OU School of Dance students will perform alongside company members in Oklahoma City Ballet’s "Giselle," a one-weekend production that opens Friday at the Civic Center Music Hall.
Ballet performance senior Kira Robinson and ballet performance sophomore Oscar Miller are two of four OU students dancing in the production.
‘Giselle’ follows a young peasant girl with a passion for dancing who dies of a broken heart at the hands of unfaithful Count Albrecht and her transition into the afterlife.
“It’s a tragic love story,” Robinson said. “(Giselle) is young and suddenly in love. She struggles to dance because she has a heart problem, so she literally dances her heart out.”
Robinson is cast as a "Willi," embodying the spirit of a woman wronged by her lover who died before her wedding day, and Miller is cast as a court member.
OU Dance senior Kira Robinson.
Each season, the company’s artistic director selects students from OU to be part of OKCB II, a group of pre-professional dancers that train and perform with the main company. The partnership gives selected students the opportunity to attend college while working with a professional ballet company. OU dancers typically attend company-wide class every Friday but rehearse daily closer to the performance date.
Though OU simulates a professional dance environment, there are differences when dancing with a company, primarily in the approach of the dancers.
“The (difference) is the energy coming from the dancers because, obviously, they're there to keep their jobs, versus OU dancers who are striving to get a job,” Robinson said.
As "Giselle" is one of the oldest full-length ballets performed by companies worldwide, its choreography challenges even the best of dancers. Miller said he found value in watching dancers at Oklahoma City Ballet solve such tests.
OU Dance Sophomore and OKCB II member Oscar Miller rehearsing for Okahoma Festival Ballet.
“This is a really hard ballet for the principal dancers, and seeing how they work through (problems) is really interesting,” Miller said. “It's helpful even just to watch, not even necessarily dancing.”
The production presents its own set of challenges for the OU dancers. For Robinson, the increased stamina necessary to dance with the Willis has been one of the hardest adjustments.
“The Willis basically set the scene for the second act, so we stand for at least like six minutes on the side,” Robinson said. “My feet are cramping, my hands are starting to twitch, and it takes a lot of mental strength.”
Though this ballet requires mental and physical fortitude, dancing with Oklahoma City Ballet is beneficial for the OU pair. For Miller, the culmination of all the production’s aspects and the presence of an audience transforms the environment.
The ballet is split into two acts and has a runtime of approximately two hours. It features many exciting and emotional moments, including the infamously dubbed “Mad Scene” at the end of Act I, in which Giselle dances herself to death.
“There are parts of the ballet that just watching in rehearsal, make me tear up,” Miller said. “It's hard to not experience an emotional reaction from some of the scenes in the ballet. It's very touching.”
Robinson and Miller put in hours of work preparing for the production each week. Despite the rigorous training, Robinson said the end result is a gratifying acknowledgement of their labor.
“The applause that we get feels like recognition of all of our hard work because every day we show up, receive feedback and always strive for better,” Robinson said. “The bowing at the very end is like, I've done it, and this has been what it's for.”
Oklahoma City Ballet’s "Giselle" opens Friday at 7:30 p.m., with additional shows on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Oklahoma City Civic Center Music Hall. There is also a sensory friendly performance on Saturday at 2 p.m., and tickets are available online.
This story was edited by Emma Blakley and Shelby Emery. Sophie Hemker and Avery Avery copy edited this story.
