DANCE REVIEW : Ballet Pacifica Performs ‘Giselle’ in Laguna Beach

You could be forgiven if at times you mistook Ballet Pacifica’s production of “Giselle,” presented Saturday at the Moulton Theatre in Laguna Beach, as a play with dancing rather than as a ballet.

The choreography, “after Coralli,” according to the program, included more mime than one usually sees these days, which the company delivered with no more than the customary stiff awkwardness.

But there also was less dancing. Step sequences were simplified and, particularly in Act I, were often connected, if not replaced, with just walking around. Molly Lynch, rather than company artistic director Lila Zali, was credited with the staging.

Surprisingly, the simplifications did not seem directed as much toward the young, struggling corps--they looked as if they were reasonably well-schooled students--as much as toward the principals.

Perhaps Kristi Moorhead, in the title role, was having a particularly bad night or was warily husbanding her resources. But her extensions were cautious, her elevation feeble, her phrasing clipped and ungenerous, her balances brief. There was not much difference in the dramatics between her two acts. She was sunny, ingenuous and innocent throughout.

Moorhead was partnered sympathetically by Lee Wigand, a boyish Albrecht who bounded with springy energy. Yet Wigand, who has little turnout, was indifferent in placement, erratic in finishes and lacking in stamina. He ventured fewer-than-hoped-for bravura challenges in his appeals to the Wilis.

Deborah Schreiber was a tall, elegant but not commanding Myrtha. Heidi Edgren and Constance Dominguez looked stylish and promising as two attendants.

Edgren also was crisp and neat in the Peasant pas de deux. James Pollara was her effortful partner.

Nancy Christensen made a haughty Bathilde. Louis Carver was a leaden Hilarion.

Adding to the dancers’ woes was the use of taped accompaniment that contained segments at uncomfortably quick tempos and which underwent inexplicable changes in volume level.

The all-purpose forest backdrops were credited to Tania Barton, Charles Johnston and Bart Healy. The period costumes were by Zali. The serviceable first-act huts and the sympathetic lighting design went uncredited.