To attend a studio rehearsal of a ballet company is to witness the vigilant care each dancer gives her or his body, to experience the humor and humanity twined through the insistent demands of the director and to gain a much deeper appreciation for the physical strength it takes to create this particular art. Last Saturday, at Festival Ballet Providence's run-through of the classic ballet Giselle -- to be presented this weekend (November 15 through 17) at VMAArts &Cultural Center -- dancers were careful to keep warmed-up limbs warm. Jackets, mufflers, down slippers, leg-warmers, and even shoulder-to-toe romper pajamas were donned when they weren't dancing. And stretched muscles were encouraged to stay limber by pushing post-toe-shoed feet across a ridged wooden roller or by lying atop a styrofoam roller.

Partway through the first act, Festival's artistic director, Mihailo "Misha" Djuric, filled in for an absent dancer in the character role of Princess Bathilde, hamming it up a bit, while still managing to offer very specific suggestions to the throng of dancers taking part in the "hunting scene." Djuric corrected the timing of an entrance here, the wave of a hand there, but when his part as the Princess came up, his own performance was colored by a small smile of bemusement, which lightened the very serious air of intense concentration that filled the studio space most of the afternoon.

For Giselle is very demanding for principals and corps de ballet alike. Drawing on the choreography of Jean Coralli, Jules Perrot, Marius Petipa, and Leonid Lavrovski, Djuric and his ballet mistress Milica Bijelic (who has performed the title role more than 50 times) have re-created this romantic 1841 story ballet, with music composed by Adolphe Adam, complete with traditional costumes and sets, courtesy of the Louisville Ballet. Since Djuric's arrival at Festival in 1998, the company has grown in size and experience, and this ballet is a marvelous showcase for both veteran and brand-new dancers. Giselle incorporates company members (from eight different countries), character dancers, apprentices and junior company members in an impressive cast of 40.

The love story of Giselle, which Djuric is determined to make clear to audiences through sweeping gesture and dramatic facial expression, has a ghostly twist. Giselle is a young peasant girl who loves to dance, despite her mother's warnings about her weak heart. She meets the nobleman Albrecht at the village wine festival, where he is disguised as a peasant. They dance together and, as such tales go, they are soon pledging their undying love to one another. A hunting party arrives, and Giselle and the other villagers serve them wine, as they all celebrate the engagement of the local duke's daughter (Bathilde) to the count (Albrecht).

Bathilde is quite taken with Giselle, and she asks her if she is betrothed. Giselle conveys her excitement about her new-found love, and neither girl realizes that they are engaged to the same man. When the long-smitten gamekeeper Hilarion reveals to Giselle who Albrecht really is, she goes mad and dies. In the netherworld, she joins the "Wilis," young women who were betrayed before they could become brides and who haunt the forest, enticing unfortunate passersby to dance to their deaths. Giselle is commanded by the Wili Queen, Myrtha, to lead Albrecht to his death, when he comes to mourn at her grave, but she keeps him alive until dawn when the Wilis lose their power.

Djuric has several interesting views of this folktale-turned-ballet. His staging brings out the essential theme of Giselle's innocence and betrayal. But he also sees the power of forgiveness in Giselle's love for Albrecht beyond the grave. He points out that this ballet was one of the first to have a strong male character who must change and grow, a role that's as demanding emotionally as those of the female characters.

Festival newcomers Tatiana Berenova and Pavel Homko are Giselle and Albrecht for the Saturday show, while Rhode Island native Jennifer Ricci and second-season company member Gleb Lyamenkoff perform on Friday night and Sunday afternoon. Seen in rehearsal, each pair has powerful and memorable moments, with the long-limbed Russians (married in off-stage life) emphasizing the flowing lines of arms and legs, a masterful control of technique and hearts full of feeling for their parts.

Ricci and Lyamenkoff provide a contrast in physicality and emotion. They inhabit the sequences of courtship and declaration of love with a youthful joy, and they express their characters' true amazement at finding each other. Ricci's more petite frame creates an image of quicker, lighter movement in certain sections, but both sets of dancers convey the exuberance of Giselle and Albrecht's meeting and dancing together. There is a wonderful section where they leap in sync, opposite arms held across their bodies folk-dance style, and then they break apart, running and leaping in a teasing chase.

Giselle is filled with familiar ballet moves: arabesques, grand jetés, pirouettes, and entrechats (the snap-quick crossing of pointed toes in the air, usually as women jump straight up, but often as men throw both legs up in the air). The challenge of these steps falls not just on Berenova, Homko, Ricci, and Lyamenkoff but also on the pairs who perform the "peasant pas de deux": Rhode Islander Jaclyn Ricci with Italian newcomer Davide Vittorino (November 15 and 17) and Venezuelan newcomer Eivar Martinez (November 16). In this scene, the dancers each have two solos, with huge leaps from the men, sometimes several in a row, and numerous on-point turns from Ricci.

And, as difficult as it can be for dance directors to train dancers for these principal roles in Giselle -- the power in legs to push off for jumps, the strength in arms to lift gently and to be lifted gracefully -- it's just as challenging to whip the corps de ballet of 16 young women into shape. Precision and timing are key to the incredible beauty of this corps of peasant girls, when Giselle and Albrecht move among and with them in the opening scenes, and later when they return as the white-net-draped Wilis, surrounding Hilarion and then Giselle with Albrecht. The corps act both as a silent Greek chorus and as an extra element of the set, and they do it with quiet panache.

The men's "corps" of a dozen dancers are also excellent. One character dancer, Marrie Hatfield as Giselle's mother, Berthe, and two more principals -- Piotr Ostaltsov as Hilarion and Jaclyn Ricci as Myrtha -- contribute greatly to the seamless quality of telling this story through dance and mime. Ostaltsov is an impressive dancer and an effective dramatic force; Ricci is a frosty Queen of the Wilis, with an unearthly focus in demeanor, and a polished deliberateness to her movements.

Giselle is accompanied by a 30-member orchestra, assembled and conducted by Edward Markward. This element of live music, along with the enthusiastic spirit of the company and its high professional sheen, should make for an inspired and inspiring evening of this ballet classic.

Issue Date: November 15 - 21, 2002