Disregard
your preconceptions of holiday ballet. This is no somber Nutcracker. Although Giselle has long been a standard in the
ballet repertoire, a local dance troupe has dismantled this story of Christmas
love gone wrong, contributing a gem of a program for Twin Cities' audiences. If
you have been avoiding dance theater, this engaging Ballet of the (disco!) Dolls production will demolish your
assumptions about ballet and perhaps performance art.
The
Ballet of the Dolls dance company, celebrating its 20th anniversary, is known
for turning ballet on its head. Its treatment of this 19th century teary downer
is nothing short of a foil to the often inaccessible programs within the ballet
canon. Dolls has also deconstructed the parameters of the dancers themselves.
Don't expect 80-pound ballerinas who stand under five feet tall. Dolls dancers
look more like athletes - muscular and nimble, yet not inhumanly so, and never
androgynous.
The
storytelling in this boogie ballet is fluid and engaging. Nuances of narrative
are delivered through Giselle's lively music. For example, we are introduced to the
character of Giselle while "I'm a candidate for love" plays in the
background.
Compensating
for the lack of spoken words, props are used quite effectively here. Giselle's
first suitor, the sprightly (but ultimately dull) Helerion rides in on a girl's
blue cruiser bicycle with basket. Suitor No. 2 swaggers into town wearing a
leather jacket and dark sunglasses, clearly shorthand for "bad biker guy,"
and not the pedal-pedal kind. Additional props are used strictly for aesthetic
beauty. Days after the show, my mind wanders to a gorgeous scene with
brightly-colored umbrellas that glow under Jeff Bartlett's meticulousness
lighting.
Each
of the five lead parts is cast brilliantly. You'll find no weak link here. Ted
Sothern is
charming and just the right amount of dorky as Helerion. Julia Tehven is graceful and sweet as
Giselle, but not too saccharin. Robert Skafte plays bad boy Albrecht. (You may
remember Skafte as the stepmother from last year's Dolls' production of Cinderella,.) Skafte brings a compelling
masculine dominance to the role of Albrecht. He is temperature-raising sexy
from the waist up. In my mind, I was tracing an imaginary line of demarcation
between his deltoids and his triceps while he deftly seduced young Giselle.
Perplexingly, Skafte is stiff as a board from the hips down. This is most
unfortunate for disco dancing.
The
only thing more inexplicable than Skafte's rigid nether regions is the fact
that I always manage to end up sitting next to the one person who insists on
talking through the entire show. For the record, it is not polite to talk
during any performance, even one without spoken words. Please wait until
intermission to tell your neighbor how great you think the show is.
Where
was I... The
plot hinges on Albrecht, suitor No. 2, who pretends to be someone he isn't. He
is charming, and oozing with sexuality, but when Gisele isn't around, we see
his shifty side. (Ladies, you know the type. He senses your na_ve devotion to
love and he swoops down to acquire you. Once he awakens the sexual creature
inside you and gets your lifetime promise, he is no longer interested. He
betrays you, after which point you go crazy with grief.)
Though
it is Giselle's story, Zhauna Franks as Bathilde, the "other woman," steals Act I.
Franks' Bathilde is sensuous and confident. We cannot imagine why any man would
stray from her, which makes Albrecht even more of a bastard when he does.
Later, when Giselle gets her revenge, no one is rooting for Albrecht.
The
dancing in Giselle
is enthralling - yes, even the disco. The choreography is dazzling, and is
peppered with fantastic lifts. The music is alluring throughout. During
Giselle's spiral toward madness, there is an especially frenetic montage of
classic '70s hits which includes Avril Lavigne's beloved "Freak Out."
Giselle is directed and choreographed by
Dolls' founder, Myron Johnson, who also bravely dons a few leisure suits to play
Giselle's father in this production. The storyline moves along at a steady
pace, except for Giselle's descent into madness, which lingers too long. The
frenzied pacing of Act II more than compensates for the melodrama in the first
act.
In
Act II, the toe shoes come off, baby. Dancers are now in their bare feet, and
there is a more emotional immediacy to the story. It is time for retribution.
Had Tolstoy
given her an afterlife, this is the scene Anna Karenina might've wanted.
If
Franks was the star of Act I, Heather Cadigan, who plays the Queen of the
Wilis, is the star of Act II. Cardigan is tall and long-limbed as a Modigliani, and the most self-aware dancer
in the troupe. As the leader of the Wilis, the sisterhood of women who have
been jilted out of their proposed weddings, she can decide the fate of the men
who have betrayed them. She is reminiscent of the woman in that Sylvia Plath poem who can "eat men like
air."
The
two contrasting acts allow the dancers to show their agility and range of
dramatic capabilities. The women must go from snappy dance line to swarthy
vixens of vengeance. And yet, they must present an amalgamated front on each
side of intermission.
All
elements of the production unite to create a dichotomy between the two acts,
making for a rich performance. Stephanie Karr-Smith, another dancer in the show,
designed the show's memorable costumes. Cocktail-length chiffon bridesmaid
dresses are followed by ominous full-length black numbers with plunging
necklines. Toward the end of Act I, there is a shift of music that complements
with the depth of plot. When Giselle learns of her betrayal, we hear the lyrics
"People are strange, when you're a stranger" which will no doubt
remind you of a 1980s cult vampire flick; a fitting harbinger for Act II, which
takes place exclusively in a graveyard.
If
you have a lady friend you are hoping to impress on New Year's Eve, a Giselle outing make the grade.
Stay
tuned for upcoming news on the Ballet of the Dolls' move to the Ritz Theater in
the Sheridan neighborhood of Northeast Minneapolis.
Tickets
for Giselle:
$30 -- $40, $75 for the "special New Year's Eve performance and
celebration." For more information go to www.balletofthedolls.org.