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This is all the more surprising in the wake of the bold, brash, all-new ‘Spartacus’, which opened the company’s first-ever brief season here in London, earlier in the week. From that extreme, the company has come to an altogether gentler place. The same lead dancers, Anastasia and Denis Matvienko, have exchanged the all-prevailing vertical arabesques, gymnastic dives and macho virtuosity for crisp, flowing, light steps and beautiful, understated, romantic line. Both dancers impressed with the simplicity of their performance allied to the sophisticated clarity of their technique: in particular, Anastasia’s portrayal of the lifeless – but still loving – Giselle in Act II was never less than sublime and the symmetry of their Act II pas de deux was exceptional.

The contrast between the two Acts was emphatically marked with heavy, medieval costumes giving way to the gossamer light veils of the Wilis, which were whisked away by unseen wires to maximise the impact of ghostly weightlessness; there were flying Wilis, too, and the supernatural happenings in the cemetery were cleverly indicated by the use of sparklers coming in from the wings. Not rocket science, but a simple and effective way of setting the scene.

Another highlight was the clarity of the Act I Peasant pas de deux which was danced with an understated, dignified lyricism by Andrei Yakhnyuk and Sabina Yapparova. Up until this point in the ballet, I was thinking that it was a sweet, very watchable Giselle, but it turned into something far more special from the moment Yakhnyuk began his first variation.

The Wilis in Giselle
© Mikhailovsky Ballet

I had some problems with the flow of the narrative beginning with the absence of Berthe’s mime to warn Giselle and the village girls about the Wilis, the under-stating of Giselle’s weak heart and a lack of dramatic intensity in her death scene. Also, the absence of a clear bell tolling to indicate that dawn has come and, with it, Giselle has saved Albrecht from the murderous intent of her ghostly sisters.

However, for anyone to whom these narrative devices matter little, the Mikhailovsky ‘Giselle’ is a delightful reminder of a ballet unadulterated with acrobatic extensions and crowd-pleasing pyrotechnics. In its new ‘Spartacus’ the company has already shown that it can do all of this in spades, but I think it’s all the more impressive for being able to perform ‘Giselle’ with such unaffected accuracy. I don’t know about the Mikhailovsky setting the art of ballet back 100 years, as one eminent critic suggested after ‘Spartacus’, but tonight it placed ballet back to the art that it was at least half a century ago and I like it!