A fairy ethereal romance

The Meridian season of La Sylphide. Photo / Maarten Holl

August Bournonville's most beautiful ballet, La Sylphide, has its dark side. Young James pursues the unattainable, in the form of a beautiful fairy. Love is lost. Revenge is taken. Death is untimely. But the lightness of its choreography and the colourful swirl of tartan, depicting its Scottish setting, make a warm and human contrast to the ethereal and gauzy paleness of the Sylphs in their sombre forest.

One of the first fully fledged Romantic ballets, La Sylphide was also the first in which a ballerina explored the full use of pointe work. Marie Taglioni was the Swedish/Italian daughter of Filippo Taglioni, who created the original La Sylphide for the Paris Opera Ballet in 1832.

Renowned as a brilliant technician and for her artistic ability to create characters through dance, rather than mime, which was more common at the time, she was the first to use the pointe technique in lyrical expression. Previously, dancers had stood up on their toes as a little extra, a curious feat.

The Royal New Zealand Ballet's season of La Sylphide is also proving a first for two of the company's young dancers, Antonia Hewitt and Tonia Looker, who share the role of the Sylph. Hewitt, who danced the role superbly on opening night in Wellington, is just 22 and in her third year with the company. Looker is only 19 and in her second year. It is a role that dancers in overseas companies might wait for years to achieve.

Matz Skoog, producer and former RNZB artistic director, describes them as "lovely choices" and "remarkably good" and that as young dancers they have both grown as artists through the experience.

The two say they felt honoured when their names were first posted, along with three or four others, as "possibles" for the role at the beginning of the rehearsal period - and were totally thrilled at making the final selection. Then came the hard work of building the stamina for the sheer physicality of the role.

"We don't have to do 32 fouettes - but you have to jump all the time. There is a lot of strain through the lower legs," says Hewitt.

"We were so used to the upright stance of the Classical works that it was quite a shock to adapt to the softer, more forward leaning body position that you have to have for the Romantic work," says Looker. "Yes! All Romantic arms and torso on top - and the strong legwork underneath," says Hewitt. "There are two distinct pointes."

"There is lots of mime in the role," says Hewitt. "It's about half dance and half mime. So the mime has to be good. It gives the audience a lot of clues to the Sylph's character. She has been watching James since he was a little boy, and is madly in love with him. On his wedding night she is a bit naughty and cheeky and appears to him and tempts him to run away into the woods with her."

Skoog is enthusiastic about the very specific information given in the mime in the final scene. James' attempts to make his Sylph human so he can hold her, has drastic and tragic results.

"When a fairy loses her wings she goes blind. So James is kneeling before her, in distress. She gazes unseeing, over his head, gently wagging her finger to say, 'You really shouldn't have done that - but I forgive you'. Then, with a sweep of her hand down the front of her dress: 'I couldn't help myself because I love you more than', with an arc of arms, 'everything in the world'. And she dies."

La Sylphide is the epitome of the Romantic ballets. "I love this style of dancing, the whole Romantic style," says Skoog. "It is a much more liberal style of ballet than the works that were created later: Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, which are classified more as classical repertoire, for example."

The Romantic style in dance developed in Europe alongside the reformation in philosophy and literature, and a breaking away from strict ideals of order and scientific forms of experimentation, he says.

"It brought much greater freedom of expression and interpretation, and was the beginning of the performing arts approach of freedom and creativity that we continue with today - the beginning of the modern era of performing arts, artistically speaking."

The era also brought a sudden emphasis on individual performers, like Marie Taglioni. Before that the emphasis was always on the work - for example, Shakespeare's works are remembered for themselves, not for those who performed in them.

There is no doubt that August Bournonville, the Danish-born illegitimate son of French ballet master Antoine Bournonville, was inspired by Taglioni's La Sylphide in Paris.

Four years later, he presented his own version for the Royal Danish Ballet, with the same themes and story line but different music, by Norwegian-Danish composer Herman Lovenskjold.

Skoog, who "grew up" in the tradition of the Royal Swedish Opera House ballet and well knows the Danish tradition, describes Bournonville's choreography as physically light, airy and floating, with fast movements and "very jumpy."

A dancer himself, Bournonville's works also choreograph athletically for the male dancer, giving equal emphasis to the men and women where other works of the same era focus on the ballerina and see the man as little more than her support, with perhaps one solo.

But perhaps the greatest thing about this Danish ballet is that the original has been maintained, performed and respected to this day. There will inevitably be small variations, little changes in interpretation, Skoog says. "Enough to keep it alive and dynamic - but by most standards it is the original."

La Sylphide is preceded in this season by a selection of dances from another Bournonville signature work, Napoli.

PERFORMANCE

* What: La Sylphide, with the Royal New Zealand Ballet
* Where and when: Aotea Centre, Aug 26-29