Men Y Men
Produced as a short piece to go with Giselle in order to give the otherwise under-used male dancers something to do, this is a new piece choreographed by Wayne Eagling to the music of Rachmaninoff.
The first of the two dances I found a bit messy. Whilst the indiidual dancers, groups and dance segments were excellent there was simply too much going on - the use of canon and repetition meant I had no clear focus and my eyes were always darting around as I struggled to follow the patterns.
The second dance, on the other hand, was a real delight ... a beautifully crafted piece that I simply didn't want to end ... the dynamic between the individual dancers and the 'crowd' really came across allowing the choreography to exploit the skills of each dancer against a continuously changing background.
Overall, a very enjoyable piece which I hope will be retained for future ENB productions of Giselle.
Giselle
What a strange little story Giselle is. The buatiful country lass, Giselle, falls in love wit ha disguised Prince whose identity (and pre-existing engagement)is revealed by the machinations of another suitor. Giselle promptly dies of grief. End of Act I. Act 2 is set entirely by her grave in the world of the Wilis - spirits in bridal attire who lure men to dance until they die. The two suitors visit the grave and the Prince is saved from death by the intervention of Giselle's spirit who protects him till sunrise then disappears. Love conquers death. End of Act II. That's it ;-)
The ballet was originally choreographed in a period when women were coming to the fore in ballet and it has an odd, almost silent movie, mime style for telling the story. Odd but helpful, this is one ballet you can follow pretty well without notes (of the written kind).
A long, long time ago in a theatre in Oxford I saw ENB do Swan lake ... and was not impressed by the Corps de Ballet's discipline ... messy and not togther in timing or positioning. Wow, what a change. Act II of this ballet requires a large Corps who can excercise quite extreme self control - moving as if one and remaining absolutely stationary (in some pretty uncomfortable positions I might add) between ... and this was certainly their night, they were superb and got a huge round of well deserved applause.
I found the ballet, especially Act II, trully uplifiting, not in content (its somewhat of a sad tale!) but in presentation - crisp, exciting, visually glorious and trully, trully delightful
Thank you, ENB, for an excellent night out ....
