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Japan Times
11-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Japan Times
National Ballet of Japan takes its 'Giselle' to Royal Opera House in London
She's one of the most enduringly popular figures of classical ballet: Giselle, the deceived young peasant girl with a pure heart. The role of Giselle was one of the most defining ones for Miyako Yoshida as a ballerina. Now, in her fifth year as the artistic director of the National Ballet of Japan (NBJ), Yoshida takes her original production of 'Giselle' to London for what will be NBJ's first official tour in the United Kingdom. Although the ballet company has performed internationally before by invitation (in 2008 in New York for a special Japan Festival and in 2009 at the Bolshoi Theatre in Russia), it is the first time it has initiated its own tour, financially backed by the Kinoshita Group and supported by The Royal Opera House in London. First performed in Paris in 1841 with music composed by Adolphe Adam and choreographed by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot, 'Giselle' tells the story of tragic betrayal and transcendent compassion. When Giselle's lover, huntsman Albrecht, turns out to be a nobleman in disguise and betrothed to another, the shock plummets the girl into madness and then death. Overcome by remorse, Albrecht visits her grave but is tormented by the Wilis, vengeful spirits of unwed maidens, determined to punish him. The 2022 production of 'Giselle' is revived this year at the New National Theatre, Tokyo, and will be brought to London in July, which will be the first official visit to the U.K. for the National Ballet of Japan. | Takashi Shikama Yoshida first staged her own production of 'Giselle' in 2022 to celebrate the NBJ's 25th anniversary season. With additional choreography by Alastair Marriott, Yoshida reworked the perennial favorite with an emphasis on dramatic characterization while staying true to its romantic, supernatural essence. It was her debut production as the artistic director, and it won rave reviews for its emotional depth. Costumes and settings by Dick French also drew praise for a balance between lively, pastoral elegance and the haunting simplicity of its supernatural realm. This spring, the NBJ opens a much-anticipated first revival of Yoshida's 'Giselle' at the New National Theatre, Tokyo, shows through to April 20. Heartfelt homecoming In July, Yoshida will take her production of 'Giselle' to Covent Gardens at The Royal Opera House in London, where she was a principal ballerina at The Royal Ballet until 2010. Yoshida says it is exciting to bring 'Giselle' back to England, where she dazzled audiences for over 25 years. She joined the Birmingham Royal Ballet (formerly Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet) in 1984 at age 18 under artistic director Sir Peter Wright, gaining principal status by 1988. It was Wright who first pushed Yoshida to tackle the role of Giselle. She admits taking on such a demanding character was intimidating at first. 'While I was eager to take on other full-length ballets without hesitation, 'Giselle' was the one that felt like a daunting challenge,' Yoshida says. 'At the time, I struggled with acting and expressing myself fully on stage. Sir Peter personally guided me from the very beginning, which was rare, as he was the artistic director and not often directly involved in coaching.' Miyako Yoshida, artistic director of the National Ballet of Japan, honed her career as a ballerina for 25 years in the United Kingdom before returning to Japan. | Jorgen Axelvall Wright dubbed Yoshida 'the complete prima ballerina,' and he trained her in Birmingham until he retired in 1995. Afterward, she moved full time to The Royal Ballet in London, from where she retired in 2010. Admitting she feels a 'sense of responsibility' to Wright in staging her own version, it's easy to understand why the ballet is so significant for Yoshida. ''Giselle' has become a culmination of everything I've absorbed over the decades,' she says. 'The ballet contains my own history — it reflects my journey in the U.K., where I grew both as a dancer and a person. Bringing this production back to the U.K. is deeply meaningful.' Putting her dancers first Among her numerous accolades, Yoshida has been awarded the UNESCO Artist for Peace in 2004, honored with an Order of the British Empire in 2007 and recognized in Japan with both an Order of Merit, Purple Ribbon in2007 and the Kikuchi Kan Award in 2019. With her long international career as a dancer behind her, Yoshida is now focusing on the growth of her dancers. Besides expanding their repertoire with productions like 'Giselle,' she wants to offer them the challenge of touring internationally and dancing at one of the most revered theaters in Europe. Yoshida's various experiences as a dancer — with and without the support of a prestigious, national company — make her determined to improve conditions in Japan, where being a professional dancer has not, traditionally, been an easy path, even at the very top. Unfortunately, professionals often seek additional work outside dance or pursue individual sponsorships in order to keep performing. 'Our goal has been to create an environment where dancers can sustain their livelihoods through their performances at the theater — not just by increasing the number of performances and raising their pay, but by ensuring that they have a stable, professional working environment,' Yoshida says. From introducing personal training programs and increasing opportunities for conditioning, body maintenance and physical treatments, Yoshida aims to raise the standard of care across all aspects of a dancer's life. 'I'm making a conscious effort to listen to the dancers' opinions,' she says. "Giselle" was Miyako Yoshida's debut production as the artistic director of the National Ballet of Japan, and it won rave reviews for its emotional depth. | Takashi Shikama She has also continued the institution's focus on education. NNTT Ballet School, founded in 2001 as a two-year full-time training center to prepare dancers for the professional level, added a preparatory phase for younger dancers in 2009. Currently, 24 of the 72 ballet company members have been educated through NNTT Ballet School, while the ballet school's acting director and former principal dancer with NBJ, Miwa Motoshima, is a graduate of the school's very first cohort. 'We want to develop dancers who align with NBJ's style,' says Yoshida. 'Once they join the company, I want to push them artistically as much as possible. But in order to do that, they need a strong foundation — the technical skills and vocabulary necessary to progress further. Education is the key. That's where everything starts.' From reviewing the current structure of dancer's contracts to creating new works that will solidify the identity of the company, Yoshida is looking forward to the future. 'I want people to see how powerful and deeply moving professional dance in performance can be,' says Yoshida. 'I hope audiences can experience that for themselves live in the theater.' For more information, visit the official website
The Guardian
13-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘We fell in love with the ballet and with her': why 184-year-old Giselle keeps us swooning
'I thought I looked too healthy to play her,' says Miyako Yoshida of her debut in Giselle, back in the 90s, when she was a vibrant, strong young dancer asked to play the part of the sweet village girl with a weak heart. 'But from the first time I came on stage, I could just live her,' she says; she simply became Giselle. Yoshida is not the only dancer, or audience member, or ballet critic, to fall in love with this 19th-century peasant girl. 'It was always my favourite,' says English National Ballet's Erina Takahashi, 'emotionally you can explore yourself in such a wide range.' 'It's a perfect ballet choreographically,' according to veteran dancer Alessandra Ferri. Giselle is almost the oldest ballet heroine to still grace the stage, created in 1841 by librettist Théophile Gautier, choreographers Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot, and a young star ballerina of the day Carlotta Grisi. Through the decades the character has inspired legendary performances from some of the world's best ballerinas: Galina Ulanova, Natalia Makarova, and more recently a startling interpretation from Natalia Osipova. The story centres on open-hearted Giselle who has fallen deeply in love with Albrecht, not knowing that he is actually a nobleman (and betrothed to boot) who is on holiday from responsibility and only pretending to be a fellow peasant. When she discovers his betrayal, Giselle descends into madness, and depending on which version you watch, either dies of a broken heart, or stabs herself with Albrecht's sword. The second act shifts from sunny pastorale to ghostly woods and the vengeful wilis, the spirits of jilted women who force men to dance themselves to death. They're gunning for Albrecht, except that Giselle's love for him is so enduring that she saves him. It's a rich role for a ballerina, from girlish to deranged to otherworldly all in one night. 'You die for your soul to be free, so you learn how one should love,' Ferri told a meeting of the London Ballet Circle recently. 'When you are able to dance from that profundity, the ballet is eternal.' The ballet is as popular as ever, performed by major ballet companies around the world. One of those, National Ballet of Japan, under Yoshida's direction, is bringing their version to London this summer. It's also been repeatedly reinvented. Mats Ek's version took place in an asylum, Dance Theatre of Harlem's in a Louisiana plantation. In Akram Khan's award-winning 2016 production, a huge hit for English National Ballet (it tours to Taiwan in May), Giselle and her fellow 'villagers' are migrant factory workers, trapped in poverty behind the set's huge domineering wall. Another reimagining of Giselle is about to debut in London made by two artists who had never actually seen the ballet before they decided to make the show. Swiss theatre director François Gremaud was simply looking for a ballet with its heroine's name in the title, having made a successful piece based on Racine's Phèdre (he completed the trilogy with operatic heroine Carmen). But in the end, 'we fell in love with the ballet, and I must say, with the character,' says Gremaud. His partner in the production is Dutch dancer Samantha van Wissen, known for her work with Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker – austere, rigorous contemporary dance that's worlds away from floaty Romantic ballet. The work they have made, Giselle..., showing as part of the Dance Reflections festival, is a deconstruction of the ballet, with van Wissen explaining the story, the scenery, the historical context, and playing all the characters. For Gremaud, it's about revisiting the work and trying to give a modern take. 'Ballet has greatly constrained the female body, not least because it was a masculine projection of the feminine ideal,' he says. 'In our show, we wanted to tell the story of the original ballet very faithfully, with respect, and at the same time make a real contemporary gesture by putting on stage a performer who is absolutely free. Samantha improvises her dances every night.' In the research, Gremaud and van Wissen watched videos of multiple productions, but their favourite was American Ballet Theatre's from 1977, with Makarova and Mikhail Baryshnikov. 'It goes beyond technique,' says van Wissen. 'You really see, through the movement, the love between those people. It made a link to my work with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, where she always said: 'It starts from the movement.' You don't add too much theatricality, the movement speaks enough.' It was revelatory for van Wissen. 'I never thought I could be touched like this by a classical ballet.' Gremaud says great theatrical characters stand the test of time when they represent universal ideas. For Giselle, that's unconditional love. 'She places love above everything, above revenge, even her own death,' he says. It's not very feminist though, is it? Unconditional love for someone who treats you badly. 'Some have interpreted Giselle as a submissive woman,' Gremaud admits. 'But in the second act she really takes control. She's the one who acts, and it's thanks to her that Albrecht survives. So she can also, I think, be seen as a strong woman who stands up for what she believes is right.' Takahashi danced the leading role in Khan's version and saw the character recast in a more 21st-century light, but still sees the same woman at heart. 'Classical Giselle is quite vulnerable,' she says, 'and Akram's Giselle might look strong, she's the leader of the group, but I think inside she has the same sensitivity. She's also very open, she's a positive person, and when tragedy comes, that really hurts.' Giselle continues to be an inspiration, 184 years on. 'It's a piece of genius,' says choreographer Sally Marie, who is working on an idea for a 'Fuck-you feminist sci-fi punk version of Giselle', yet one she says will be 'still filled with the innocence and the longing for love'. Gremaud found other connections with the present, looking at how the Romantic movement was in part a reaction to the industrial revolution. 'They were fighting against the way we were treating nature,' he says. 'They were artists who were angry with their world. And the world they were afraid of is the world in which we are living today.' For van Wissen, it's more of a personal bond. Last summer she finally went to see the ballet Giselle live for the first time, at the Paris Opera. 'I felt so connected to her,' she says. 'I had tears in my eyes the whole time.' Giselle... is at the Linbury theatre, Royal Opera House, London, 15-16 March, as part of the Dance Reflections festival. National Ballet of Japan performs Giselle at the Royal Opera House, London, 24-27 July (booking opens 19 March).
