Photo by Mark Frohna
In silence and dismal light, barbed wire atop a wooden barricade is breached as a shadowy figure climbs though it. A gunshot sounds; harsh searchlights pierce the dark. The shadow jumps. Quiet music begins as he moves to a doorstep, leaves a gift of flowers and runs. Guards with rifles storm the square in coats like those of the Gestapo. The mind races: This is Nazi territory; someone from a barricaded world has risked his life to bring wildflowers to a loved one; it’s the village boy who loves Giselle transported a hundred years to World War II Europe in Michael Pink’s reimagining of the Giselle of 1841, the greatest of romantic ballets.
In Pink’s hands, the story moves rapidly in spellbinding scenes. With dawn come new arrivals to the ghetto, holding suitcases foreshadowing the horrifying journey ahead. One of the Gestapo enters the emptied square, sheds and hides his uniform. This is Albrecht, enchanted by the kindly Giselle who lives confined there. He flirts; they dance the simplest steps with utmost grace and breathtaking synchronicity. Among the folk who gather are Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra musicians playing, in character, violin, piccolo, clarinet, trumpet and piano, the latter an upright placed on a touching tilt and sweetly played as dancers circle it: a perfect image of family. There is so much to absorb, so many fully realized characters beautifully integrated, sensitively choreographed to the warmest music; yet an edge of dread remains. Suddenly, children are playing in Albrecht’s uniform, uncovered by them while we were watching their parents dance. Giselle discovers she’s given her heart to an enemy of her people. With far more reason than the heroine of the original Giselle , for whom the obstacle to love is class difference, she cracks and dies.
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Act Two opens on a suicidal Albrecht, tiny in a tiny light, and a forced march to a mass grave where the community is shot to death before our eyes. What follows is sublimely beautiful in imagination and execution. The community as lost spirits struggles to find ground. They menace Albrecht, whose crime is not exonerated, as he dances with Giselle’s forgiving ghost in passages so powerful it seemed blasphemous to clap when the curtain fell. But clap we did, thunderously, in gratitude for the gift that Pink and the dancers, designers and crew had bravely brought us.
In the lead roles, Luz San Miguel and Davit Hovhannisyan gave opening night performances that seemed ideal. Valerie Harmon, Patrick Howell and Rachel Malehorn were very good in smaller roles. It’s a pity this production had just four performances and won’t tour. It’s a shining example of all that makes today’s Milwaukee Ballet extraordinary.
