Reviewed today are Giselle at The Point, Dublin and Paul Weller at the Olympia Theatre, Dublin

Giselle

The Point, Dublin

Helen Meany

Regimes and governments in Russia may fall and change but one certainty endures; that the Russian State Ballet will venture from its base inside the Kremlin to bring the classical repertoire to audiences around the world.

This is the fifth visit to Dublin by this versatile touring company, founded in 1979, which has attracted dancers from the Bolshoi, Kirov and Stanislavski ensembles. This year the Irish ballerina, Monica Loughman, who trained with Perm State Ballet, joins them as guest soloist in the title role of Giselle.

The high Romanticism of Giselle is a showcase for the company's technical excellence: the vivid upper-body expression, the precision of the dancers' line, turn-out and elevation, and, in the second act, the illusion of utter weightlessness. A simple narrative of betrayed love is expanded to create a display of virtuosity. The first act, set in an idealised medieval German village, is crammed with a succession of divertissements, establishing the apparently immutable social hierarchies. The peasants are a cheerful lot, none more so than Giselle, who has fallen in love with Albrecht (Andrey Joukov), unaware that he is a prince in disguise. His unmasking introduces the high point of the first act, as Giselle, unhinged by grief, dances to death.

The ethereal beauty of the second "white" act, set in the realm of the dead, embodies the studied perfection of Romantic ballet. Perrot's choreography from 1841 - reconstituted here by the company's artistic director, Vyatcheslav Gordeev - significantly developed the dramatic possibilities of dance. The corps de ballet participate fully in the drama as Wilis, the spirits of women who have been wronged by men. As she protects Albrecht from their vengeful intentions, Giselle is required to express depths of pain and love, which Loughman captures eloquently.

By dancing with him until daybreak she saves his life; this exquisite pas de deux, in which the disembodied Giselle seems to slip through Albrecht's arms, gliding en pointe, transforms the problematic notion of female sacrifice into a more universal expression of forgiveness and transcendence. One briefly awkward landing between these two superb dancers was a reminder that, contrary to appearances, they are in fact human.

Returns to the Point tomorrow

Paul Weller

Olympia Theatre, Dublin

Tony Clayton-Lea

Of all the people from the UK punk class of 1977, it has been Paul Weller that has frustrated the most. Admirably splitting up The Jam at a time when the band had achieved the considerable feat of becoming one of the most commercially successful British groups of the era (and even more admirably refusing to reform the band for financial and nostalgic reasons), Weller subsequently went on to form The Style Council.

It's from the Style Council onwards that Weller's once unshakeable grasp of pop dynamics faltered, that unit's hybrid of white funk, cocktail jazz and Curtis Mayfield influences earning ridicule rather than kudos. From the early 1990s to the present day, however, with the Style Council wound up for a focused solo career, Weller has touched on the essence of an Englishman at home, creating a personal, often romantic journal of rural rock and rustic soul that, like the music of The Jam, doesn't translate too readily to American audiences.

The last time Weller played an indoor venue in Ireland it was just him, a guitar, a packet of cigarettes and a partisan audience. Tonight, he has added a band to the mixture, which makes a sizeable impact, particularly on the few Jam songs he plays (In The Crowd, That's Entertainment, Tales From the Riverbank).

Yet The Jam is a distant memory for most of the crowd, and the main applause generated is for Weller's solo work, which includes You Do Something To Me (dedicated to his Dublin fans), Wild Wood and Broken Stones.

Sliding into middle age gracefully - he's a remarkably cool and fit-looking 45 - but without the apparent spark that fired his most potent material, Weller looks set to continue into his 60s, his anger dulled and hunger sated, but for all that, still making music that feeds snacks to the soul.