Balletto di Roma – Giselle

GISELLE

Choreography: Itamar Serussi Sahar, Chris Haring/Liquid Loft
Concept development: Peggy Olislaegers
Music: Adolphe Adam, arrangement: Richard van Kruysdijk, Andreas Berger

Premiere: 16 July 2016

For the creation of its production of Giselle, which made its debut on 16 July 2016, Balletto di Roma has brought together Liquid Loft, Operaestate Festival Veneto and Civitanova Danza. The project tackles one of the best known romantic ballet of the classical repertoire, taking it to a modern dimension. The production merges classical ballet and elements of contemporary dance as well as flashes of contemporary life.

The first act has been entrusted to Itamar Serussi, former Batsheva dancer and since 2006 an independent choreographer working on a very personal style, who currently is a resident choreographer of Scapino Ballet in Rotterdam. His method involves experimenting with the body's boundaries by using humour and improvisation. His works are playful and elegant, and draw strongly on a synergy between himself and the dancers. In his first act of Giselle, Serussi explores the themes of love and betrayal. Interestingly, his choreography is devoid of physical contact between the dancers.

The second act has been entrusted to Chris Haring, Gold Lion Prize winner in 2007 Venice Biennale and choreographer for the Austrian Liquid Loft company (bringing together dancers, visual artists, and composers). Haring's dance is a multimedia one: through different technologies and meta-theatrical tricks, he creates real and unreal worlds simultaneously. The boundaries between these two worlds vanish, just like the boundaries between the village and the willis' world, and the limits of Giselle and Albrecht's love. Nevertheless, in his second act, Haring chose to focus on the theme of revenge: taken by a woman on a cheating man and, more generally, revenge related to betrayal in a broad sense.