PNB's Giselle, A World Premiere Staging Not To Be Missed

We at Seattlest have been keeping you up on all the Pacific Northwest Ballet happenings this year. And it's been good. But what we haven't told you is that we have been patiently waiting all season for Giselle. All. Season. Long. Here's why.

Giselle is widely considered to be the greatest of ballet's tragedies. Giselle, the titular lead, is a young peasant girl living in Middle Ages Rhineland. A local nobleman, Albrecht, disguises himself as a fellow peasant in order to score a little something something before his impending wedding. Giselle is beyond smitten with the naughty nobleman, and before she knows it, they are dancing multiple love pas de deux and she has completely forgotten about her previous suitor. As is the case with deceptions like these, the secret is revealed eventually. Giselle's already weakened heart is shattered and she dies, a spurned and betrayed woman.

Act II is where things get intense. It opens in a graveyard, where Giselle's deceased body is freshly buried. Enter the Wiliis, a group of other-wordly women jilted by their lovers before their wedding days, doomed to seek their revenge on men for eternity. Their method of justice? They force the men to dance until they collapse in deadly exhaustion. Well, the Wilis are looking to Giselle as their newest recruit and when Albrecht shows up, his dance card is about to get dangerously full. Unless somebody, maybe somebody who loves him very much, can protect him. I'm not going to spoil it.

This production of Giselle is incredibly special. Originally staged in France in 1841, the original choreography was largely lost to the world when the Imperial Ballet reinterpreted the dances in 1884. The Russian ballet style, characterized by graceful athleticism, became widely popular and its version of this ballet came to dominate the stage.

Till now. PNB Artistic Director Peter Boal, along with dance historians Marian Smith and Doug Fullington have been scouring through historical dance repetiteurs to restage Giselle in its original French choreography. These primary documents will inform the world premiere of this variation if one of the most famous ballets in the world. Seattle is lucky to have an institution like the PNB to bring us such special performances, and lovers of history, ballet or just a good old fashioned tragedy should rejoice at opportunity to be part of something so special.

Pacific Northwest Ballet // Friday June 3 - Sunday June 12 // Tickets $27 - $105