Akram Khan’s Giselle at London Coliseum

Multi-award-winning British-Bangladeshi choreographer Akram Khan returns with Giselle, the striking, uncompromising modern reimagining of a classic ballet, involving migrant garment factory workers (the Outcasts) taking a stand against inequality and injustice.

An ensemble of men and women push a towering, grey concrete wall. One by one, they each stop, while the music creeps and threatens with violins and bass thuds that resonate throughout the piece, credit to orchestration by Gavin Sutherland and musical direction from conductor Maria Seletskaja. The cast stand still, bewitched, almost under a spell, while the metallic foreboding score continues. Albrecht (an adoring James Streeter) searches earnestly for Giselle, a peasant worker (played by an ethereal Emily Suzuki). Hilarion (portrayed by a commandeering Ken Saruhashi) starts dancing in opposition to their burgeoning union, while the ensemble move in unison, emulating digging machinery. The male cast fall to their torsos in dramatic fashion and get back up instantly, a contemporary movement characteristic of Khan’s style; throughout Giselle, you can see the director and choreographer’s kathak influence too, right down to the hand gestures.

The collective of factory workers move as one, embodying a ploughing tractor in dance form, while the music grows increasingly urgent. Giselle and Albert’s duet is exquisitely beautiful, providing a reprieve in an otherwise bleak and cold environment. Eerie blaring horn sounds echo alarmingly while Albert removes everyone’s hands off the wall, which slowly lifts up to reveal the landlord (Fabian Reimair) and Bathilde (Isabelle Brouwers). She’s engaged to Albert, who has been in disguise with the Outcasts, falling in love with Giselle; although these details are unclear if you aren’t familiar with the original ballet.

Khan’s reimagining holds you by the collar and rarely lets go. In act two, when Myrtha, (Emma Hawes,) Queen of the Wilis – a group of female ghosts who were betrayed in life by their lovers – confronts Giselle in the realm of death, it is a hauntingly striking scene, with the sound of ballet shoes pattering on the floor as the dancers are all en pointe for a long duration, towering over the protagonist. Clad in grey dresses, while Giselle is in a powder blue outfit, you are reminded of a Viking war scene, as the dancers exude female strength and power, wild-haired and full of a seething rage.

This is the ten-year anniversary of Khan’s production, and it’s still as striking as ever, demanding not only to be seen but heard.