Four stars
Butler Ballet, Clowes Memorial Hall, April 18-20.

An imaginative, freshly animated production of an 1841work, Butler Ballet’s Giselle is a standout in the genre of Romantic ballet. On opening night, strong dancers met the demanding choreography with sustained stamina. The role of Giselle, with its split-second shifts of emotional characterization and physicality, has been equated with that of Hamlet because it tests a ballerina’s combined dancing and mime skills. Set in a Rhine Valley wine-making peasant village during the medieval period, it’s a story of doomed love. Giselle’s great passions are dancing and “Loys”—whom she is led to believe is a recently relocated peasant. However, the huntsman Hilarion, jealously in love with Giselle, determines Loys is actually a nobleman--Albrecht. The daughter of an inn-keeper mother, Giselle is immediately discerned as being a cut above the other young women whose clothing mark the work they do—picking or stomping the grapes or domestic service. The arrival of a Duke and his daughter sets in motion both the spirited peasant dancing and the unmasking of “Loys” –which sets the tragedy in motion. Jennifer LaWall, Stirling Matheson and Sean Strycker are sterling, as is the entire company. The coaching by principal dancer and master teacher Elaine Bauer is evident. Setting, costumes and lighting bring fullness to this richly enunciated production.