Edition: U.S. / Global

DANCE REVIEW; A Happy Marriage of Mime and Movement

Published: June 22, 1998

The beauty of the performance given by Susan Jaffe, Ethan Stiefel and Andrei Dokukin in ''Giselle'' on Thursday night at the Metropolitan Opera House lay in their attention to Romantic ballet's first principle.

As the 19th-century choreographer August Bournonville once put it, this formula can be summed up as ''dance and mime united.'' Mr. Stiefel, making his New York debut as Albrecht, in American Ballet Theater's ''Giselle'' embodied this unity with spectacular impact.

This was no ordinary performance. Mr. Stiefel kept within a noble classical style in both acts, incorporating dramatic gesture into his movement so it became part of a dance phrase. He and Ms. Jaffe, as Giselle, had obviously worked out their silent dialogues on a musical level. Rarely today does one see mime so integrated into the music. In ballet jargon, this mime was always ''on the music.'' The effect was that this performance was entirely danced with mime, a form of gestural dance.

The three principals stayed away from realism and the verismo that has crept into characterization in ''Giselle.'' This was especially true of Mr. Dokukin, in his New York debut as Hilarion, the woodcutter who vies with Albrecht for the affections of Giselle, the village girl turned into a ghost, or wili. The vigor and passion of his reactions, in anger or heartbreak, were clearly stylized.

Ms. Jaffe and Mr. Stiefel are classical dancers, but they always know who they are onstage in dramatic terms. In their first encounter, they gazed into each other's eyes, setting a romantic tone. Yet there wasn't a moment when Mr. Stiefel did not point his foot and Ms. Jaffe did not remain in classical style.

Her mad scene was convincing in its simplicity, complemented by Mr. Stiefel's anguish as he raced offstage. Act II will be remembered for Ms. Jaffe's deep arabesques and serenity, and Mr. Stiefel's precise double air turns and the final image of his dazed, suffering hero. Joaquin de Luz, springing extra high in his air turns and beats, and the charming Ekaterina Shelkanova offered a fine and vigorous Peasant Pas de Deux and Amy Wilder pouted nicely as Albrecht's royal fiancee.