English National Ballet - Akram Khan’s Giselle
English National Ballet has brought back Akram Khan’s Giselle - a radical take on an old ballet and one that really delivers an emotional 20-century punch…
Erina Takahashi and James Streeter in Akram Khan’s Giselle. © @FoteiniPhoto
English National Ballet
Akram Khan’s Giselle
★★★★✰
London, Sadler’s Wells
18 September 2024
www.ballet.org.uk
www.sadlerswells.com
Giselle, the original version of Giselle, is the quintessential Romantic era ballet and one propelled by a glorious score. It’s the slow unfolding of a tragedy and the touching telling of many traditional versions that speaks to its longevity and ability to move audiences worldwide. But it is good for the arts generally and dance particularly to reconsider its underpinnings and generate fresh takes on the world - after all, a lot has changed since 1841 and Giselle’s first outing.
I remember the premiere of Akram Khan’s very different Giselle, up in Manchester in 2016, and the raucous approval of many didn’t totally resonate with me. Where the original telling and score is one of gentle delicacy, the Khan version can feel like a dramatic blitzkrieg, albeit one that connects with you at an elemental level. It really feels like a very different ballet, and although Vincenzo Lamagna’s score/soundscape occasionally references Adolphe Adam’s original, it’s the often very loud and radical soundscape that drives so much of my response to the ballet. There are times when the building to some gut-thumping climax can feel a bit artificial, but on this watching, I’m more inclined to go with the flow of what is a changed and hard-hitting narrative.
Khan and his collaborators have changed the story to one of downtrodden and abandoned garment workers versus wealthy landlords, separated by an enormous wall - great work from designer Tim Yip. It’s still love across the rich/poor divide, but here with extra bite and bile and a significantly changed role for Hilarion as a fixer straddling the two worlds but essentially doing the landlord’s bidding. It’s also a world where Giselle’s mad scene ends in her death by Landlords diktat, rather than death by her own hand or failed/broken heart. It’s a plot on steroids, but the narrative on stage might not always be crystal clear unless you have read the synopsis - it’s a work that repays a bit of homework.
The true glory of the Khan’s Giselle is its movement vocabulary. The twisting shapeshifting energy of Hilarion and the pulsing muscularity and gut-bending hunch of the corps Wilis (here, the ghosts of factory workers who seek revenge for the wrongs done to them in life) come most readily to mind. But the shadow martial-arts-inspired fighting between Albrecht and Hilarion is very fresh, as is the final duet for Giselle and Albrecht - as much about the shapes and gestures they create apart as the closer coupling you would expect in a ballet. Khan delivers a masterclass on how to fuse the lightness of ballet-trained dancers with the earthiness of Kathak and contemporary movement to give an almost primal view of a split society.
It’s a work that very much shows the strength of the company, but Erina Takahashi (Giselle), James Streeter (Albrecht), Ken Saruhashi (Hilarion) and Emma Hawes (Queen of the Wilis) really deliver the cream on top - fabulous dramatic dancing that fully connects with us all. Is the Akram Khan Giselle a masterwork? For me, not quite, mainly because the soundscape is a bit too heavy-handed and the story telling could be a little clearer. But it is a fine narrative work with a spirit that moves us and rightly won a standing ovation on opening night.