Why did it have to end tonight?! Why couldn't they just keep dancing, begging for his life with her rushing in to save him each time?! Haglund wanted to get lost in this Giselle performance forever. The magic was that incredible.
But it had to come to an end. The last of Nina's Giselles. The last time she would dance with Jose Manuel Carreno. Too many lasts not to be sad.
Nina's Act I Giselle this evening was at maximum frisky. She was a life-loving innocent who was also a playful tease who knew how to get away and knew when to get caught. Jose Manuel's Albrecht was initially into the chase for Giselle for the sport of it with his enthusiasm building each time Giselle got away. She wove her charm throughout the village and ultimately Albrecht could not resist falling in love with her.
Act I included superb acting from all the players and a fine Peasant PdD from Daniil Simkin and Sarah Lane. Sarah's new half smile with the turned up eyebrows is growing old now. Tonight there was a Stepford Wives look on her face that, while pretty, was also eerie.
Nina's variations were gorgeous with sustained attitude turns, rapid fire chaines, beautiful pique arabesques that ended in plie penche, and you'd never guess she was retiring given the breadth and ease of her grand jetes. The foreshadowing of her mad scene was brilliant, especially in her interaction with Kristi Boone's grand Bathilde where you could tell there was something that was just not "right" with Giselle.
JM exhibited a wonderful ebullience throughout Act I. He appeared to be truly enjoying himself and had great rapport with Nina and with Gennadi Saveliev who was a fresh and dynamic Hilarion this evening. JM's variations were solid and technically clean and of course included his beautiful pirouettes with lingering balances. When his Albrecht was confronted by Bathilde and her father about Giselle, Albrecht tried to lie his way out of it. When later he knelt by Giselle's lifeless body, his grief was convincing and his anger at Hilarion real.
Act II was nothing but magic. Gillian Murphy's Myrta was merciless. But she also brought forth a Myrta who was still hurting and could only ease her pain by inflicting it on men who wandered into her territory. Her opening bourres, furious and smooth, elicited gasps from the audience. Moyna and Zulma were danced by Isabella Boylston and See Heo, respectively.
Nina and JM were sublime in Act II. The weightlessness of a mere spirit prevailed throughout Nina's dancing – thanks in no small way to JM's exceptional partnering. The lifts were drop dead gorgeous with her skirt always falling to its perfect shape. Her backward moving entrechat quatres and mini sautes coupes were stunning. Her jumps were soaring.
JM chose to do the brisees on the diagonal instead of the entrechat seises. Haglund prefers the brisees and always finds them more dramatic because of their ending confrontation with Myrta. JM dramatically powered his brisees down the diagonal twice followed by his final jumping variations where he landed in a heap on the floor, broken at last, just as the clock struck four o'clock.
When Giselle returned to her grave for the last time, Albrecht gathered a bouquet of lillies from around her cross and let them drop one at a time as he slowly walked backward to the middle of the stage. There he knelt and pressed the one remaining lily to his cheek as the curtain closed.
It was a great, great performance. The house was packed. The audience was so very appreciative and demanded that Nina and JM come before the curtain time and time again. There were a lot of bouquets thrown tonight, and Nina nearly got zonked in the head with a huge spray of loose flowers.
There's only one Pump Bump worthy of a performance like the one we saw this evening, and that's the
Golden First Position Pump Bump Award:
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