Giselle was only the second ballet that I have seen. I have watched Nutcraker twice but that only counted as one. Saw Giselle at the Auditorium this past Saturday. This was a production by the American Ballet Theatre. The show itself was interesting enough. The dancing was pleasant but I am not really a good judge of what makes a superb ballet dancing and what makes one mediocre. Judging from the applause the dancers got in the middle of their number indicates that they were good. But frankly it was annoying that some audience had to clap in the middle of the dancing. It was overkill considering that the dancers usually paused after a dance number for applause. The performer that played Giselle was Natalia Osipova. I thought she was divine looking and very graceful. I liked her performance. On the other hand, the dancer that played Count Albrecht was very distracting. Although his dancing was good and even perhaps excellent, he just looked and felt gay to me. I did not see him as manly enough to be the love interest of Giselle. Of course it did not help that ballet by itself does not conjure an image of masculinity. It was not until it was pointed out to me that he looked like Austin Scarlet of Project Runway that my perception made sense. That was why I did not see him as manly enough. Subconsciously I was thinking he was Austin Scarlet.
Another aspect of the show that I really liked was the stage set up. The village scenery of act 1 and the forest scenery of act 2 waere quite realistic looking. There was depth and color in the village scenery that really looked like middle age Germany. Even the forest scenery almost looked scary as it was meant to be. I also liked the outfits of the courtesans and villagers. They looked very middle age Germany. And lastly, the orchestra played nicely with force as called for.
The positive experience guaranteed that I am very open to see another ballet in the future.
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