@giselle
Founded in 2005, Joshua Beamish/MOVETHECOMPANY is a non-profit charitable dance organization registered in both Canada and in America. Our primary mandate is to further the awareness of, and appreciation for, contemporary dance and ballet at local, provincial, national and international arenas. We place equal focus on educational programming, primarily targeting youth, and the creation and presentation of professional theatrical productions.
Joshua Beamish/MOVETHECOMPANY’s residency and performance at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater are part of the CUNY Dance Initiative (CDI), which receives major support from The Mertz Gilmore Foundation and Howard Gilman Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Jerome Robbins Foundation, SHS Foundation, Harkness Foundation for Dance, the National Endowment for the Arts, and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. CDI is part of Dance/NYC’s New York City Dance Rehearsal Space Subsidy Program, made possible by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. CDI is spearheaded by The Kupferberg Center for the Arts at Queens College. www.cuny.edu/danceinitiative.
Presented with the support of the Consultate General of Canada in New York.
Joshua Beamish/ MOVETHECOMPANY
Photo of Joshua Beamish by Cara Tench
The ballet Giselle is one of the most profound constructions of the classical canon. Just as relevant today, the story follows a young woman’s journey through the many lives of love: obsessive, illicit, unrequited, maternal. This tender and devastating ballet captures losing one’s self in new passion but also the recklessness with which we betray what we most revere, and the torture we go through to atone for irreparable wrongs. Recalling the echoes of ghosts left behind in the wake of lost intimacy, and the foresting of hurt as ammunition for vengeance, Giselle lays bare the infinite longing, and inevitable weakness, of the human heart.
I have asked this original work to exist within our production as its own ghost — a ghost from another time, a time with wildly outdated social currency. Although we have employed the original score composed nearly 200 years ago, and involved familiar characters and relationship arcs, @giselle is not meant to replace Giselle. We offer this work as both a companion and a reconsideration. Our world has changed. Gender equality is at the forefront of our societal consciousness. Young men are finally expected to consider the way they treat and value young women. The fears associated with the long overdue loss of supreme male power are very real for many men, resulting in either unfounded male victimization or thoughtful reevaluation of their behaviour.
Traditional romance is evaporating. I feel that the internet is threatening our ability to value individuals. Many young people no longer have skills for emotional accountability.
A NOTE FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Instead of working through conflict resolution in service of growth, one can go online and immediately access multiple catalogues of potential replacement mates or dates. But often, the reality is that many of these alternative relationship options exist only in the online realm of hypothetical possibility and elevated fantasy. An evolved hysteria has been borne out of the many new stress inducing variables that online connectedness has brought to the relationship table — read receipts, unanswered texts, likes, story views, ghosting. Each day, we navigate a plethora of new measures of minute off-handed communication, intentional or otherwise, which inherently challenge our ability to remain confident, trusting and sane. Constant sharing, and the social renegotiations associated with this stimulus, are changing our humanity and undermining our basic ability to relate. In today’s media saturated environment, is Giselle’s descent into “madness” really so shocking after all?
I hope audiences will relate to Giselle’s journey and see themselves in the plights, struggles and joys of the varying characters and their social interactions.
@giselle is dedicated to the life of Jerry Croghan — a lover of dance and music and an avid supporter of young artists and the encouragement of new ideas. Gone too soon, but impossible to forget, Jerry will be ever missed and forever loved.
Joshua Beamish
Photo of Harrison James by Jack Tupper
PERFORMANCE ARTISTS
@giselle: Betsy McBride, American Ballet Theatre
@albrecht: Harrison James, The National Ballet of Canada
@hilarion: Sterling Baca, Philadelphia Ballet
@bathilde: Fangqi Li, American Ballet Theatre
@mamaberthe: Beverley Bagg
Myrtha: Yoko Kanomata
Moyna: Chloe Bennett
Zulma: Kira Radosevic
Wilis: Alesandra, Talia Langtry, Bridget Lee, Rianna Logan, Bailey Madill, Nyah Wong Penner
PRODUCTION TEAM
Director/Choreographer: Joshua Beamish
Rehearsal Director: Heather Dotto
Projection Designer/Animator: Brianna Amore
Lighting Designer/Supervisor: Abigail Hoke-Brady
Stage Manager: Andrea Bejarano
Costume Designer: Janie Taylor
Costume Constructor: Christina Sinosich
Historical Advisor: Marian Smith (Reimagining Giselle, The Royal Ballet/2016)
ADVERTISING & MARKETING TEAM
Marketing & Communications: Jonathan Marder + Company
Graphic Design: Jack Tupper & Janice Hildybrant
Photography: David Cooper, Craig Foster, Jack Tupper & Cara Tench
Videography: Jacob Hiss, Nelle Lee, Dan Loan
BOARD OF DIRECTORS: AMERICA
President: Roger Kluge
Members: Joshua Beamish, Joanna Fisher, Larry Henry
BOARD OF DIRECTORS: CANADA
President: Christine Piner
Secretary: Cynthia Robinson
Treasurer: Ru Christogeorge
Members: Cristina Graziano, Lisa Ho, Loretta Lachner
FOR BOOKINGS
Menno Plukker Theatre Agent Inc. 1908 Panet, #401
Montréal (Québec) H2L 3A2
T. +1.514.524.7119 www.mennoplukker.com
CONTACT
Joshua Beamish/MOVETHECOMPANY
movethecompany@gmail.com
www.joshuabeamish.com
Inspired by the original production Giselle
Libretto: Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Théophile Gautier
Music: Adolphe Adam (1841), with additional music by Friedrich Burgmüller, Ludwig Minkus, and Cesare Pugni.
@giselle features the London Festival Ballet Orchestra Recording (1996 Digital Remaster) of the original score.
Choreography: Jean Coralli, Jules Perrot, and Marius Petipa
Original Production Premiere: June 28, 1841; Ballet du Théâtre de l’Académie Royale de Musique (Paris), choreography by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot
Petipa Production Premiere: February 5, 1884; Imperial Ballet (St. Petersburg), choreography by Marius Petipa (after Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot); revived 1889 and 1903
The original production of @giselle was made possible through the generous support of commissioning partner TO Live.
@giselle honours the memory of every young life lost to Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome (SADS) complications. SADS refers to a variety of cardiac arrhythmia disorders which are often genetic and can be responsible for sudden death in young, apparently healthy people. For more information about SADS, contact The Canadian SADS Foundation (www.sads.ca).
@giselle celebrates the 90-year legacy of Jean Orr, Canada’s first Giselle.
The New York premiere of @giselle is celebrated in partnership with Dancers Responding to AIDS, who relies on the extraordinary compassion and efforts of the performing arts community to fund a safety net of social services for those in need. As a program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, DRA supports the essential programs of The Entertainment Community Fund, including the HIV/AIDS Initiative and The Dancers' Resource, as well as more than 450 AIDS and family service organizations nationwide.
Synopsis
- ACT I -
Photo of Betsy McBride & Harrison James by Cara Tench
@giselle is set in a world where a central media platform, The Village, has streamlined all basic needs — searching, dating, sharing and validation. We meet a young girl, @giselle. She is afflicted by a precarious heart condition and has been raised by her single mother, @mamaberthe. @giselle loves nothing more than to dance, but out of concern over her constant fainting spells, her mother closely monitors her every activity. Unsure of the source of her symptoms, @mamberthe begins to suspect that @giselle has the condition SADS — Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome.
@mamberthe’s spirits are lifted by a visit from @hilarion, the son of a longtime family friend. @mamaberthe has long hoped that @giselle will marry @hilarion. Despite @hilarion’s complete infatuation, @giselle does not share in his affections. Shy and less adept with social media, @giselle meets a mysterious stranger through The Village, @loys.
Out of spite, fuelled by jealousy, @hilarion investigates @loys online, soon coming across a duplicate profile for a man named @albrecht, a highly followed Public Figure engaged to a famous Social Encourager, @bathilde.
Unbeknownst to everyone, @mamaberthe has reached out to @bathilde online, hoping @bathilde will positively influence @giselle’s social confidence. @giselle marvels over @bathilde’s luxurious dress and her necklace, which @bathilde offers her as a gift. @giselle then notices @bathilde’s engagement ring, prompting @giselle to reveal that she too has met a boy of her own. As the two speak of their boyfriends, they are interrupted by @hilarion sharing a link to @albrecht’s profile, revealing @albrecht’s true identity.
When @giselle learns of this deceit, she descends into a public fit of madness, obsessively stalking @albrecht’s profile and posting suicidal statuses. She begins a livestream, which instantly goes viral, setting off her anxiety-induced SADS affliction. The livestream is viewed remotely by @albrecht and @hilarion. @mamaberthe runs into @giselle’s room unable to revive her.
- ACT II -
@mamaberthe is distraught over the task of composing a memorial post for @giselle. We find @hilarion tormented by a fog of guilt. He ventures into the nightlife, soon encountering Myrtha, the owner of The Forest Experiential Lounge. She and her attendants – Moyna, Zulma, and the Wilis – invite him into their establishment, promising an otherworldly experience courtesy of a special pill.
Seduced by their beauty, but confused by their unwillingness to entertain his suffering, @hilarion begins to develop a paranoid victimization fantasy with the Wilis as malevolent spectres.
Meanwhile, @albrecht navigates a confused sorrow over his reckless treatment of @giselle. Both men attempt to will @giselle back to life, imagining her spirit living on in the data particles that comprised her online identity.
Under the influence of Myrtha’s pill, @hilarion begins to lose all bearing of sanity, eventually dancing himself to death via overdose. As the Wilis attempt to hide his body, @albrecht enters The Forest Experiential Lounge, having followed the map posted in @hilarion’s online check in. The Wilis offer @albrecht the same pill taken by @hilarion, allowing him to fabricate an alternate reality where @giselle is still alive. He wakes up the next morning, confronted by @bathilde, as she demands answers for his dishonesty and conversation about the future of their relationship.
As @mamaberthe comes to terms with a life without her daughter, she is reminded that @giselle will always be a part of her.
Photo of Harrison James by Jack Tupper
Cast