San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
It’s not their first dance
Married performers Stephanie Maiorano and Tonatiuh Gomez lead San Diego Ballet’s delayed production of ‘Giselle’
San Diego Ballet’s weekend presentation of “Giselle,” starring a pair of principal dancers who, in real life, fell in love, has come to fruition.
The show was rescheduled twice due to the pandemic, so all the rehearsing in masks and the many details of theater preparation were put on hold, casting shade on the future staging of the production.
But earlier this month, artistic director Javier Velasco received a sign that it would all work out.
He was preparing a history narrative to accompany an excerpt of the show for high school students and discovered that the Romantic-era ballet first opened on June 28, 1841.
“I was born June 28, 1961, so it premiered 120 years before my birthday,” Velasco said. “It was like, ‘Oh! That’s cool.’ It was the first ballet I ever saw, so I guess it’s fate.”
Velasco intends for the story to be relatable to San Diegans, so he’s changed the setting from medieval Europe to a mission in Spanish Colonial California.
The traditional version of the two-act ballet tells the tale of Giselle, a young peasant girl with a heart condition who falls in love with Albrecht, a wealthy young man who toys with her affections. She becomes distraught, dies of a broken heart and finds herself among the Wilis, a group of ghostly spirits who were scorned by their lovers. Led by Myrtha, their queen, the women take revenge in the night by dancing men to death by exhaustion.
The Wilis summon Giselle from her grave and choose Albrecht as their next victim, but Giselle’s forgiving soul frees him from their grasp.
Velasco’s version was inspired by the landscape of Old Town San Diego. The Wilis are called Fantasmas, or ghosts, and their costumes reflect Mexican culture, with floral headpieces and dresses with bodices. A padre from the local mission replaces the role of Giselle’s mother, and the evil Myrtha is a La Llorona, a vengeful ghost.
“I do a lot of theater work, and with Shakespeare, they will often take productions set in one time and put them in another to bring out certain themes,” Velasco said. “And if we are dealing with upper and lower class, it’s much more immediate to stage it in San Diego, as opposed to me trying to transport my audience to the wine country in 19th century Europe.”
Classical ballet dancers covet the emotionally stirring and technically challenging roles of Giselle and Albrecht, played by recently wedded San Diego Ballet principals Stephanie Maiorano and Tonatiuh Gomez. Gomez was born in Mexico City and also serves as the president of Fundacion Tonatiuh Gomez, a nonprofit that supports artists and young dancers through workshops and alliances.
The couple met when Gomez was invited to join the company four years ago and danced the role of Mowgli in “The Jungle Book.”
Maiorano has been with San Diego Ballet for about a dozen years.
“I thought he jumped really high and he has a smile that covers his whole face,” Maiorano said of their first meeting. “I’ve seen a lot of guys come and go in this company, and by far he’s the top. That pulled my focus. But I didn’t feel anything romantic — until we started to dance together.”
Gomez was initially intimidated by Maiorano, who grew up in Rancho Bernardo and began intensive training as a child.
“At first, I was excited but scared about messing up,” Gomez said. “Steph is really charismatic, and when we were dancing, I liked how she moved. Her training is so good, and she’s expressive. She is petite, like a feather, so it is good to partner with her. She made me feel more secure and confident.”
Maiorano and Gomez married in a small ceremony in 2020 at the height of the pandemic and currently live in University City.
“It was the first time I wasn’t doing anything,” Maiorano said. “The ballet was closed. I wasn’t teaching and I’ve been a ballet dancer since age 9. I had time to think and be a person. I knew I wanted to be with him and he wanted to be with me.”
At a recent rehearsal, the pair demonstrated their chemistry and skill.
When the Fantasmas surge toward Albrecht intending to make him dance to his death, Gomez must leap in the air and perform entrechat six (six crossings), an exact scissoring of the feet while airborne.
After multiple times, the exhausted Albrecht falls to the floor, heaving with exertion.
Gomez is able to put a significant amount of air between his feet and the floor, and when he collapsed and looked toward Maiorano pirouetting at the other end of the studio, she smiled with appreciation and waved.
“That’s the signature death move,” she said later. “Once he starts doing the entrechat six, it’s like, you are going to die now.”
Like many principal ballerinas, Maiorano has dreamed since her teenage years of dancing the part of Giselle. Her gentle, slowmotion arm movements and her jumps with gentle landings bring an ethereal quality to the role.
“I don’t have many similarities to the character, but the music pulls it out of you,” she said. “Giselle is so innocent, naive and sheltered. And she’s just so in love. I know that feeling. And I just let go.”
“I’ve seen a lot of guys come and go in this company, and by far he’s the top. That pulled my focus. But I didn’t feel anything romantic — until we started to dance together.”
Stephanie Maiorano, speaking about her husband, Tonatiuh Gomez