Ballet Cymru's Giselle 3.0

Scene from Act Two of the Original Performance of Fisekke

 

Ballet Cymru Giselle  Pontio Arts and Innovation Centre, Bangor 13 Jun 2025 19:30

Yesterday I saw Ballet Cymru's third production of Giselle.  Their first production was in 2006 when they were known as Independent Ballet Wales (see Ballet at the Bridport Arts Centre, BBC website, Oct 2006).  Their second was livestreamed from Lichfield Cathedral on 5 Jul 2021 (see Giselle Reimagined, 9 Jul 2021).  I later saw it in Leeds and Newport and even danced a bit of Darius James and Amy Doughty's choreography for a workshop that Ballet Cymru held for Powerhouse Ballet when they visited Leeds (see Ballet Cymru's Giselle, 10 Nov 2021).  Their latest version was premiered in Newport on 16 May 2025 and is now touring the United Kingdom (see Ballet Cymru's New Giselle, 8 Jun 2025).  I was not in Bridport to see Giselle 1.0, but I did see and liked Giselle 2.0.  In Giselle 3.0, Darius James and Amy Doughty reverted to Adolphe Adam's original score and much of Petipa's choreography, albeit with a simplified libretto.   I thought it worked very well.

The versions of Giselle that big national companies perform, such as Peter Wright's, Rachel Beaujean's or Mary Skeaping's, require a lot of dancers for such roles as the vignerons and hunters in Act 1 and the wilis in Act 2.  Ballet Cymru is still not a big company so the story has to be tweaked if it is to be told successfully.  That is probably why James and Doughty dropped such characters as Giselle's mother who warns her daughter of the likes of Albrecht and the consequences of too much dancing for a girl with a dicky heart, Bathilde (Albrecht's betroathed) who presents Giselle with a necklace just before Hilarion exposes Albrecht or Moyna and Zulma in Act 2 aptly described by Susan Dalgetty-Ezra as "Myrtha's sidekicks".  But they did keep a lot of the essentials, including the peasant pas de deux and the mesmerizing arabesques from Act 2.  They set Act 1 in a Welsh village and Act 2 in a forest, and they dressed their wilis, including the men, in romantic tutus.

Isobel Holland, who had danced Myrtha powerfully in Giselle 2.0, was equally impressive in the equivalent role in Giselle 3.0.  If I am not mistaken, her makeup and costume in Giselle 3.0 were similar to her costume and makeup in  Giselle 2.0.   I gave her my loudest clap at the reverence.  Also impressive were Mika George Evans in the title role and Jakob Myers as Albrecht.  They are both athletic dancers, and they came into their own in Act 2.  I once saw Carlos Acosta and Natalia Osipova in Giselle, and Evans and Myers reminded me strongly of their performance.  Jacob Hornsey elevated Hilarion's role into a major part of the drama, which cannot have been easy, as he is portrayed as a bit of a churlish chump in most productions.   The same is true of Wilfred, Albrecht's squire. James Knott, who danced the equivalent role as Albrecht's friend, made that a much bigger role.  It is not clear from the cast list whom I should congratulate for the peasant pas de deux bit they delivered one of the highlights of my evening.

Before the show, the audience was treated to a performance by local ballet students called Duets.  It is part of a programme that offers dance training to children in rural or former mining, steel-making or heavy industrial communities who would otherwise be unable to receive it.  Immediately after their performances, the children are led to any vacant seats in the auditorium where they watch the company.  Until Wales gets its own national ballet school with connected associates schemes, it is the best way to identify and promote talent and ambition in that nation.  It is good not only for Ballet Cymru and Wales but also for all the other ballet, contemporary dance and theatre companies in the rest of the UK and beyond.  It is a project that deserves the widest possible support.