François Gremaud Giselle...

[Répertoire]

Giselle… is not Giselle : Giselle… is a theatrical, musical and choreographic piece about Giselle, a monumental figure in Romantic ballet. With Samantha van Wissen – who we have seen dance in productions by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Thomas Hauert –, François Gremaud reshuffles the pack, and by means of suspension points, allows us to catch a glimpse of joy.

On an empty stage, an orator appears. The performer Samantha van Wissen begins by telling the story of Giselle, its context, aesthetics, and fable, and ends up dancing the ballet in her own way. Drawing upon her contemporary vocabulary, she retraces the main scenes, re-enacts the pantomime and plays down the classical language. Following on from Phèdre !, François Gremaud brings us the second opus in a triptych centred upon tragic female figures from the classical performing arts, thereby continuing his development of a stylistic mechanism which consists of reducing a piece into a « paraphrase » for an orator. His mischievous text stratifies the playing levels between the ballet's heroine, main character and performer. Played live, Luca Antignani's score re-instrumentalises the original work and adds a iconoclastic saxophone to the flute, harp and violin trio. If Giselle is a declaration of love, Giselle… is a celebration of joy, the « force majeure » of which the philosopher Clément Rosset is so fond.