Giselle: A powerful, renovated classic by the Dutch National Ballet

Autumn arrives in Amsterdam. A striking, cold rain falls intermittently over the canals, splashing their corners with dry leaves while tourists hurry for the occasional photo opportunity.

But beyond the Red-Light District, museums, and coffee shops, the Dutch capital is also the center of a distinguished tradition of dance. And the arrival of the season also marks the return to the cycle of arts, that also have seasons of bright and hopes even when the weather turns gray.

And it is easy to confirm this when you can enjoy what the Dutch National Ballet, the biggest dance company in the Netherlands, directed by Ted Brandsen, has selected for this season.

In September, the company performed Four Temperaments, four pieces by four choreographers from different generations, each with their own vision of dance. A selection in itself that brought together classics from Balanchine to Hans van Manen (the father of the Dutch ballet school), established figures like Bradsen himself, and new talents like Juanjo Arqués.

The Chairman Dances, Brandsen's world premiere, was perhaps one of the biggest surprises of the season: a dynamic, modern ballet where traditional roles and genders of the dancers are disrupted, and where rhythm, coordination, and elegance captivate to a point where it's hard not to see this work becoming a future classic.

Although for December, the company promises a delicious classic, Raymonda, and its customary year-end Nutcracker, the grand show of the season is Giselle, the famous classic by Jules Perrot and Jean Coralli, which, since its premiere in 1841, has become the quintessential representation of romanticism in classical dance.

A Classic and Renewed Giselle

For 18 performances, from October 12 to November 19, The National Ballet, the most important dance company in the Netherlands, brings to the stage the experience of this century-old ballet that they made feel as if it's not made to age.

The version of Giselle presented by The Dutch National Ballet is a blend of respect for tradition and renewed visions, with subtle new accents and modifications in technique and style.

This new choreographic version conceived in 2009 by Rachel Beaujean and Ricardo Bustamante. Both of them rescue the values of the classic and, at the same time, give it a fresh air.

Beaujean and Bustamante's version offers the most traditional moments of Petipa's choreography with twists, and re-appropriations, that reaffirm that one of the great virtues of the classics is also the interpretation and revision made by later generations.

In the presentation that Univision attended on October 14, the roles of Giselle and Albrecht were performed by the principals Anna Ol and Young Gyu Choi, while Hilarión was portrayed by Sho Yamada and Maria Chugai as Myrtha.

The story, as is well known, tells the love triangle between a young, sick peasant girl, a neighbor (Hilarión) and a count (Albrecht) who pretends to be a commoner. Innocence, seduction, and the revelation of a lie give way to a world of hallucinations where life and death mix with the eternal struggle of love, ultimately victorious over all revenge.

The second act was the most outstanding moment of the performance, when the principal dancers, soloists, corps de ballet, and the music (the orchestra was conducted by Ermanno Florio) shone at a level that made the night outstanding.

The staging of Giselle by The National Ballet is capable of creating a unique atmosphere of intimacy, hypnotism, and lightness that is able to move the audience. It revitalizes the classic choreography and returns it laden with nuances, small surprises... in short, that feeling the great Spanish dancer Nacho Duato called "the pleasure of dance."

Giselle, by The Dutch National Ballet, will be performed at various locations in the Netherlands until November 19th.