Giselle

This weekend I saw the ABT (American Ballet Theater - a biggie) perform the wonderful ballet Giselle at the LA Music Center. For those of you as unfamiliar with the story as I was, it is about a peasant girl who falls in love with a nobleman disguised as a peasant. They are of course blissfully (and briefly) happy with one another and display their love with many impressive balletic feats. Alas, a less worthy suitor, earger for her hand and jealous of the nobleman, exposes her lover's identity and out tumbles the fact that he is engaged to a prince's daughter. By the end of the first act, Giselle's lover walks past Giselle to kiss the hand of the haughty prince's daughter, thus signaling where his allegiance lies. Giselle goes mad, as she is engaged to him as well, and her grief kills her. I know the story line sounds pretty trite, and I'm not even going to tell you about the second act, except to say that in death she is initiated into a whole group of young ghost-girls jilted by fiances, destined to roam the night forest. While the first act is all flowers and light, the second is darkness and deep blue moonlight. But, it really was very moving when you see all these emotions being danced out. Very catharic. The fact that there are no words really gets you thinking about the pure emotions. The thing that makes this so frustrating is the fact that the noble guy really did love Giselle, and probably would have chosen her over the prince's daughter. He was taking a side trip in a world free of responsibility and genuinely loved Giselle. So, he wasn't a rotten guy out to do harm. He was simply enjoying the tide of love. So you can't blame him. But then there's poor Giselle who has to see her lover forsake her for another, and goes simply crazy with grief. How do you deal with the thought/emotion shift that would go along with this new knowledge? Poor Giselle. She seems to be the true innocent of this ballet. Anyhow, what do you do if love and life situation just don't match up? I think I'm slightly a sucker for these types of tragic situations. My friend Erin and I had a discussion this past week in which we decided that we are firmly seated in the category of brooding. Often lonely brooding. But this is going to change. Brooding is not a place of power. So bottom line is, there is plenty of room for a little objectified brooding in this story line. The ballet had so many gorgeous scenes. The dancing was phenomenal - anyone would appreciate the ease with which they do sequences which require so much balance, flexibility, strength, speed, muscle memory, grace, and to top it all off, emotive quality. What an impressive instrument the human body is. Really. Let me know if you want to go next time the ballet is in town.