ABT 2018 - Giselle

The wonderful day of days finally arrived - the start of ballet season!  Whee!  It's one of my favorite days of the year.  I don't know why it almost always has to rain, though, on my first ABT day; maybe somebody-up-there thinks I shouldn't have complete and perfect happiness, just in case.  Who knows?  I took the day off work yesterday, because I was supposed to have a couple of doctor appointments and I scheduled myself to see the matinee at the Met - I had to rearrange my subscription tickets a couple of times already and, to be honest, the matinee cast was the only one I was keen to see.  I'm glad I made the switch and I'm glad I took the whole day - those doctor appointments had to be rescheduled, so it was nice to just center my life around ballet!  

My first ballet of the season was one of my favorites (as you probably well know): Giselle.  It's just goopy, romantic, filled with gorgeous dance, and well, it features the spirits of scorned single women forcing lying men to dance to their deaths.  So there is always that.  I've reviewed ABT's Giselle a lot over the years - you can take a look at a few HERE, HERE, and HERE.  You'll notice that in at least one of those reviews, I mention the soloist Sarah Lane and how I was looking forward to her dancing the lead someday.  Well, that day has finally arrived, which is why I selected that matinee performance.  Sarah Lane has been an outstanding soloist for many seasons and she was finally promoted at the end of the last season to principal.  I want to take advantage and see her in as many lead roles as possible.  I was thrilled to start with Giselle.

Actually, I was happy to see new people dance in nearly every role (well, new to the role for me, they may have done them before, but I just haven't seen them do it before).  I've long enjoyed Daniil Simkin and I hadn't seen him dance Albrecht before, so that was a treat, as was seeing my ABT MVP Roman Zhurbin as the prince, and new principal Christine Shevchenko as Myrta, head Wili.  Oh, and I was happy to see youngsters Catherine Hurlin and Gabe Stone Shayer dance the peasant pas de deux.  I thought the production was fantastic and each performer really put their heart and soul into things.

Sarah Lane was gorgeous as Giselle, all lightness and air in the first act, with a big heart and bigger jumps.  Her leaps are lovely and her footwork is crisp and fast.  The rapport between her and Simkin as Albrecht was so evident, even from the balcony (and I'm so mad at myself for forgetting my camera and my binoculars; I'm a dope).  She was shy, but in love, and he didn't seem to be just fooling around with a peasant girl, but really in love.  So much in love that he forgot his obligations.  When the royalty came back and caught him there, he had to turn away in shame.  And Lane's mad scene was chilling - she stood so still for quite a long time and then was a different girl.  I also enjoyed Kelley Potter as Giselle's mother - her miming of what could happen to Giselle was very scary.

photo credit: Erin Baiano

Act II was also gorgeous - Shevchenko was a cold and masterful Myrta.  At first, I thought, oh, she's too young, she doesn't take the stage, but she scared the bejesus out of me in the scenes where Hilarion and Albrecht were dancing to the death.  And when she stalked over to Giselle, to try to intimidate her into letting Albrecht die, it was great.  Lane and Simkin were also divine - so weightless and spiritlike.  They were gorgeous - the bit where he lifts her as if she skims the ground was beautiful.  And the moment where she dropped the flowers on him to prove she was really there - sublime.  Alexei Agoudine as Hilarion was terrific in his death dance and the corps de ballet playing the Wilis were in sync and ethereal.  All in all, it was a grand and glorious start to the ballet season.  I can't wait to see all of these dancers do these roles (and all the others!) again!  I have a feeling this season is going to be one of the best!