayed her, she goes insane. There’s a mad scene that is very famous and very hard to portray properly and takes a great deal of coaching. After the madness, she dies.”
Then enter the Wilis: “The spirits of betrayed women who become active in the dark of the night and kill any man that ventures into the forest.”
The Wilis condemn Albrecht to dance until he dies. “Every time Albrecht cannot go on, Giselle keeps on dancing for him and they go on like this until the sun rises and she manages to save his life, even though he betrayed her.” To dance Giselle is one of the most sought-after roles of a
ballerina’s career. “Giselle is part of the holy trinity of classical ballets along with Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty,” said Grand-Maitre. “Like in Swan Lake, the leading male and female roles in Giselle are some of the most demanding technically, artistically and expressively.”
Giselle needs to be a dancer of profound depth to capture the nuances.
The role of Giselle has been called the Hamlet of the ballet.
To dance Giselle one must have technique that nearly eclipses perfection.
“It is of the Romantic-era and filled with adagio, which means movement that is the slowest tempo imaginable. So the dancers have to master that, and all dancers will tell you there is nothing more difficult than to touch and move an audience without moving much. Giselle is one of the classical ballets that has remained the most choreographically in tact.
There have been so many versions of Swan Lake and as Alberta Ballet audiences witnessed this season, Sleeping Beauty has also been reimagined extensively, but Giselle is still very close to its original conception. The tutu in Giselle
is floor length. When you hear the word tutu, you likely picture what we now think of as the traditional ballet costume, the style worn in Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty which are flat and stick straight out from the ballerina’s hip, exposing her leg extensions in full view.
But the tutu in Giselle is in fact the earlier, Romantic-era tutu. It bobs like a bell and grazes the floor with its length.