Dada Masilo / The Dance Factory (ZA) – Giselle (additional performance)

In her passionate interpretation of the Romantic ballet Giselle, acclaimed South African artist Dada Masilo shows what happens when mythological figures move from their original cultural context to another. The French classic (by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot, first performed in Paris in 1841), whose traditional versions go back to Marius Petipa’s choreographic variation from 1887, has been reinterpreted numerous times to this day: by Mats Ek, the Dance Theater of Harlem and Boris Eifman, for example. But Dada Masilo takes the most radical step yet. She transposes the Slavic mythical creatures called Wilis to rural South Africa and its local flavour of spirituality: Myrha, the queen of the Wilis, becomes Sngoma, a healer, and her assemblage of maidens is turned into a mixed-gender group of ancestral spirits who ask Giselle to join them. To provide the proper soundtrack to Masilo’s fervently gloomy dances, South African composer Philip Miller has complemented Adolphe Adam’s original music with African sounds.