The story of Giselle is a sad one. A young, peasant girl meets and falls in love with the young Albrecht, who happens to be a count. Hilarion, a hunter who has his heart set on capturing Giselle, finds out that Albrecht is royalty and already engaged to the Duke's daughter. When Giselle finds out, she goes mad and dies from a broken heart. All this and we still have the second act! The second half is devoted to the Wilis, spirits of young girls who died before their wedding day. Albrecht comes to the grave of Giselle and attempts to dance with her spirit. Alas, he is unable and Giselle disappears into the dawn as he is left to cry at her tomb.
The striking difference I noticed in this choreography to any of the others I have seen BAZ perform was the variations in tempo. There are a lot of lightning-quick foot work, and there are also many leaps and stretches that require slow and precise timing. This may have been partially due to the live orchestra, though I appreciated the diversity.
The first act provided Yen Li Chen-Zhang as Giselle, and her real life husband, Qisheng Zhang as Albrecht, a playful courtship. It was wonderful to see Qisheng sporting a genuine grin and Yen Li, as always, took advantage of her expressive visage. Yen Li had many opportunities to display a wide range of dancing abilities: grace, strength, precision, control and every move was performed to perfection. It is getting difficult to come up with new adjectives for Yen Li's outstanding performances. Qisheng also shines with his powerful leaps that would make any NBA player jealous.
For most of the show, Yen Li and Qisheng have center stage. In the first act, there was a wonderful Pas de Deux by Andrew Needhammer and Gia Firicano. Miguel Garcia's wonderful talent was wasted as Hilarion. The number of dance steps his part provided could be counted on one hand. There were some nice ensemble pieces for women in the first act, and a few for the men and women. Giselle is not just a ballet but a theatrical event, with live orchestra, a real story, and dancing. Unfortunately, this forces dancers to communicate with one another in a strange mime body language that can seem out of place. Garcia's role and many others were limited to facial expressions and waves.
In the second act, the wonderfully lean Britt Juleen is highlighted as the Wili Queen. Hers is a slow dance of grace. Britt's long lines, beautiful, flowing arm movements, and leaps seem to stop time. In fact, the hang time on some of her leaps sparked me to nick name her "Air Britt." Traci Gilchrest and Jeanene Russell have a few solo moments in the sun in front of the ensemble of 16 or so Wili dancers. The second act was as melancholy as the most of the first was joyous. The ashen faces of the Wilis were solemn in their beauty. There were times when the slow pace seemed to drag and this is the only criticism I can find with the entire night.
There is no doubt: the night belonged to Yen Li. Her beautiful performance mastering Franklin's unbelievable acrobatic feats was incredible. The a few folks began to give a standing ovation as soon as the curtain raised for the first roll call. More arose when Britt sauntered out, and the entire house leaped out of their seat with yells of "Brava!" when Yen Li finally took her bows. Congratulations to Michael Uthoff's dancers once again for an outstanding performance and a beautiful ending to a wonderful season.
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