Скачать или смотреть Giselle - Act 2 mime and "seductive dance" - 9 performances - 1950s-2000s

The second act of Giselle never was much of a dance drama in Gautier's libretto, he was more interested in the bond of love between Giselle and Albrecht. But he considered a very short episode (less than 1.5 min) important enough for the course of action to dedicate it half a page of the 9 pages of his Act 2 essay: Giselle's "dance" as Albrecht stands by the cross. The "dance" was actually a dance in Gautier's day, more exactly, a "slow dance of seduction" to lure Albrecht out of his sanctuary. Who would guess this by watching the ballet today? In our days it's a "dance", that is, only a third of the original intention has survived: it is indeed slow, and it gets slower by the year, but it's neither a dance, nor is it seductive. It's an exam in high extensions, all legs and no upper body. And the preceding pantomime, as important as the dance itself, has all but disappeared. It has been a gradual process, down and down over the years, for 3/4 of a century.

In the libretto Myrtha commands Giselle to come forward and dance; Giselle, before obeying, implores Albrecht to stay by the cross and not follow her. At the end of her solo he's so bewitched by her dancing that he forgets himself and joins her. The mime can be seen in the two excerpts from the 50's (different productions); after that things began to deteriorate. Giselle's plea before her solo was reduced to a glance over the shoulder in Russian productions (in our days it's a deep backbend complete with pained expression and eyeroll), or nothing at all (ABT); the POB, BNC and particularly RB have retained more. The second mime episode at the end of the solo is completely gone and was replaced by some vague imploring gestures toward the wilis. Why Albrecht should leave the cross where he was safe to do those gestures is never explained, nor are Giselle's high extensions (A YT user explained once to me she was signaling to heaven with her leg and insisted it was the right thing to do in a Romantic ballet; I guess I should be grateful he didn't say she was signaling to mothership ;))

1950s Alonso/Bruhn (ABT?)    • Giselle fragment - Alonso, Bruhn  
1956 Ulanova/Fadeyechev (Bolshoi)    • Видео  
1969 Fracci/Bruhn (ABT)    • GISELLE (Fracci-Bruhn, ABT 1969) - 8 ...  
1975 Bessmertnova/Lavrovsky (Bolshoi)    • Giselle Natalya Bessmertnova Mikhail ...  
1977 Makarova/Baryshnikov (ABT+Kirov)    • "Giselle" ABT 1977 Part 9 (Act II Gra...  
1983 Mezentseva (Kirov)    • Giselle  7  
1988 Alvarez/Sarabia (BNC)    • GALINA ALVAREZ Y ROLANDO SARABIA  - G...  
1980-1990s Loudieres/Hilaire (POB)
2006 Cojocaru/Kobborg (RB)    • Видео