Giselle: Terrifically Transfixing

Dada Masilo shudders and we’re transfixed. Such is her ability to saturate the tiniest movement with emotion. She is Giselle – we feel it in every leg flick, neck twist, piercing look, back bend, enticing smile, wiggle and undulation.

Masilo’s adaptations (or interpretations) of classical ballets are world renowned. She disrupts the narrative, retains little of the balletic choreography, remixes the score, puts men in dresses or tutus (yes!) and makes African the most recognisable European dance aesthetic we know.

Like her Romeo and Juliet (debuted at NAF in 2008 when Masilo was awarded the Standard Bank Young Artist award), Swan Lake and Carmen which followed, Giselle is different, unexpected, challenging, bold and powerful.

For those unfamiliar with the classical ‘plot’, in brief: young Giselle catches the eye of a handsome young duke, Albrecht, who woos her (whilst tricking her into thinking he’s a peasant like her). She falls for him, hard. But he’s engaged to someone else. She dies of heartbreak. Spirits raise her from the grave – they are the Wilis, young virgin women who kill any man who crosses their path by dancing them to death. Giselle forgives her lover though; her love saves him from them.

Not that you need to know anything about the 176-year-old ballet to appreciate and be blown away by Dada Masilo’s Giselle. It stands steadfast as a work of beauty on its own.

In Masilo’s Giselle, we’re in South Africa. A young girl falls for a charming stranger who she believes is from her side of the economic divide. Turns out he’s affluent and married, besotted with her, yes, but betrays her trust (and his wife’s) in executing the affair and using her for his pleasure.

Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis, is a Sangoma, danced exceptionally by Llewellyn Mnguni. His emotional intensity gives him incredible presence in this role – it’s difficult to take your eyes off him. By no means is the rest of the cast lesser dancers and performers – each is superb in embodying their characters, as either the chorus or the Wilis (and Liyabuya Gongo is excellent as the wife).

The Wilis as ancestors call Giselle to join them. They are a force, unstoppable in exacting punishment on those who have wronged them, those who deceive and cruelly hurt others.

I read in Giselle a layer of metaphor that might not intentionally be there. We’re daily saturated with South African race politics so it’s hard not to notice the one white dancer – the rich, entitled male who takes what he wants – taking advantage of the trusting, young black woman… Does she represent Africa; he the coloniser? He uses and abuses, gets what he wants and takes no responsibility once the damage is irreversible. Perhaps others saw this too.

But on a purely human and emotional level, Giselle is a girl who wasn’t allowed to be who she wanted to be. She simply wanted to love and be loved but was exploited at every turn. All that she could have been was thwarted and poisoned.

Her identity and choices are policed from the beginning. Her mother chastises her sexual expressions, and ‘solves’ that problem by, essentially, selling her off – promising her to another young man in town. This jealous man who exposes the philanderer, doesn’t do it for Giselle’s sake, oh no… he does it out of entitlement for what he believes should be his – her. Her great love betrays her when society’s eyes fall upon his transgressions… he chooses his wife, his wealth. And her own community, who has supported her thus far whilst she fitted their ideals and values, now exposes her in a kangaroo court style judgement – stripping her bare, figuratively and literally.

We can talk about the metaphors and layered meaning… but Giselle takes you to, and keeps you on, such a visceral level. That’s where its power lies. The dancers are present and absorbing. From the goosebumps caused by every move made by Mnguni’s Sangoma to going cold when Masilo’s final death throe leaves her suspended, arms twisted, knees bent. She’s broken, bare and alone, so alone on that dark, empty stage.

— Sarah Roberson

Dada Masilo’s Giselle is on today (30/06) at 14:00 and 20:00. Click here for more info & bookings.

Choreographer: Dada Masilo
Featured Artists: Dada Masilo, Khaya Ndlovu, Nadine Buys, Zandile Constable, Ipeleng Merafe, Liyabuya Gongo, Kyle Rossouw, Llewellyn Mnguni, Tshepo Zasekhaya, Thabani Ntuli, Thami Majela, Thami Tshabalala
Company: The Dance Factory
Music composition: Philip Miller
With additional support from SAMRO FOUNDATION
Drawings: William Kentridge
Lighting: Suzette le Sueur