Commissioned in 2016 by Tamara Rojo for the English National Ballet, Khan's first full-length ballet has toured the country and overseas leaving a trail of superlatives, standing ovations and awards in it's wake. Stripped of it's usual first act bucolic setting and the second act's gloomy forest grave worthy of Casper David Friedrich, what emerges is a raw, physical interpretation which is short on romanticism but packed with otherworldly tension.
GISELLE was an immediate success when it was first staged in 1841 and has been constantly staged ever since, usually utilizing the choreography of Marius Petipa who staged it for the Russian Imperial Ballet at the end of the 19th Century. The Royal Ballet's production by Peter Wright has stayed in the repertoire since 1985 and is a vision of romantic tutus and princely doublets. Khan's is very different.
Instead of bouncy, smiley villagers we are presented with glum, faceless workers pushing against a giant wall with a palpable mournful air, Giselle appears from amongst them and dances with Albrecht who is dressed as one of the workers. The wall rises to reveal the rich people who live on the other side - thank God the programme had a synopsis as none of this was immediately discernible through the production. Khan's proletariat are former migrant workers in a clothes factory owned by the rich who have closed it down and the migrants live a hand-to-mouth existence.
As the migrants entertain the rich, Hilarion - who loves our heroine in vain - provokes a fight with Albrecht which leads to the exposing of the latter as one of the rich slumming it for love of Giselle. He is assimilated back into the rich tribe - nicely done by him donning a bowler hat - and they retreat back to their privileged life behind the wall. The outcasts close in on Giselle and disperse leaving her dead.
The second act finds us not in the usual forest graveyard but into the desolate, empty factory where Albrecht remonstrates with the uncaring rich; when they withdraw leaving him to his sorrow he is visited by The Wills, the ghosts of dead factory girls, who revenge themselves on the living. They summon Giselle to join their ranks after first killing the hapless Hilarion.
Myrtha, the Queen of the Wills chases Albrecht off so they can recruit Giselle into their ghostly ranks but he returns to see his lost love; Giselle forgives Albrecht and protects him against the threats of The Wills but she leaves with them, backing into the darkness forever. Albrecht is on the immigrants' side of the wall, broken.
It's a truly extraordinary work which utilizes a hard-edged score and soundscape by Vincenzo Lamagna which is based on Adolphe Adam's original GISELLE score but constantly keeps you unsettled and on edge. Khan's work fully utilizes Tim Yip's design and eerie costumes and Mark Henderson's stark lighting either floods the stage with white light or helps you spot lurking figures in the gloom.
There were remarkably vibrant performances from Erina Takahashi as Giselle who was not the usual ethereal wisp of a character but a physically strong presence on stage and she was matched by the rather wonderful Stina Quagebeur as the statuesque, terrifying Myrtha who in one unforgettable image drags the dead Giselle behind her. I particularly liked how Khan has the ghostly Wills using traditional ballet pointwork for their scenes - acknowledging the original productions but making them seem eerily not of this earth. The hapless men were well played by Joseph Caley and Ken Saruhashi as Albrecht and Hilarion. The ensemble are actually the real stars of the show, strong and silent, changing on a dime from slow hypnotic movements to pelting around the stage at full speed.
By setting his GISELLE in a non-specific place or time, Akram Khan's production is now current, mysterious and timeless. See it if you can and be haunted by Akram Khan's genius.
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