Giselle

When Ethan Stiefel and Johan Kobborg premiered their new production of "Giselle" at the Royal New Zealand Ballet in 2012, it was met with critical acclaim and praised for its smart narrative choices. Now, audiences in New York will have the chance to see the production, too, in a film adaptation by Toa Fraser.

The ballet stars Gillian Murphy as the peasant girl Giselle, who, deceived by the Prince Albrecht (Qi Huan), goes mad and dances to her death.  Murphy's Giselle is more introverted and cautious than most; her backward glances at Albrecht during a large group dance in Act 1, for example, seem intended to reassure herself that he is still there, rather than as flirtation. Her reserved demeanor fits with this production, which works hard to make this ballet intelligible to modern audiences.

In his film adaptation, Fraser has chosen to insert a romance between the dancers playing Giselle and Albrecht; there are lots of shots of them in meadows and on trains, looking forlorn and lovesick, and he occasionally substitutes rehearsal footage for performance.  Tacked on to a production that has been praised for its accessibility, this subplot seems unnecessary.  Still, some of the cinematography is quite lovely, as when light streams through the high windows studio windows as the dancers rehearse the second act pas de deux.  All in all, it's worth seeing despite a few missteps.

"Giselle" will have its NY premiere Sunday, February 2 at 8PM.

How Like an Angel

Called a "contemporary spiritual piece" by co-creator Yaron Lifschitz, "How Like an Angel" is the result of a collaboration between Circa, an Australian company of circus performers/dancers, and the U.K.'s choral group I Fagiolini.  The two presented three performances at the Cathedrals of Norwich, Ely, and Gloucester in June and July of 2012.  Amazingly, these disparate elements -- stained glass and arches, electronic music and early modern compositions, acrobatics and near-stillness -- held together.

"How Like an Angel" can't have been easy to translate to film: with more than one stage, aerial work, and an audience that was free to walk around the cathedral floors throughout the performances, there are many things happening at once.  Like spectators at a three-ring circus, the original audience would have seen, or not seen, various parts of the production based on a combination of chance (where they happened to stand at any given time) and choice (who or what they allowed their eyes to follow).  Polyphonic Films adapts this sort of experience in a film that falls somewhere between impression and collage.  It somehow feels at once restless and deliberative: angles and distances of the cameras change constantly, sometimes guiding our eyes along a dancer's stretched limb, sometimes changing focus to the singers, occasionally allowing us to see a second stage in the distance.  It's a creative way of documenting -- and transforming -- an elusive piece of work.

"How Like an Angel" will have its NY premiere Tuesday, February 4 at 3PM.  Short film "Widow" will also be screened.