Now that Tim Burton, the cinematic master of all things macabre, has brought Stephen Sondheim’s gore-soaked musical Sweeney Todd to the screen, perhaps he should turn his attention to classical dance. He’d be hard-pressed to find subject matter more suited to his dark, comic-book romanticism than Giselle, which the St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre is bringing to the Germantown Performing Arts Centre on Sunday, January 6th.
By the end of Act 1, the ballet’s title character, a poor seamstress cut to the quick by a wealthy, duplicitous lover, already has gone mad and committed suicide. Giselle returns as a lovesick ghost in Act 2, however, to save her bad-boy boyfriend from a bunch of female vampires who were betrayed by their lovers in life and have chosen to spend eternity in a frenzy of bloody revenge.
Violent death? Supernatural evil? Transcendent love reaching out from beyond the grave? Who could ask for anything more?
If your curiosity has been pricked by any of this, GPAC, in conjunction with the St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre, is offering a free class on the history and meaning of Giselle on Thursday, January 3rd.
“Giselle,” 3 p.m., Sunday, January 6th, at the Germantown Performing Arts Centre. $30-$50. The “Giselle” Dance Education Class is 7-9 p.m., Thursday, January 3rd, at GPAC. The class is free.
