Fulfilling their Mission Statement to the community, International Ballet Theatre closes their 2023-24 Season with a Classical Ballet performance of "Giselle”, a melancholy tale that surpasses all other ballets in beauty, elegance, and grace. “Giselle” follows the storyline of a dance performance of its era -- a story of unrequited love, tragedy, and forgiveness, Thus making it a timeless piece of performance, dance and ballet enthusiasts will want to see.

 

Giselle is one of the oldest Ballets ever created.
A performance so beautiful that it continues
to be staged all around the world.

 

Giselle is a ghost-filled ballet that tells the tragic, romantic story of a beautiful young peasant girl named Giselle and a disguised nobleman named Albrecht, who fall in love, but when his true identity is revealed by his rival, Hilarion, Giselle goes mad and dies of heartbreak. After her death, she is summoned from her grave into the vengeful, deadly sisterhood of the Wills, the ghosts of unmarried women who died after being betrayed by their lovers and take revenge in the night by dancing men to death by exhaustion (a popular theme in Romantic-era ballets). Led by Myrtha, the Queen of the Wilis, they target Albrecht when he comes to mourn at Giselle's grave, but her great love frees him from their grasp. They gain their power in numbers as they effortlessly move through dramatic patterns and synchronized movements and control the stage with their long tulle dresses and stoic expressions, creating an ethereal atmosphere that builds as they gradually close in on Albrecht. By saving him from the Wilis, Giselle also saves herself from becoming one of them.

 

IBT’s performance of “Giselle” is based on the choreography by M. Petipa after Jules Perrot and Jean Corall, with Music by A. Adam, and staged by IBT's Artistic Director and Ballet Master, Vera Altunina.

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