Giselle returns to San Francisco Ballet from February 24 to March 5th, 2023.
Romantic archetype, ballet inspired by stories of ghosts, deceased brides, half nymphs, half vampires, who drag their companion into death, it rose in 1841, in Paris, where Carlotta Grisi caused a sensation for her jumps, in the title role at the premiere of Giselle. Then it was re-created by Marius Petipa at the Mariinsky in 1887 and became an epitome of modernity.
Today, it has lost none of its allure. Tamara Rojo danced it again last year for the contemporary stylish version by Akram Khan at the English National Ballet in London. She comments:
“The whole Act 2 is a work of art like no other—the spirituality of it,”
says Rojo about the character’s transformation from human to Willi. “Very rarely, as a human body made of flesh, is a performer asked to inhabit the uninhabitable.”
San Francisco Ballet’s version is spectacular for its technical difficulty. Helgi Tomasson, who danced Albrecht himself, has remastered Act 2. With Tamara Rojo now in charge, it’s the perfect time to (re-)discover it.
Dates : February 24 to March 25, 2023
Address : War Memorial Opera House 301 Van Ness Avenue San Francisco
Buy tickets, click here
Merci SF Ballet
