When La Sylphide<\/em>‘s\u00a0supernatural and realistic aspects collide, when the mime sections are as affecting as the dancing, the ballet ceases to be a historical document: i.e. the longest continuously performed Romantic ballet. It becomes\u00a0a dark morality tale. In it a Scottish bloke abandons his bride at the altar for a hyper-feminine creature. He wishes to possess her; he ends up killing her. Too often the production gets mired in ballerina doll sweetness, but not in this case.<\/p>\n Kvetoslava \u0160tefekov\u00e1. Photo by Ctibor Bachrat\u00fd<\/p><\/div>\n In Bratislava, the real star of the ballet was not the title character, danced by beautiful Viola Marina. It was Kvetoslava \u0160tefekov\u00e1, who performed Madge the witch. Unlike the Royal Danish Ballet’s production seen last year in New York, this version gives greater attention to the crucial role of Madge, who sets nearly every turn of the story in motion. (For a plot refresher, click here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n \u0160tefekov\u00e1\u2019s Madge is no arthritic hag. She\u2019s an athletic feminist who dislikes wishy-washy men. Before she grabs the poison scarf and gives it to James (Oliver Jehelka)\u00a0to give to the Sylphide, she twirls across the stage like a tornado. In the ballet\u2019s final moments, she grabs Jehelka by his hair and violently lifts his head so that he witnesses the Sylphide\u2019s funeral cortege. This Madge abhors James\u2019s choice: to leave his bride Effie (Veronika Holl\u00e1) for an unearthly woman. This Madge ensures that Effie is not left alone. She literally pushes Gurn (Andrej Kremz) into proposing to the humiliated girl. The fact that Effie accepts Gurn without\u00a0fuss underscores the condition of early 19th<\/sup>century women\u2014and the no-nonsense approach of the Slovak National Ballet Theatre to accurately depict women\u2019s lack of historical power.<\/p>\n While Holl\u00e1 (Effie) plays the good girl and Mariner performs a Marilyn Monroe-like Sylphide, \u0160tefekov\u00e1\u2019s Madge comes across as a modern female personality. She projects joy and rage, curiosity and condemnation. As the curtain lowers on a crumpled James (Jehelka), Stefekova raises her fists above her head. Here is a woman in bitter triumph, something rarely seen in the denouement of Romantic ballets or, for that matter, in contemporary works where the classical technique is featured.<\/p>\n The other notable aspect of this\u00a0La Sylphide<\/em>, staged by former Bournonville principal dancer Niehls Kehlet, was it\u2019s mis-en-sc<\/em>\u00e8ne<\/em>\u2014and I don\u2019t mean the set design. I mean the dancers\u2019 relationship to the smallness of the stage. Compared to North American stages, this one is tiny. In this environment, every detail of the dancers\u2019 performance is brought into relief. When Mariner (the Sylphide) bats her eyes at Jahelka (James) for the first time, I could actually see her eyelids and the gently lilt of her fingers underneath her opalescent face. \u00a0What was made clear was that this woman is as beautiful as she is practiced at tendering her feminine wiles.<\/p>\n Viola Mariner. Photo by Ctibor Bachrat\u00fd<\/p><\/div>\n The Austrian-born Mariner possesses Taglioni<\/a>-like arms and the neck of Anna Pavlova<\/a>. Her arabesque is the best part of her dancing. As she effortlessly lifts one leg behind her, she simultaneously balances and grows beyond the shape. The effect is that of flying. And that\u2019s the point: Sylphs can fly. But apart from Mariner\u2019s soaring arabesque and lovely arms, she dances without enriching H.S. von L\u00f6venskjold\u2019s plaintive music as competently conducted by Martin Leginus. Her body doesn\u2019t sing it as much as keep time with the tempi.<\/p>\n As for the Slovak National Theatre Ballet\u2019s female corps, they were a model of synchronization\u2014a vision of sisterly sylphdom.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/images3.jpeg\")
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