A spirited tale takes the stage from Ballet Theatre of Maryland
Just in time for the season of spooky spirits and haunted havoc–not to mention fall colors and pumpkin spice–Ballet Theatre of Maryland will revive Giselle, the ghostly tale of a young villager’s doomed love and deadly dancing.
From October 17th – 19th, at Maryland Hall in Annapolis, the company brings to life the beloved Romantic ballet–with music by Adolphe Adam and now-iconic choreography by Maurice Petipa–that drew its inspiration from fantastical, phantom-filled folktales spun by Victor Hugo and itself went on to inspire a legion of similar spirit-inflected stagings of ghostly maidens.
The ballet premiered in 1841, first in Paris and shortly after across Europe and beyond, part of a shifting landscape in the ballet world that rejected exclusive stories aimed at elite audiences rehashing classical mythology or featuring distant royalty in imaginary palaces. Instead, librettists Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Théophile Gautier chose source material more anchored in real places and a real past–as much a story of class divisions as a fable of tragic love. To this story of ordinary folk they added elements of folk tales. which told of legions of ghosts, the vengeful spirits of young women betrayed in love or jilted at the altar, who use dance as their weapon and their curse to take revenge on the world of men.
Conceived as a vehicle to showcase the revolutionary dancing talents of Carlotta Grisi (whose partner in the premier was none other than Maurice Petipa, who would go on to revive and renew the piece with his own choreography decades later), the work went on to influence a generation or more of creative output from other ballets to stage plays, operas to orchestral music, even to painting and sculpture. It also established itself as one of the most challenging works in the classical repertoire. And not merely as a vehicle for headline soloists, but also for the work of the entire corps de ballet, the ensemble of women who carry much of the dramatic action and emotional weight: the Wilis, the spirits who inhabit the terpsichorean afterlife and wield dance as their power and their weapon.
Joining me by phone to consider Giselle‘s resonance, challenges, and unexpected twists on convention was Ballet Theatre of Maryland’s Artistic Director, Nicole Kelsch. You can hear our conversation, and her observations, here:
More details, including showtimes, and tickets are available here: https://www.balletmaryland.org/giselle
