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Nashville BalletOctober 2009 Nashville, TPAC Auditorium by Pamela Gaye |
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The style of The Nashville Ballet is gracefully classical, and there probably is no better proof to the pudding than the staging of the Coralli-Perrot Giselle, coached by guest artist and former principal dancer of the Houston Ballet, Dawn Scannell. Whether one is sympathetic to the origins of Romantic Ballet or not, the effort put forth that resulted in a majestic glimpse into the mid-nineteenth century era (circa the advent of the point shoe et al.) was well worth viewing in this performance at the TPAC. Indeed, Nashville Ballet would seem to offer many identities this season with the remounting of several rarely seen ‘American ballets’ coming up. Yet, as I watched Giselle, I felt as though lithographs of Carlotta Grisi and Jules Perrot were mounted onstage; the partnering of John Upleger as Albrecht and Sadie Bo Haris as Giselle, became iconic characterizations evocative of the formative past of ballet. As character studies, the tight bourré movements in Act II by Myrthe, Queen of the Wilis; the exuberant developpés of thepeasant pas de deux of Act I, and the delicate balancé movements of Giselle in Act I revealed the ballet as a concentrated entity of symbolic movement, even in its mime. Constantly the patterns of hands stretched forward creating a light circular movement (suggesting dance) alternating with hands stretched downward palms down (suggesting death) echoed the dichotomy of dark/light, earthly/romantic, mundane/spiritual common to the era in which this ballet, choreographed nearly thirty-five years before Swan Lake was born and today, symbolizes. Although the dancers seemed uneasy with the movements of the graceful yearning port-de-bras in Act II, at times revealing an unsureness in their formation of pristine diagonal lines of arms, their back arched toward Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis, the ballet still made its mark as one of the company’s best performances. Nashville has some strong male dancers. Jon Upleger in the role of Albrecht, although slighter in build than Eddie Mikrut, gave a heart wrenching performance as the repentant lover. Indeed his body seemed to flow and succumb easily to the dramatic demands of the role, of a prince overcome first by infatuation, then by sorrow. Highlighting Act I were the dramatic mimed sequences of the mother, performed by Allison Zamorski, forecasting the doom to befall her daughter, Giselle. Zamorski’s actions, performed center stage, commanded the drama of Act I wherein timing is of the essence. The petite Sadie Bo Harris performed a playful Giselle, whose innocence projected genuinely the descent into madness, foreshadowing, in Act II, an ethereal figure who enters the world of the Wili maidens still aware of the world she has left behind. Certainly the partnering of Upleger and Harris is not only spectacular, but lyrical and energetic, each blending into the other’s emotion through movement evoking at varying points ecstasy, sorrow, and triumph.
The company has benefitted enormously from working with Scannell. Set designs by Oren Parker seemed to evoke the original, resembling sketches I have seen of the event originally staged in 1842 with Carlotta Grisi in the title role and Jules Perrot as Hilarion. Perhaps my favorite scene occurred in Act II with Harris’s performance of quick pas de sissonnes across stage, followed by Upleger who at times seemed to gently hover above her in amorous embrace. Giselle may be called a period piece evocative of the past, but in Nashville it was performed fraught with humanity and lightness, giving the audience much to think about concerning ballet’s history and the remarkable growth given forth in its performance by Nashville dancers.
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