The week in dance: Mary Skeaping’s Giselle; Resolution festival review – old and new thrills
A new dance year begins with a mixture of old and new, historic and cutting-edge. English National Ballet’s Giselle is a jewel – a 54-year-old production that lovingly evokes the Romantic era from which the ballet sprang. The Resolution festival at the Place, now in its 35th year, is a balancing pleasure, a chance for emerging artists to find their feet, cut their teeth and try something new. Both show the vitality of dance at the beginning of 2025.
Mary Skeaping (1902-84) created her Giselle in 1971 as an act of reconstructive detective work on a ballet that was first seen in 1841 and underwent many subsequent revisions. Skeaping herself danced in both a production by Anna Pavlova, of whose company she was a member, and one mounted by Nicholas Sergeyev in 1932. She listened to the advice of Tamara Karsavina, famed dancer for Diaghilev.
Skeaping’s emendations have deep historic roots yet they are not slavish. She restores Adolphe Adam’s score, not because she can but because it makes more sense of the story of a young country girl betrayed by the aristocratic Albrecht and returning after her death as ghost, to save his life. She shapes the drama to suit her purpose. To take one example, in the mad scene, Giselle doesn’t rush around and kill herself histrionically; she is so unhinged by the news that Albrecht is engaged to the rich Bathilde that her heart breaks.
A duet curdles from an innocent hug into a threatening encounter, he crossing the stage like a satyr on all fours
On Thursday, the sublime Erina Takahashi made Giselle’s despair so believable it was as if it were minted yesterday. She brings an ardent simplicity to the role that makes Giselle’s plight cut to the quick. In the second act, her jumps are delicate and her arabesques yearning. She’s matched by an unusually tender Albrecht in Francesco Gabriele Frola, shaping his movement beautifully and lifting her as if she is made of gossamer. Takahashi leaves English National Ballet after nearly 30 years after these performances as Giselle. It’s a wonderful way to say goodbye, a tribute to her artistry.
These poetic and deeply felt central performances are framed and enhanced by David Walker’s picture-perfect sets, lighting by Charles Bristow, recreated by David Mohr, that fills the ghostly forest with shafts of eerie moonlight, and a company who bring heart and precision to every detail of the production. Precious Adams is an imperious Myrtha, whisking round the stage with exceptional speed, ethereal in gauze and tulle. The corps de ballet are disciplined and otherworldly. The entire thing is a much better advertisement for the company than their recent Nutcracker – and a real treat.
The joy of the Resolution festival at The Place is that you never know what you are going to see. Each night has three pieces, supposedly programmed more or less at random. It was odd, then, that on opening night each owed a debt to ancient Greece. Lucid Absurdities, choreographed and performed by Vasiliki Papapostolou AKA Tarantism with Spiros Paltoglou, begins with two strangers meeting at an airport as their flight to Greece is delayed. He thinks she looks like an old lover; she is wary of his stare. As they doze, they slip into a shared dream where his intent becomes more and more predatory.
The piece, with an effective sound design by Christopher Nas, is full of unexpected movement: a duet that is like a geometric puzzle; another that curdles from an innocent hug into a threatening encounter, he crossing the stage like a satyr on all fours, her falling roughly as she avoids his grasp. It’s frightening, ambiguous and sharp.
Ombra Mai Fu was beautifully danced by the Wayne McGregor Company trio Salvatore De Simone (who choreographed it), Naia Bautista and Harry Theodora Foster, yet didn’t quite have the range to explore its theme inspired by The Oresteia; Duran “Dee Dee” Abdullah’s Anima, a solo with a mask of Medusa, started confidently but ran out of steam. But each work was absorbing, thoughtful and encouraging. A cause for optimism.
Star ratings (out of five)
Mary Skeaping’s Giselle ★★★★
Resolution 2025 ★★★
• Resolution is at the Place, London, until 15 February
