In this edition:
-A Review: Olga Smirnova in Giselle with American Ballet Theater.
-Where Watch Now
Olga Smirnova in Dutch National’s Giselle Photo: Alex Gouliaev
The Review:
American culture is a casual one, in its language, in its sartorial expression, in its treatment of the arts and artists. But when a ballerina like Olga Smirnova is in the house—a dancer that descends from a culture that for centuries has revered and invested in dance as both a high art and a practice worthy of being put even in prosaic public education—the entire theater on and off the stage is elevated.
Smirnova is one of the moment’s biggest international stars. Formerly a Bolshoi Prima, she’s currently a Principal with Dutch National—one of the world’s most forward-thinking companies, who also famously hired Micaela Mabinty DePrince when ABT wouldn’t take her; and Ahmad Judeh, the boy born in a Palestinian refugee camp who honed his own talent in the desert, off of YouTube. She joined the company after very publicly denouncing the war in Ukraine, leaving her position and her country in protest.
A choice she’s been frequently lauded for, while many others have been criticized for not doing the same. As if it isn’t an impossible sacrifice—Smirnova herself has spoken of the difficulties, the culture shock, and the losses she’s suffered in the transition.
She trained with one of the most respected teachers in ballet’s history, Lyudmila Kovaleva. Also the lifelong teacher and mentor to another ballet mega star Diana Vishneva—among others.
Like Vishneva, Smirnova possesses the encompassing Russian back. A back that does not end at the torso, for it is really a spine, an energetic center from which every movement initiates and even once appears finished—the pose arrived at, the angle complete—another extension continues like the tail of a comet.
Lyudmilya Kovaleva, Diana Vishneva, Olga Smirnova, Kristina Shapran, Anastasiya Lukina Photo: Mark Olich
Giselle’s Duality
The ballet Giselle, while not as obviously as Swan Lake, is in a way also a dual role. The ballerina must evolve the character from the first act’s innocent and delighted village girl, to madness—of one whose complete trust in love and the goodness of life has been suddenly lost and a schism created in the mind. To the second act’s mature and unearthly saint, a being whose love transcends human trespasses and betrayals.
Smirnova’s first act is less believable than her second. In most of the first act she’s sweet enough and the excellence of her pedigree highlights the holes in American ballet training. But you don’t quite lose the feeling that you’re watching a great ballerina pretend to be a naive village girl—we begin to be rewarded for our patience in the mad scene.
Smirnova lets her loss of mind be a layered and introverted affair, we are forced to lean forward and listen for her movements—made to feel as if we are eavesdropping on a woman coming undone alone in her cell, and not a performer demanding that we witness her plight.
The second act is the true ballerina role, both the choreography and the character are filled with the grandeur and the humility of an ethereal being who is powerful enough to protect life from demonic underworld creatures, yet delicate enough to exist in the air, gross matter is made immaterial.
Through her unbound steps, her arabesques that extend both inward and outward, she takes us into Giselle’s magnanimous transformation. Smirnova disappears and the archetype of a goddess, ghost, saint swallows the theater.
Olga Smirnova as Giselle. Photo: Ashley Taylor
Leading Men and Haunted Lovers
The dashingly handsome Daniel Camargo played opposite her as the irresponsible and deceitful Loys/Albrecht. A nobleman cosplaying as a villager, Albrecht wins Giselle’s heart and depending on who is dancing, either has genuine feelings for her but is trapped by his social status, or, is a feckless cad forced to face himself when his casual flirtation causes another’s death.
Camargo is an accomplished Principal, whose Albrecht portrayal is coolly privileged, as we imagine an eligible 19th-century bachelor would be. He gave us moments of introspection throughout but it wasn’t until the end that we fully felt his remorse—but feel it we did, in the last few moments before the curtain’s fall, when he is left alone on the stage, to live with the irreconcilable consequences of his deceit.
A Superb Hilarion & the Queen—of the Wilis
Hilarion, ballet’s answer to “nice guys finish last,” also loves Giselle and is a true and honest soul who sniffs Albrecht’s trickery and tries to warn her. Mirroring the unfairness in life, it’s Hilarion, rather than the two-timing Albrecht, who is danced to death by the Wilis.
As we experience the ballet through Giselle’s eyes, Hilarion is often an unlikeable character—an unglamorous suitor sent to rain on our parade, but last night was a different story. Played by the corps de ballet member...
Информация по комментариям в разработке