WELL, what does one do with a 19th— century classic of the Romantic ballet such as ''Giselle?'' Most ballet companies might simply dance it. Some might even rethink it. But Mats Ek has taken it apart, reset its second act in an insane asylum, turned it into a modern-dress modern-dance version, filled the stage with sexy decor, thrown in a touch of male nudity and generally tried to pick up the pieces of his own purposefully alogical scenario. At his best, he is outrageous.
Obviously a ''Giselle'' that substitutes the grotesque for the conventionally beautiful is bound to arouse at least passing interest. And so Mr. Ek's production more than did last night when Sweden's Cullberg Ballet made its United States debut as the second company in the Brooklyn Academy of Music's ''Ballet International'' series.
Oddly, this world-famous company from Stockholm is being seen in New York for the first time, nearly 25 years after its founder's most celebrated work had its premiere in this country. That ballet was Birgit Cullberg's ''Miss Julie,'' as danced by the American Ballet Theater, and which will be danced by her own company tonight when the King and Queen of Sweden attend the second program of the weeklong season.
Miss Cullberg, who formed the troupe in 1967, has long been the dance maverick of Scandinavia, a pioneering figure who fused the Expressionist and classical roots of her own training. She was never shy about exploring social and psychological themes. Whether the neurotic and the erotic should be considered typically Swedish concerns, they were often Miss Cullberg's concerns.
Mr. Ek, her 37-year-old son and the younger brother of Niklas Ek, a powerful dancer already familiar here, and who will appear with the company, is a chip off the old theatrical block. In July, we saw his sucessful and provocative ''The House of Bernarda Alba'' with the Netherlands Dance Theater, and it had the same out-to-shock theatricality of ''Giselle (A Modern Version),'' as he calls his new ballet.
The key to Mats Ek, a former theatrical director and once assistant to Ingmar Bergman, would seem to be his fondness for the Theater of the Absurd. ''Giselle (A Modern Version)'' finds its most daring and psychologically true moments when it wanders far afield from expectation.
Repeatedly, Mr. Ek achieves an effect by working against association. One is against the music. Adolphe Adam's 1841 score, famous for its leitmotifs and now heard on tape, is here ignored in its leitmotifs - Hilarion dances Giselle's big solo in Act I.
Another device is to work against traditional imagery. When Albrecht and Wilfrid enter, they leap in wearing white tails and black tails, respectively and hilariously. When Bathilde, danced by Sighilt Pahl, and her noble friends appear, they rush in with the same mix of jetes and evening clothes. Albrecht's music in Act II is used for a trudging entry by Yvan Auzely's sympathetic Hilarion, in gray suit and bowtie, carrying the blue flower Bathilde gave Giselle.
The climax of this inversion treatment, of turning the original version in on itself, is the love pas de deux in Act II. Here Albrecht, portrayed with suitable desperation by Luc Bouy, enters into a distorted madhouse entanglement with Giselle. The heroine is danced by Anna Laguna, the same extraordinary dancer whose cannonball force marked the ''The House of Bernarda Alba.'' She dances now with the same earthy power, plunging into every movement as if there were no tomorrow. She is terrific.
In fact, the dancing all around was marvelous in its conviction. Certainly this is an impressive company, young and vital. If there is less to say about the choreography, it is because in this case, it is quite thin - banking more on concept.
That concept itself does not entirely hold water. Misreading Romanticism's own dark flirting with the escapist, Mr. Ek gives us a burgherlike reading of his own. Giselle is a village idiot. Already mad, she has no use for a mad scene. Instead of daintily holding her skirt, she holds it up. Albrecht, who might be possibly be accused of taking advantage of the situation, falls immediately for her against a landscape of feminine contours. The wilis are female mental patients, Myrtha, played by Siv Ander, their nurse. Albrecht goes mad - and who might not amid Marie-Louise De Geer Bergenstrahle's backcloth of body parts. Waking up naked in the real world, he is given a blanket by Hilarion - a disappointingly bourgeois ending. The Program GISELLE, choreography, Mats Ek; music, Adol- phe Adam; stage and costume design, Marie- Louise De Geer Bergenstrahle. Presented by the Cullberg Ballet Company, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, 30 Lafayette Avenue, downtown Brooklyn. WITH: Ana Laguna, Luc Bouy, Yvan Auzely, Siv Ander and members of the company.
Date accessed - 18/03/2012
