United Ukrainian Ballet’s Giselle offers fresh steps and shimmering grace

Hell — mine anyway — is other people boring on about which staging of Giselle they prefer, but here goes: Alexei Ratmansky’s fascinating new version of the 1841 love tragedy for the newly formed United Ukrainian Ballet. Tuesday night’s London opening, the first of five performances at the Coliseum, was an emotional occasion, beginning with the English National Opera chorus’s soulful rendition of “God Save the King” and ending with the whole cast singing the Ukrainian national anthem.

The 54 dancers, most of them refugees from the conflict, are now based at a converted music conservatory in The Hague, the men having been given permission to take part in this highly specialised branch of the war effort. They are joined by Ukrainian guest stars from New York, London and Hamburg. Ratmansky’s father is Ukrainian and both parents live in Kyiv, where the choreographer spent much of his childhood. Now artist in residence at New York’s American Ballet Theatre, Ratmansky was director of the Bolshoi from 2004 to 2008 and was working in Moscow in February when the war began, but returned to the US at once.

The greatest classical choreographer of his generation, he has made a speciality of breathing fresh life into 19th-century narratives such as Sleeping Beauty, Paquita and Swan Lake, not by updating their settings or tweaking their stories but by returning to the original notations, stripping away some of the 20th-century retouchings and allowing the original text to shine.

The new Ukrainian Giselle retains many of the features of Ratmansky’s 2019 Bolshoi staging, which had cuts in both score and scenario. The central tale of a dance-mad village beauty who returns from the grave to redeem her faithless aristocratic lover survives intact but Ratmansky’s heroine never displays her usual frailty, giving a romcom tinge to the early kiss-chase scenes with Albrecht and making her breakdown all the more tragic. Bathilde, her rival, is portrayed sympathetically and Giselle’s final gesture is to beg the grieving Albrecht to marry his old fiancée. Every ounce of the traditional mime is retained. This can be helpful, even charming, but it can feel as if one had inadvertently opted for in-vision signing.

Hayden Griffin’s sets and costumes for the act one village grape harvest are a loan from the Birmingham Royal Ballet Giselle and the act two forest glade belongs in BRB’s production of Frederick Ashton’s The Dream designed by Peter Farmer. Adolphe Adam’s score was invigorated by Viktor Oliynik’s responsive baton and lively playing by the English National Opera orchestra.

Kyiv-schooled Alina Cojocaru is scheduled to make guest appearances during the run but Tuesday’s Giselle was Odesa-born Christine Shevchenko, who made light work of act one’s hops on pointe and free-spinning double pirouettes. The American Ballet Theatre principal was partnered by the tall, light-footed Alexis Tutunnique. The packed house would have cheered act two’s vengeful wilis if they had had 36 left feet but the corps of 18 shimmered through the ensembles with eerie grace. Their discipline, their resilience, their sheer artistry won bouquets of sunflowers and a heartfelt standing ovation.

To September 17, unitedukrainianballet.com