Dance Review: Los Angeles Ballet's Balanchine Program

The production was from the Louisville Ballet. Ben Pilat provided the dramatic lighting. L.A. Ballet company co-director Thordal Christensen tweaked the traditional Coralli-Perrot-Petipa choreography, cutting some virtuosic demands, adding some mime, and inventing a poor couple who provide their cottage as the prince’s local digs. Christensen’s wife and company co-director, Colleen Neary, enacted Giselle’s mother, Berthe, with fuss and worry.