This production is little short of a miracle. The United Ukrainian Ballet – a crack company of dancers, some of whom have fled their homeland – ardently refresh a classic. Despite the wrenching context, it is immensely moving that everyone involved pours so much thought, heart and art into this revelatory project.
The Kyiv-raised choreographer Alexei Ratmansky is devoted to stripping decades of accretions from ballet classics. He revisited Giselle for the Bolshoi in 2019 and his researches bring the Romantic tragedy closer to its Parisian premiere of 1841. In particular, detailed notes left by a French dancer called Henri Justamant reframe the characters: the peasant Giselle is betrayed by Albert, a disguised nobleman, but helps him from beyond the grave. The detail is fresh, the performances delicate and true.
The conductor Viktor Oliynyk sets an urgent tone – brisk tempi let the story’s shadows arrive unawares. Christine Shevchenko, the American Ballet Theatre principal who led Tuesday’s cast, skips like a gazelle while Oleksii Tiutiunnyk’s Albert – light of foot, high of cheekbone – is all arcs and scissor jumps. This willowy pair might hope to remain airborne for ever, freed from cloddish responsibility. Meanwhile, the gamekeeper (Sergei Kliachin) who adores Giselle stomps about, keeping a suspicious eye on Albert. Is true love weighty or airy? Can you move through life without care?
Shevchenko makes Giselle unworldly but not daft; her Albert seems genuinely loving, but their worlds crumble when Albert’s identity and courtly fiancee are revealed. Reality intrudes, and Shevchenko honours the awfulness of her death scene – arms drop dolefully, legs fold under her. The fiancee Bathilde (Ksenia Novikova), often played with a sneer, is here kindly, distraught at Giselle’s distress.
The redemptive second act unfolds by a graveside bathed in midnight indigo. Softly sculptural Wilis – spirits of thwarted brides – form a remorseless cage around intruding men. To protect Albert, Giselle must keep him moving, in darting, yearning duets. Dance, once their joy, becomes a desperate play for time.
Although the ballet can’t speak directly to events in Ukraine, Ratmansky’s excavations also reshape the ending, facing towards the future. It honours terrible loss – and the courage in finding reasons to survive.
At the Coliseum, London, until 17 September
