Last night's gig was impressive and surprising in so many ways.
Went to see the Dada Masilo production of Giselle at The Lowry. It's a ballet. I've seen Romeo & Juliet at the Royal Opera House, so I knew what to expect. Thin people, mostly girls, on pointe, wearing tutus and looking vaguely Russian, and possibly anorexic if Black Swan is anything to go by.
My +1 for the evening has a family history of dance, with older sisters and nieces interested in ballet and dance. I bought the tickets on a whim, expecting all the above. She was expecting the same, I think.
Lots of the audience were what you'd expect, white haired old ladies, students of ballet and music, even a few chancers like myself who just bought well priced tickets on the off-chance.
The first clue that this was different was the lack of an orchestra. I've enjoyed many performances at the Lowry, Don Giovanni, Madame Butterfly.. Ok, mostly opera, but the lack of one was the first thing.
Not really second, because I knew beforehand that the company was from South Africa, all the dancers were African. Big Shock? No. The shock was that they were exactly the opposite of what you expect from ballet. Real-looking people (I'll get back to that later) enacting a European story of love, loss and redemption.
The story of the humiliation of Giselle is probably dealt with in a very delicate way by the Moscow Ballet, but tonight's performance was amazingly sensual, and in some ways brutal. There was no attempt at pretence. The main lady was topless within a few minutes, not as a shock tactic, but a demonstration of the openness of her suffering (it continues throughout) and a signifier of her difference afterwards.
The lovemaking scene was accompanied by a soundtrack that (I hope) was created for the ballet itself. There were references to orchestral music, but the beat and tempo was very African for this performance.
The story is a simple one:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giselle
The energy throughout was not only surprising, but astounding. The affect of the ghosts attacking Albrecht in the near-final scene was mesmerising. Giselle's liberations of Albrecht was a masterpiece.
There are a couple of things I'd like to mention.
This was a full blooded production of people who could not only dance, but could probably beat you in a bar-fight. Looking at them dance wasn't like looking at a bunch of precocious teens prancing around on stage, it was more like a Battle Royale. They weren't only dancers, they were athletes. With a running time of 70 minutes, this was a burst of energy I've never seen in ballet. I'd like to see it continue, especially to bring younger viewers in.
Here's a trailer. It's not Romeo and Juliet, but all the better for it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJR9dkn4GBs
TL/DR Giselle was unexpectedly awesome. Go see.
Oh, and there was a bit where the ghosts and Giselle were going at Albrecht. They held their arms so far back, to look like wings. No idea how that is humanly possible.
Oh, and standing ovation from the grey ladies as well as us. Turns out nudity wasn't invented by us :)
