American Ballet Theatre: a promising debut in Giselle

American Ballet Theatre’s summer season pivoted towards maybe its surest bet drawing card, a week of Giselles. Giselle is ABT’s wonder. The production by Kevin McKenzie is charmingly picturesque. And year in, year out, ABT fields impressive casts for Giselle. I fondly recall the days when you could see Diana Vishneva, Natalia Osipova and Alina Cojocaru in one week as Giselle. The guest artist days are over, but great Giselles still spring up at ABT every year.

On a hot, muggy July day, many balletomanes were crowded into the Met to see a Giselle doubleheader. In the afternoon, Catherine Hurlin made her debut as the doomed village lass, with Daniel Camargo as her faithless lover. In the evening, Skylar Brandt and Herman Cornejo reprised their masterful portrayals.

Catherine Hurlin’s portrayal of Giselle was simple, unaffected, straightforward. It was very American, in the best way. She is technically very strong, with a big jump and strong turns. For this reason, her Giselle was perhaps stronger in the first act than the second. In the first act, her buoyant jump was powerful, high, but not exactly full of ballon. Her famous variation had easy hops across the stage, followed by an easier manège of piqué turns. Her mad scene was simple and rather untheatrical.

In the second act, while she cleared all the technical hurdles with very few problems, one missed the sort of ghostly delicacy that the most legendary of Giselles can convey. In the extremely exposed developpé that starts the Act 2 pas de deux, her leg shot up, straight as an arrow, never wavering. But it did not truly float upwards. As another example, in those famous backwards traveling entrechats, many Giselles often seem no longer of this world. Their jumps seem to evaporate into the air. They often carefully hold their arms as if they fly into the wind, like a real ghost. Hurlin just seemed like a dancer who can really jump high. As I mentioned, part of this is the lack of ballon in her jumps. She can’t just linger in the air like a true spirit. But part of it is also her essence as a dancer. She’s a strong dancer, not a delicate one.

But it was a very promising debut, and one suspects that as she dances the role more, she’ll refine her portrayal and inject more individuality.

As Albrecht, Daniel Camargo was excellent in every way. He is a somewhat reserved actor who eschewed some of the playboy antics in the first act. But his lines are pure, his partnering flawless, his fifth position, clean as a whistle. In other words, he’s a classicist in a role that demands classicism. Maybe his most breathtaking moment was when he lifted Hurlin in those famous tabletop lifts. It was like silk. She flew up there with no visible effort. His “dance to the death” entrechats were also the best I’ve seen since David Hallberg, which is high praise indeed. At the end of the ballet, Camargo did something I’ve never seen another Albrecht do. He picked up a bouquet of lilies and slowly dropped individual flowers to the ground, in an echo of Giselle’s gesture earlier in the ballet. He’s such a welcome addition to ABT’s roster.

Jarod Curley was an impressive Hilarion. He was handsome even with the peasant garb and fake beard, and represented a viable threat to Albrecht. Fangqi Li’s Myrtha was very well-danced, but as of now she lacks the sort of implacable will of the best Myrthas. She’s not terrifying enough. In the peasant pas de deux, Betsy McBride and Tyler Maloney were fresh, charming, but a little sloppy with their finishes.

The evening performance was simply on another level, dramatically and technically. Skylar Brandt looks hauntingly like a young Gelsey Kirkland and has Kirkland’s mixture of harebell delicacy with incredible technical strength. Her Giselle is a fully finished portrayal, full of tenderness and charm in the first act and a vaporous ghostliness in the second. Herman Cornejo has lost a lot of flexibility (he no longer has much of an arabesque), but none of his incredible charm, charisma, and impeccable classicism. His partnership with Brandt is very special. Chloe Misseldine (Myrtha) is another dancer mature beyond her years. She was an implacable, terrifying Myrtha. It helped that she looked a bit like Veronika Part from far away.

But the most special performance of the evening came from Jake Roxander and Zimmi Coker in the peasant pas de deux. I often mentally fast forward this section of the ballet, but not tonight. Roxander (who only joined the company less than a year ago) was astounding. His high cabrioles, his tight, clean fifth positions, his decelerating turns. It all reminded one of young Angel Corella, and in fact, he looks a lot like Corella as well. Coker matched Roxander with her fresh exuberance. You love to see these sorts of performances, when young dancers grab the spotlight.

It was all-in-all a wonderful day (and night) at the ballet. Giselle remains ABT’s crown jewel.