A Night at the Ballet: Akram Khan’s “Giselle”
Tonight I had the pleasure of experiencing English National Ballet in Akram Khan’s “Giselle” at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance. While I don’t consider myself a purist, I do tend to be more fulfilled by narrative ballet than by conceptual work. I am particularly nourished when the “contemporary” is laid on thick and savoury, with all the trappings of grand theatre: luscious costumes, brilliant lighting, clever scenery, cinematic music. So believe me when I say that Khan’s “Giselle” was a sumptuous feast for my soul.
Vincenzo Lamagna’s composition made my heart race; it was searing, soaring, brooding. I’m not sure why ENB has not chosen to make absolute bank by selling recordings in the lobby, but I digress. Some hardcore ballet fans might find the music distasteful—too cinematic, too overpowering, all the crescendos, etc.—but as a great fan of Graeme Revel, I was in my element, and couldn’t do anything other than be swept away by the tsunami of sound (standing ovation and thrown roses to Chicago Phil). I’ll be humming snatches of Act I for days.
That said, I’m not sure that Lamagna’s composition can be fully experienced without Khan’s choreography. This was pure symbiosis, with the swells and clangs and drums and cricks and cymbals and thumps (the percussion section was getting a workout) both underscoring and underscored by the dancers. The story unfolds in a migrant garment factory, and between the evocative music and the symbolic dancing, you can virtually smell the sweat, taste the tang of machine oil on the air. There is a scene in Act I where the company stands in two parallel lines, their arms jerking smartly back and forth with a graceful roll of spines, the movement quite reminiscent of industrial looms. All the subtext of this production—the suffering and exploitation of migrants and refugees, the indignities and inequities of oppressed peoples, the imbalances of power and wealth of our modern world, the fight to maintain a sense of self-worth—flowed through that moment. I can’t get it out of my head.
And I must admit, it is in the ensemble choreography that this work really shines. The leads were all magnificent (with a special shout-out to tonight’s “Hilarion”, Ken Saruhashi, whose swaggering braggadocio was elegant and totally street) and Khan is a master of his craft, but the love-triangle panel of Giselle/Albrecht/Hilarion is a million times less interesting than the whole of the tapestry the company weaves. Yes, I am sorry for Giselle, but hers is a private and rather tawdry tragedy; what’s happening around her is a seismic injustice. I pitied her; I was ready to take up arms in communal and righteous rage with everyone else (including the dead people in Act II).
Bottom line: you need to see this work. You NEED to. Tomorrow, Mar 2, are the final two performances (matinee and evening); go get your ticket!
[On a more personal note: I really wish someone would just rewrite the ending of “Giselle”. I loathe Albrecht, always have, and my repugnance is replenished each time I watch the ghost of Giselle (whom, in this production, was pregnant and might (??) have been murdered) forgive this spoiled, thoughtless, water-kneed, limp-wristed weakling. I get what it’s supposed to mean, but I think a more fitting end would be for Giselle to save Albrecht’s life yet refuse to bestow forgiveness for his crime against her. Albrecht is always very grief-stricken at the end, but I don’t want him grief-stricken—I want him shattered, his spirit so thoroughly de-fleshed that the bones of his cowardice are bared to the world as he wanders the rest of his life without absolution. I’ve been told I’m simply bloody-minded, but as the production here spoke to how the poor, powerless, and vulnerable are crushed by the powerful, why should those who suffer least be forgiven most?]
Photo: Foteini Christofilopoulou.
