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Akram Khan's Giselle at BAM, 8-11 June 2022


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I saw it twice in Chicago pre-Covid.  It is an amazing work. Ciro was fantastic - what a great dancer he is! I did not get to see Rojo, unfortunately.   If I were not going to London in June for Like Water for Chocolate, I would attend. 

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Tamara Rojo had previously performed with James Streeter as her Albrecht.  He is truly outstanding in the role.  While I thought Rojo fabulous in the role I would go for the Erina Takahashi/James Streeter cast if I wasn't able to see both.

Fernando Oliveira and Aitor Arrieta were also fabulous.

 

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I saw this last night.  First act was brilliant.  I particularly liked the way he staged large group dances.  Very creative.  I thought the second act was less interesting and effective.

Can anyone shed light on why Khan has  Giselle dance with the stick in her mouth in Act II.  That took me right out of the ballet and into eye rolling mode.

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I enjoyed ENB's Giselle a lot. It's a radical departure from the traditional version though, not just updated setting but the music is unrecognizable except for a few moments. No hops on point and almost none of the famous Act II choreography. Really, there is not much classical ballet at all except for the women being on point in Act II. I loved Khan's incorporation of Indian-style dance. He made some interesting choices, like drawing out the "mad" scene into an ensemble dance, and giving Hilarion a lot more dancing than I'm used to seeing. The willis were spooky and witchy, not at all sylph-like. The narrative aspects were a bit fuzzy... it wasn't entirely clear what was going on in Act II. At no point was Albrecht forced to dance himself nearly to death like in the original. Overall the piece had a distinct vision that came together cohesively and successfully. I would recommend it to ballet and modern-dance fans alike. 

I don't think anyone watching last night would know from her performance that Tamara Rojo is 48 years old. She has a BIG presence on stage and her experience with Macmillan sort of dramatic ballets was very evident last night. All of the lead dancers were really stellar in the physical-acting department. Jeffrey Cirio as Hilarion was a standout--what a huge loss for ABT! Really all of the dancing was excellent and looked impeccably rehearsed and polished. The crowd (looked like a mostly full house) gave a big standing ovation at the end. 

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7 hours ago, abatt said:

 

Can anyone shed light on why Khan has  Giselle dance with the stick in her mouth in Act II.  That took me right out of the ballet and into eye rolling mode.

No, but he also used the device in his own company's Until the Lions which was choreographed around the same time.

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I will not be seeing this Giselle, but I am very interested to hear more reports from those of you who are there. Particularly interested to hear more about the music. I gather it is not the Adam score at all. Is it in any way reminiscent of, or related to, the original score? Would one recognize it as a spinoff of the original Giselle music?

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Just got back from the Sat. Mat and loved it. I'd like to see it again. I've seen the film, which I would recommend. First off great dancing all around (I didn't see the Roja cast). I know Giselle putting the bamboo cane in her mouth has been mentioned. I saw it as part of her initiation into a group of creatures who were primal, ferocious, no longer human. The Queen of the Wilis held the cane in her mouth at one point. I found it visceral almost animalistic. I thought the use of those canes effective through-out.  I was also struck that with this very feral portrayal of the Wilis, Giselle is very different from them in expression, stance, movement quality. It's as if she's too close to life and love, to be one of them.

In the first act, a couple of things stood out to me as important dramatic differences between this version and the traditional. Here the peasants are the "Outcasts," displaced factory workers put out of work by rich, greedy land owners. The Outcasts are kept behind a wall and treated callously even cruelly by the rich landowners. When Albrecht dresses like an outcast to visit Giselle, he is aware of their lives and oppression at the hands of his people. In the traditional version we have happy peasants and basically benign royalty. There is no hint of one class oppressing another. I'm not saying there should be, just that it adds a layer of drama, and an additional dimension to Albrecht.

Also, in this version Hilarion (who gets some great dancing), is describe as a "shape shifter" and "fixer." He mimics the landowners but knows how to trade with them to benefit himself and his community. He's an interesting character. 

The music works. There are snippets from the original score repeated and developed, sounds that I wouldn't call music, and original themes. As I've said I'd love to see it again.

2 other things about the experience. No programs. A card with a QR code I don't care, but the two people next to me complained bitterly. Also, I had a mezzanine tkt. As we entered, an usher offered mezzanine tkt holders, orchestra seats. i stuck with what i had, since I prefer front of mez to back of orchestra. I don't know if this ticket swap thing is something BAM does or specific to this show. Anyone know?

 

Edited by vipa
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I was at the Saturday matinee as well, and was stunned.  This was a truly brilliant and original re-imagining of a classical (Romantic) ballet.  The plot of Giselle was sliced down to its bare bones, so that even non-dance fans with only a passing familiarity to the original would find it easy to understand.  Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I felt there was a strong similarity in the production's visual design elements to those associated with steampunk and post-apocalyptic fantasy graphic novels (and their film/video/anime design kin).  This Giselle pushes itself far further than most ballet; it's contemporary and relevant on many levels.  This was easily the best and most modern theatrical production I've attended in a long time, way better than many of the "groundbreaking" Broadway shows I've seen recently.  Truly spellbinding; would love to see it again, on Broadway, available to a much wider audience.

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I keep thinking about this performance/production (a good sign). Today a thought about Hilarion came to me. In the traditional Giselle, Hilarion gets it in the end at the hands of the Wilis, and I always thought - poor guy, he loved Giselle but ended up dying because she didn't love him enough to try and save him. He didn't really betray her. In the Khan version Hilarion is a much more complex character. He may be doing it for his own good and that of his community, but he is complicit in keeping the system going. He encourages his fellow outcasts to lower their heads to the wealthy, and plays both sides in a way. The Willis killing him takes on a different tone. He was complicit in oppression with, perhaps, complicated motives. Just a thought.

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