SINGAPORE DANCE THEATRE.

SINGAPORE DANCE THEATRE KALLANG THEATRE SINGAPORE DECEMBER 9-11, 1999

In December, the Singapore Dance Theatre unveiled its first full-length romantic ballet, Giselle, which has been especially created for the company by the renowned French choreographer Jean-Paul Comelin.

Comelin spent a year researching the music of the ballet both at the Paris Opera library and that of English National Ballet. He discovered that the original score was three hours and ten minutes long, and he decided to restore some of the passages never before used. One of these pieces was the Pas de Vendages (Harvesters) in Act I to which he created a duet for Giselle and Albrecht, and a solo for Albrecht. He gave Giselle's mother a longer pantomime, which tells of the Wilis and their dance of death, and when the same music is heard again in Act II when she comes to lay a wreath at her daughter's grave, she repeats it to the gravediggers and Hilarion. In place of the peasant pas de deux in Act I, Comelin staged dances for three couples, thus giving more opportunities to company members. The girls' trio was danced to cheerful flute music, which Comelin believes had originally been a variation for Giselle. As for Giselle's death, he returned to the old style of stabbing herself, then losing her mind as had been popular in nineteenth-century productions. His reasoning for this was that, while dying for love was considered romantic during that period, the early 20th century frowned upon suicide, hence the change to making Giselle go mad. As well as the grave-diggers, Act II also saw the reinstatement of three men who venture into the woods at Wilis-time, plus two servants searching for Wilfred who in turn has been searching for Albrecht--all in all, a very busy night for the ghostly man-chasing maidens!

This production, designed by Peter Cazalet, was a triumph for the Singapore Dance Theatre; it was well-suited to show off the various talents of the twenty-three company dancers, augmented by six dancers from China. Comelin has added touches that make the story lifelike and convincing, thus enabling the whole company to demonstrate its fine ability to act. His Albrecht, who originally describes Giselle as "a pretty face," to Wilfred, enjoys feigning the peasant role, warmly greeting each grape harvester and hopping onto the wine cart with them to make his exit when Giselle goes to rest. Instead of the dance-loving Giselle suffering from her usual giddiness and heart murmurs, Comelin gives the couple an intimate moment together in which Albrecht persistently demands a kiss from Giselle--and finally gets it. After stabbing herself and discovering blood on her hands, Giselle races wildly through, rather than alongside, the throng of peasants, crashing into people and shoving them out of her way in her confusion. In Act II, Albrecht ends his night in the forest in the same pose on bent knee as in his first moments in the act, wondering if it has all been a dream. Then he sees the flower dropped by Giselle.

The premiere was a glittering fund-raising gala, so two guest artists from the National Ballet of Canada--Goh Chan Hon and Alexander Antoniejevic--were invited to dance. Chan Hon comes from the Gob dynasty which founded the Singapore Dance Theatre and includes her late uncle, Choo San Goh, the famous choreographer and assistant artistic director of Washington Ballet. The balletic genes run exquisitely through Chan Hon. She is blessed with an exotic natural beauty and a porcelain fragility which cleverly disguises her great pliancy and strong technique. Her musicality shines forth in her lyricism and she made an enchanting peasant Giselle and an ethereal but warm-blooded spirit. Chan Hon was well partnered by Antonijevic, who has a soft springy jump that a gazelle would envy--though this leaper lands in perfect fifth and deep plie each time. He possesses a high extension and excellent lines, making an elegant and supportive partner.

The company's Giselle and Albrecht were Tasha Wong and Jeffrey Tan and though they had a hard act to follow, they showed that they were up to the task. Tan, who did not start dancing until he was 21 (in the Singapore Armed Forces), demonstrated buoyant elevation and a joyful attack on his solos. He is also a convincing actor and his final moment of Act I clutching the body of Giselle was spine-tingling. In Wong, the company has a lovely, graceful ballerina who floats with unforced style and clarity. Though she slightly overacted in her first performance, her second produced a sensitive and sympathetic heroine, clearly showing the development of giddy girlish affection into deep, devoted love. Xia Hai Ying made an authoritative Myrthe with smooth-as-silk bourrees. Her lingering balances were not helped by the erratic tempi of the conductor, but she and the other dancers coped admirably with the musical challenges. Paul Ocampo made a noteworthy humane Hilarion, keeping alive, with superb acting, his scorned love for Giselle throughout the ballet. The whole company was a credit to the production, demonstrating disciplined technique and an obvious love of performing. Praise must go to the vision of Goh Soo Khim and the late Anthony Then, who founded the original company with just seven dancers in 1988 and have carefully nurtured it over the past eleven years to its present ranking as an outstanding small company of versatile dancers and a full and interesting mixed repertoire that could grace stages worldwide.