Theatre / english national ballet
Review: Giselle, Hippodrome
This dark, dramatic production will change the way you see Giselle – with no tutus in sight.
There are echoes of the original, but English National Ballet have created a startlingly up-to-date version. It helps, though, to read the programme notes as, although emotion is conveyed brilliantly, the finer points of what’s going on are sometimes lost.
Giselle (Tamara Rojo) is a migrant worker living in an industrialised world characterised by the plain-clothed, hardworking Outcasts, a mass of bodies moving to Vincenzo Lamagna’s industrial score. Our heroine is determined to reach her beloved Albrecht (James Streeter), who lives in the realms of the privileged Landlords behind a wall that seems as big as the Hippodrome could handle.
These larger-than-life characters intimidate the Outcasts, and drama gives way to tragedy when Giselle is torn from her lover by Hilarion – played stylishly by Cesar Corrales. Dance fans will enjoy the pastiche of styles by choreographer Akram Khan, a classically trained dancer within the Indian tradition.
This being Giselle, there is no let-up in the sense of unfairness. The second act is set in a ghostly world depicted by the female dancers, each with the strain of a wooden cane as if to symbolise years under the rod. Their toes take the strain here, led by the chilling Myrtha (Stina Quagebeur) standing en pointe for most of the act. The Outcasts and Giselle are now half-dead, and the final pas de deux is a tear-jerking soft number which fades to leave Albrecht alone in front of the iconic wall in a filmic finale.
This is a confident, haunting ballet. While the story is not always clear, the dancing is magnificent and will stay with you long after the wall – and curtain – has fallen.
Giselle continues at the Hippodrome until Saturday, October 22. For more info and to buy tickets, visit www.atgtickets.com/shows/giselle-2016/bristol-hippodrome
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