Music and Dance Reviews : Alessandra Ferri in ABT Production of ‘Giselle’

At 24, Alessandra Ferri has not yet reached her prime as a ballerina, but she is, of course, already a major Giselle. Her performance in the American Ballet Theatre production, Saturday night in Shrine Auditorium, proved memorable for its freshness, fluency and a new technical exactitude, for the spontaneous, natural quality of her mime plus the remarkable ease and flow of her dancing.

Obviously, she deserves an Albrecht who shares these qualities, and in this regard her partnership with the 50-year-old Rudolf Nureyev represented a very bad match.

The two had never danced together before, so the small timing imperfections in their unison passages seemed inevitable--and certainly far less serious than Nureyev’s inability to make Ferri soar and float in the lifts of Act II.

On her own, Ferri achieved greater clarity of articulation than in previous seasons without sacrificing the glorious warmth and softness of her dancing.

Her Mad Scene again remained utterly free of cliche, developing from the character’s initial shock and disbelief through deepening levels of emotional and physical distress to the moment when Giselle felt death beginning to take over her body and ran from it in terror. A splendid portrayal from an artist who always seems to reveal new facets of a role.

In the largely familiar cast, Susan Jaffe added special authority and technical sheen as Myrta, with the superb steadiness of her bourrees at her entrance perfectly establishing the luminous, hovering strangeness of the Wilis’ domain. Jack Everly again conducted.