Review: AMERICAN REPERTORY BALLET’S GISELLE Haunts, Delights Audiences at New Brunswick Performing Arts Center

American Repertory Ballet opened its weekend run of Giselle on October 10-12 at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center with a hauntingly beautiful production perfect for the early days of spooky season.

It can be a challenge retelling timeless stories and presenting them in a way that feels fresh to a familiar audience. Yet, American Repertory Ballet pulled this off with great effect. The lighting design, staging, and emotional performances kept the audience intrigued from the buoyancy of act one to the shadows of act two.

The world of Giselle emerged slowly and deliberately with a scrim showing a single tree. In act two, the scrim revealed roots beneath the surface as a nod to the underworld the audience was about to enter and the Wilis who dwell there.

Each act began and ended behind the scrim, casting the dancers and stage in soft shadows. This gave the whole production an eerie quality, as if the story were unfolding in a place slightly removed from our own world. The use of the scrim bookended the ballet nicely and framed the story with a visual reminder of how love and death are intertwined.

The lighting transformed the mood of each act as well, using golden tones to illuminate a cheerful village during the harvest celebrations before transitioning into cooler tones as the audience traveled to the forest with Albrecht to meet the Wilis in act two.

The first act’s village scenes brimmed with energy and warmth. The pantomime sequences are a crucial part of Giselle’s storytelling and the dancers executed them clearly so even those less familiar with ballet’s language could follow the drama that was about to unfold. The cast proved themselves not just as skilled technical ballet dancers, but actors as well with compelling expressions.

Leandro Olcese stood out as Hilarion as he embodied the character’s yearning for Giselle and anger and heartache at being overshadowed by Albrecht. He was a gorgeous dancer with exact lines and quick foot work.

Nanako Yamamoto shone in the title role as she navigated Giselle’s delicate arc of love, heartbreak, and ultimately, forgiveness. She captured Giselle’s innocence as a young woman in love in act one, transitioning to the strong protector for Albrecht as he faced the Wilis in act two. She danced with grace and precision, and her chemistry with Aldeir Monteiro, who played Albrecht, was felt.

Monteiro was a commanding Albrecht. His pantomime communicated his character’s internal conflict in disguising himself as a villager and later being revealed as a nobleman to face the consequences of his deception. His anguish over Giselle’s death was one of the evening’s most moving moments. In act two as he danced with the Wilis, his exhaustion and fear were palpable. His final farewell to Giselle was quiet but devastating — a moment that lingered after the final curtain.

Michelle Quiner was chilling in her role as Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis. Her movements were crisp and regal, establishing an immediately powerful presence on stage. Lily Krisko and Jasmine Jasper, as her two deputies, matched this chilling beauty with their own sharp performances.

The corps of Wilis impressively moved in synchronization and drew applause from the audience at certain points. Their ethereal costumes felt haunting, and they demonstrated strength with several held balances.

After Albrecht’s farewell, Giselle was gently laid back into her grave and the scrim descended once more to usher the audience out of the world behind the veil, leaving them as enchanted and unsettled as Albrecht himself.

Giselle is a perfect story for the season of ghost tales, and American Repertory Ballet succeeded in breathing fresh life into this classic ballet.

Photos: Rosalie O'Connor Photography