Fall is in full swing here in New York City.  The leaves have changed, the air is brisk, and ballet has returned to the stage.  After a nearly 2-year hiatus, the dance companies of the city are emerging from their hibernation and are once again performing for the general public.  And so the expectation is that dance and art will be bigger and grander than ever.  But what we got this weekend at American Ballet Theatres production of Giselle was a show with echoes of its former glory, but still drowsy from its time away of the stage.  

            Giselle, like most classical ballets of the 19^th century has a paper-thin plot and is more a vehicle for the principal dancers to flex their chops.  Essentially Giselle is an operatic tragedy with themes of love, deception, and forgiveness.  But it fails to convey these things and comes off as rather trite because of its lack of awareness.  The ballet itself hardly acknowledges its own plot, only so far as to move the action forward to the next variation or pas de deux.  The sense of danger and doom are missing here and then lends itself to the awkward and uneven character progression.  These problems of Giselle were especially more apparent at Saturday’s matinee which featured the debuts of the two principal roles, Giselle and Albrecht, danced by Cassandra Trenary, and Calvin Royal III.  Both are very promising dancers, but they did not reach the anticipated heights that was expected of them.  Trenary’s failures were especially sad, considering that based on type, the role of Giselle would seem like a natural fit for her.  But her Giselle in act one was very subdued and meek, which after a while became contrived.  Technical glitches aside, which there were a few to many for comfort, there were however parts in the first act that showed promise, particularly during the infamous mad scene.  The mad scene can easily escalate into a state of camp as Giselle flies into hysterics over Albrecht’s betrayal.  But with Trenary, we saw a girl in real time suffer a devastating blow to both her ego and her heart.  She mimicked a sort of panic attack on stage that was very compelling to watch in its rawness of emotional vulnerability.  It was that moment that I felt that her Giselle will become something worth watching and look forward to seeing her develop in the role.  Calvin Royal III had the stronger debut, but seems miscast in the role of Albrecht, only for having such a sunny and joyous presence that it makes it hard to believe that he would have ever betrayed Giselle’s trust in the first place.  But in most classical ballets the princely role falls into this trap and you can’t help but feel sorry for the dancers who try to bring depth to characters whose design is only to highlight and hold the ballerina.  The real standout of the first act however was Patrick Frenette in the role of Hilarion, a village man who is in love with Giselle and exposes Albrecht royal heritage.  Frenette acted circles around the principals and made his side character the most compelling part of the first act. 

            The second act is where the bulk of the dance action happens and revealed to us, the audience, who the real stars of the night were.  Enter the wili’s.  The corps de ballets synchronous movement in the second act were precise and executed well and was the highlight of the afternoon.  All the women were together in form, and the lines were clean and meticulously placed as they hopped across the stage in unison in the iconic phrase of the second act.  That afternoon the audience bore witnesses to the true strength and backbone of the American Ballet Theatre.  Also, in the second act Trenary, though playing a deceased Giselle, risen now as a wili, danced with an energy that brought life back into her lifeless character.  What didn’t come together at first managed to finish strong, but it just proves that the ballet Giselle is not greater than the sum of its parts, and that the alchemy behind a stellar performance still needs some work.