Word: wilis
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...takes place on Giselle’s grave, from which she rises as the newest member of the Wilis, spirits of young women who have died before their wedding days. The Queen of the Wilis, Myrtha (Kathleen Breen Combes), leads the ensemble in dancing from midnight until dawn and forcing any men to die if they happen upon the Wili lair. Albrecht comes to Giselle’s grave and almost dies at the hands of the Wilis, only to be saved by Giselle’s spirit...
...production’s marriage of acting and dancing is perfectly balanced. After Giselle has been formally converted into a Wili, she encounters Count Albrecht at her grave and the two dance a pas de deux of regret and longing on Count Albrecht’s part and of cautious forgiveness on Giselle’s part. The lifts of the pas de deux are breathtaking in their fluidity and perfect line. Ponomarenko’s extensions during promenade defy gravity...
...rest of the evening Makarova was immaculate. In the role of the peasant girl, she seemed properly shy, touching and fragile. In duets with her faithless lover (Ivan Nagy), she matched each line of leg and arm to perfection. Transformed, in the second act, into a gossamer-clad Wili, she showed little tenderness, but conveyed a remote melancholy. Always, when she broke into dance, there was that sudden transformation of earth-bound mortal into incredible creature of some other...
...broadened her movements as the act progressed into ardently flowing figures that beautifully and simply evoked her stirring feelings. After her betrayal, in the moments of madness before her death, her motions were brittle, her face grown suddenly old. The second act, in which Giselle emerged as a ghostly Wili from her tomb to dance once more with her love, gave Ulanova the opportunity to display the wonderful floating motions that sometimes seem to have her drifting soft as eiderdown before an unfelt breeze. In the presence of a performance as great as Ulanova's, perhaps the chief wonder...
...Editor Claude-Maxe's lofty claims with two superb records of last summer's drama, when France wobbled between chaos and revolution: General Jacques Massu hoarsely bellowing defiance from an Algerian balcony; rioters clashing on the Champs Elysees; De Gaulle solemnly telling a press conference that he wili serve, and later singing La Marseillaise in his booming, resonant voice...