2004-06-27
PERFORMING ARTS
Images this section ©2004 | fabulous dance theatre
Giselle | Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre | We saw Michael Keegan-Dolan's interpretation of Giselle at Yale's "Department for the Drama" and came out every bit convinced that we just saw a totally new take on theatre, dance and Irish drama | I thought it was an Irish Greek Tragedy, elaborately performed yet with only symbolic, and minimalist, staging | Powerful, powerful imagry that kept my attention rapt the whole time | It made a whole lot more sense after coming home and reading a historic synopsis of the ballet [first performed in Paris in 1841] but it was still riveting even without knowing the history |
The story of the pitiful, dismal life of the innocent Giselle, imprisoned in a dark, cruel town of frustrated, venal, petty, yet passionate bakwards villagers [and especially by her demented, retarded incest-driven brother Hilariaon] Their lives briefly lifted each week with the spark and verve coming from the erotically charged country line dance teacher, Albrecht | Albrecht was equal opportunity seducer, giong first after the mute Giselle, but taking any interested party available,
including the shy and handsome town butcher Patrick |
Further peopled by the sadistic nurse Mary, as well as Giselle's distant, phone pole sitting father [serving as a lone "Greek Chorus" to update the audience with the story's twists and turns] the tale is grating and fierce |
But it's the dancing that draws you in | Lithe and beautiful, [especially the duets between Giselle and Albrecht] and shows that Giselle can have joy and beauty in her tortured, troubled life | The Line dancing seqeunces seemed a gifted Irish choreographer's take on American Cowboy pop-culture skillfully intermixed with traditional Irish jig dancing [move over Riverdance, there's no comparison here] | The dance is joyful ...JOYFUL! |
Chock-full with profanity, violence and obscene language, the spectacle of the tragic story nevertheless doesn't get hidden by such diversions | Lyrical and beautiful and sad | Gentle viewers might take heed in this notice, and there are several powerful, extended raw enactments of sexual encounters, cartoonish in depiction [perhaps] yet far more realistic and exotic than most any porn film I've ever seen or heard about | When Nurse Mary basically rape/seduces the butcher Pat while mending a cauterized finger, the scene is not just hilarious but very erotic | I can see why this made such a stir at the Dublin Theatre Festival |
Giselle dies tragically, victim of an insane jealousy by her brother toward the suitor Albrecht | Her come-uppance is in the last part of the performance, during a chilling almost mystical sequence in the graveyard where, together with the ghosts of other young women dashed to death before their time, the spirits [the wilies, according to Slavic and Russian lore] first lure the mad brother, and smother him to death by seduction |
One final bit player in this morality play, is the Church, itself absent of presence and involvement in the daily events, but imposing its judgement in the end by denying poor Giselle a proper burial in sanctified grounds | Why? because she'd had "relations with a stranger"! | As in life, the Church stays involved via force feeding opinions by virtue of power, not forgiveness |
I'd go see it again, and again and again and again | The dancing -when it comes- is exquiste and beautiful | It's a whole new experience in dance | What I've said thus far is mere narration of events | In fact, what goes on before your eyes is sure to impact on dance, theatre and drama for years to come | ¶ 00:38
Images this section ©2004 | fabulous dance theatre
Giselle | Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre | We saw Michael Keegan-Dolan's interpretation of Giselle at Yale's "Department for the Drama" and came out every bit convinced that we just saw a totally new take on theatre, dance and Irish drama | I thought it was an Irish Greek Tragedy, elaborately performed yet with only symbolic, and minimalist, staging | Powerful, powerful imagry that kept my attention rapt the whole time | It made a whole lot more sense after coming home and reading a historic synopsis of the ballet [first performed in Paris in 1841] but it was still riveting even without knowing the history |
The story of the pitiful, dismal life of the innocent Giselle, imprisoned in a dark, cruel town of frustrated, venal, petty, yet passionate bakwards villagers [and especially by her demented, retarded incest-driven brother Hilariaon] Their lives briefly lifted each week with the spark and verve coming from the erotically charged country line dance teacher, Albrecht | Albrecht was equal opportunity seducer, giong first after the mute Giselle, but taking any interested party available,
including the shy and handsome town butcher Patrick |
Further peopled by the sadistic nurse Mary, as well as Giselle's distant, phone pole sitting father [serving as a lone "Greek Chorus" to update the audience with the story's twists and turns] the tale is grating and fierce |
But it's the dancing that draws you in | Lithe and beautiful, [especially the duets between Giselle and Albrecht] and shows that Giselle can have joy and beauty in her tortured, troubled life | The Line dancing seqeunces seemed a gifted Irish choreographer's take on American Cowboy pop-culture skillfully intermixed with traditional Irish jig dancing [move over Riverdance, there's no comparison here] | The dance is joyful ...JOYFUL! |
Chock-full with profanity, violence and obscene language, the spectacle of the tragic story nevertheless doesn't get hidden by such diversions | Lyrical and beautiful and sad | Gentle viewers might take heed in this notice, and there are several powerful, extended raw enactments of sexual encounters, cartoonish in depiction [perhaps] yet far more realistic and exotic than most any porn film I've ever seen or heard about | When Nurse Mary basically rape/seduces the butcher Pat while mending a cauterized finger, the scene is not just hilarious but very erotic | I can see why this made such a stir at the Dublin Theatre Festival |
Giselle dies tragically, victim of an insane jealousy by her brother toward the suitor Albrecht | Her come-uppance is in the last part of the performance, during a chilling almost mystical sequence in the graveyard where, together with the ghosts of other young women dashed to death before their time, the spirits [the wilies, according to Slavic and Russian lore] first lure the mad brother, and smother him to death by seduction |
One final bit player in this morality play, is the Church, itself absent of presence and involvement in the daily events, but imposing its judgement in the end by denying poor Giselle a proper burial in sanctified grounds | Why? because she'd had "relations with a stranger"! | As in life, the Church stays involved via force feeding opinions by virtue of power, not forgiveness |
I'd go see it again, and again and again and again | The dancing -when it comes- is exquiste and beautiful | It's a whole new experience in dance | What I've said thus far is mere narration of events | In fact, what goes on before your eyes is sure to impact on dance, theatre and drama for years to come | ¶ 00:38
