Dance : Dabrowski Makes ‘Giselle’ a Triumph : California Ballet: Ballerina’s performance lifts program above its technical, staging difficulties.

SAN DIEGO —  The title role of “Giselle” demands not onlyoutstanding dancing prowess, but superior acting ability as well. Denise Dabrowski brought both to the California Ballet’s production of “Giselle” at Sea World’s Nautilus Amphitheatre on Saturday night, the second of a two-night engagement at the venue. Helena Ross, Calvin Kitten and Sylvia Poolos also turned in strong performances, but it was Dabrowski who lifted the production above its low-budget sets, inexperienced corps de ballet, and recorded music with scratches so audible they set the teeth on edge.

Dancing with both precision and finely wrought feeling, Dabrowski proved more than equal to conveying the challenging range of moods in the classic story of a peasant girl who, betrayed in love, dies and becomes one of the Wilis--the spirits of young women who died before their wedding days.

Dabrowski was demure yet playfully seductive as the innocent girl falling in love with the villager Loys. She eloquently came undone upon learning that Loys was in reality Albrecht, a count betrothed to a duke’s daughter. Even more affecting than her broken dancing in this section was when she sank to the stage and turned her face toward the audience, with a piteous expression that must have wrung hearts in the farthest row.

Her performance faltered only once, looking strained during the extremely demanding pointe work in Act I, in which she had to hop repeatedly on one foot, staying in pointe throughout.

Lackluster dancing by guest artist Mark Lanham took the oomph out of the ballet’s climax, in which Giselle is commanded by the Queen of the Wilis to dance the faithless Albrecht to death. Lanham’s leaps looked mushy and he muffed several of his landings. In the story, Albrecht survives until dawn, at which time the Wilis lose their power. Lanham, however, didn’t look as if he would have made it.

The production was happier in the choice of its other guest artists. Helena Ross brought a long-limbed elegance to her role as Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis. And in the Peasant Pas de Deux, Calvin Kitten, a California Ballet alumnus, demonstrated why he is now a member of the Joffrey. What Kitten lacks in maturity, he made up in precision and verve.

California Ballet’s Sylvia Poolos was charming as Kitten’s partner, with a lovely, lighter-than-air quality to her dancing.

The role of Hilarion, Albrecht’s rival for Giselle’s affection, was performed by Paul Koverman and was more forgettable than usual in this production. However, Giselle’s mother, an acting rather than a dancing role, was an unexpected pleasure, thanks to the pantomimic talents of veteran dancer Betzi Roe.

The young corps de ballet acquitted itself better in the second act, as the wraithlike Wilis, than in the first as peasants. In their filmy white costumes, they executed the more difficult choreography with admirable discipline that drew spontaneous applause. Wilis Karla Navarrete and Debora Rumney were competent and pretty in brief solo turns.

California Ballet draws its corps from teen-age students at its ballet school. Though not a policy likely to catapult the company into the top ranks nationally, it is nonetheless excusable.

What was not excusable were the deafening scratches in the recorded music. Even in these lean times for the arts, the company could have purchased a new, unscratched recording of the Adolphe Adam score. This is the kind of lack of attention that makes the difference between a creditable community-based ballet company and a provincial group of amateurs.

Robert Eaton’s costumes were fine, especially the sumptuous garb of the royals who appear in Act I, accompanied by three very young pages in delightful creme-de-menthe-colored tights. The sets, by Charles McCall, were adequate but uninspired.

As to the suitability of Sea World’s outdoor amphitheatre as a venue for ballet: Some 15 yards of open space separate the Sea World stage from the first row of the audience. It was a tribute to Dabrowski’s acting skills that her emotions bridged that intimacy-defying gap.