“Giselle”

Ballet
“Ballet” is the French word of dance. Dance is an art. “Giselle” is a ballet
production about the undying love of a young, beautiful peasant towards an alluring,
noble count.

I was delighted as I amazingly watched “Giselle” (on Youtube), and slowly got
hooked by the direction, size, level and focus of the performers.

In Act I of Giselle, the light hearted mood swerves into darkness when the duke
Albrecht, who has been posing as a peasant to woo the village girl Giselle, is unmasked.

In this scene, Giselle realize that Albrecht has been lying to her and is already
engaged to another woman, which made her in shock. I could see that her movements
were sustained.
 After an initial flurry of tears, Giselle rises from her mother’s embrace. In this scene this
made happy because this showed that Giselle will fight and won’t let herself be succumb with
the darkness, her movements were awing, with here suspended movements.

Her hapless lover looks on helplessly as she renacts scenes of their episode of “he loves
me, he loves me not”, dancing at the harvest festival. This scene is very lovable, as Giselle
shows her emotions.
 Giselle echoes the steps of her happy pas de deux, her arm twined, and her dancing is
limping, halting, as the clockwork of her frail heart runs down. I felt the sadness of this scene
and it made me want to rescue her from her misery.

Towards the end of the scene, Giselle starts seeing things flitting past her in the air (the willis).
Her mother had always warned her that if she danced too much, her heart would give out, and
she would die and become a wili, a ghost in the forest. Now as she is close to death, she sees
their shapes around her. She is growing cold, as she rubs her arms for warmth. This made me
feel sad on how things turned out.
 Finally, Giselle’s weak heart stops. The scene is set for the ghostly woodlands, where
Giselle, now a Wili, will meet her lover once again.

Overall, Giselle was a very awing ballet play, through the beginning till the end, it was an
amazing story. The play was very much sustained, suspended and collapsing, the movements
was very much in timing, the performers moved with the tempo. It was a great performance.