The dance is gathered again at the Avenida Theater this June 27 and 28 and July 18 with the premiere of “Giselle, love transcends the impossible”the new production of Guido de Benedettian ambitious and deeply emotional version of a key work of the universal repertoire. It is not any return, it is the return to the stage of a title that marked the history of romantic ballet and also, personally, that of Benedetti’s own, who debuted with “Giselle” three decades ago in the Colón Theater.
“The work is not conventional. It maintains the argument, music, but the technical development of the dance body and soloists is much more demanding,” says the director, who bets on a multimedia aesthetic without resigning musical fidelity. With a rigorous choreographic language and a scenographic work supported by digital projections, the setting of delicacy and precision, without losing the atmosphere of lyricism and mystery that characterizes history.
The artistic proposal of From Benedetti It is, as happened throughout its trajectory, a combination of virtuosity, sensitivity and dramatic depth. “Ballet is an art that counts speechless, just with the body. The dance of the dancer has to be so subtle, objective and direct for the public to understand,” he says. That emotional search, the movement as a form of intimate and universal narration, is what Motorizes this version.
Released in Paris in 1841, with music by Adolphe Adam, Coreography of Coralli-Perrot-Petipa and Théophile Gautier and Jules-Henri Vernoy libreto, “Giselle” It is a work of love, death and redemption that tells the story of a young villager who, after being betrayed by her beloved, dies of sadness and returns as a spirit to save him. His magnetism crossed the centuries and consolidated it as a masterpiece of romantic ballet. And now, under the direction of Benedetti, the piece is reborn with a respectful reading of its tradition, but intervened with new visual tools and a technical demand that challenges the dancers and contemporary spectators.
From your company GDBDANZAwho already exhausted functions with “Cinderella” In 2023 and “Romeo and Julieta” Last year, the former dancer, who knew how to be partner of celebrities such as Maya Plisétskaya and Alessandra Ferristaging a young and talented cast, which is delivered to the technical and emotional complexity required by the work. The assembly, faithful to Adam’s complete score, nourishes the classic legacy and work on the psychology of the characters. For Benedetti, dance is also theater, and makes it clear when he affirms: “Dance allows you to work in the subtext and psychology of the characters.”
At that cross between legacy and update is the spirit of this Giselle. The supernatural atmosphere of the second act, with its white ghosts (the Willis) dancing in the forest, is enhanced with projections that build climates and intensify the drama. It is not a free effect, it is tools at the service of the story, not a visual show by itself. “It is inspired by the traditional base of the work, but adapted to the technical resources of current classical dance,” explains the choreographer, making it clear that he does not seek to break the past, but to amplify it.
Through this approach, “Giselle” Achieve a bridge between times. Romanticism, with its exaltation of feeling, loving madness and tragic idealism, meets a contemporary look that spares in technical detail or in body expression. The story of the young peasant who dies deceived and returns to forgive the man who betrayed her continues to move because she challenges deep human truths. If after 184 years it continues to excite, it is because something in that story remains in force.
The proposal thus becomes a gesture of faith in the power of scenic art, in times where dance struggles to subsist on the Buenos Aires billboard. This Giselle is not only a tribute to romantic ballet, it is a reaffirmation of its emotional validity, an invitation to discover the ability of the body in motion to move and narrate speechless.
The functions will be on Friday, June 27, June 28 and Friday, July 18, at 8:00 p.m., at the Avenida Theater, in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires.
