Review: AKRAM KHAN’S GISELLE at London Coliseum

Various interpretations have come and gone, but one of the most notable iterations has been AKRAM KHAN'S GISELLE which was created for English National Ballet in 2016. Incorporating elements of classical movement with traditional Indian Kathak (storytelling) with its fast hand and foot movements, the result is both dynamic, technically impressive and emotionally arresting.

Khan's version transposes the action to a modernised setting where Giselle is a poor but feisty migrant girl living among a group of outsiders who were used by the local factory owners as cheap labour. Wealth inequality and violence towards women are therefore the issues which underpin this version, imbuing far greater relevance and agency to the story for a modern audience.

Against the wishes and warnings of the leader of the migrant group Hilarion (Ken Saruhashi), Giselle (Emily Suzuki) takes a lover Albrecht (James Streeter) who is drawn to her but who we later learn is one of the factory owning elite. When he is faced with ostracism if he will not return to his own class and his inherent responsibilities, he relents and abandons her. In madness and death, she becomes the charge of the Myrtha (Emma Hawes) leader of the Wilis who here are vengeful ghosts of wronged factory workers. They attack Hilarion and murder him when he visits Giselle's grave, and attempt the same when Albrecht appears, but he and Giselle sense each other's presence and her eventual forgiveness ensures he can return an outcast to the land of the living, while she remains.

For this production, Adam's original musical is largely eschewed in favour of a combination of acoustic and electronic music by Vincenzo Lamagna which is given a suitably industrial treatment whilst retaining some of the original phrasing and motifs. The score was then transcribed for the orchestra who deliver it live from the pit under the baton of Maria Seletskaja resulting in a rumbling and enveloping, multi-layered experience throughout the auditorium. One of the most impressive elements of the choreography is the pointe work executed throughout the second act by the Wilis. The additional height gained by performing en pointe combined with the willowy and ethereal costumes renders the dancers apparitions of themselves, at once beautiful and terrifying. Combined with Mark Henderson's lighting design and the impressively powerful set design by Tim Yip, (which at one point lifts like a Close Encounters of the Third Kind skirt-lit UFO) the production is a feast for all senses and will live long in memory of anyone fortunate enough to see it.

Giselle tickets