Giselle Ballet Essay Example

Giselle is a ballet act that has been inspired by a passage about the Willis and from poem about a girl who dies after dancing in a ball. It is about Giselle, a peasant girl who falls in love with the prince that tricks her into believing that he is also a peasant like her. However, he is set to marry the princess but his heart is with Giselle. Giselle has a delicate heart and clarification about the prince’s set marriage to the princess hurts her too much that she dies. This happens during a dance when the princess goes to visit the village and is accepted by Giselle, her mother and the rest of the villagers. Giselle’s kindness as well as pure heart is noticed by the princess who even gives her a gift.
However, the gatekeeper, Hilarion also has eyes for Giselle. He tries everything possible to break her relationship with the prince Albrecht. He tries to tell her that he has been lying to her all along but Giselle does not believe her. During the dance, everything crumbles as the truth comes to light and Giselle dies as she cannot bear the fact that her love is set to marry another. She dies in the arms of Albrecht. Giselle joins the Willis which is spirits of women who cannot rest in peace because of rejection by their lovers. They are led by Myrtha, a ruthless queen. They haunt the forest with the aim of seeking revenge on men by forcing them to dance till their death. As Albrecht mourns in his love’s grave the Willis try to seek revenge but Giselle pleas for his life and with her great love for him, the Willis magic is shielded from him and his life is spared. This change Giselle’s nature as a ruthless, merciless spirit filled with hatred and allows her to rest in peace and Albrecht alive but very sorrowful. The ballet concert is great performance with clearly depicts its themes and story line in a comprehensively and entertaining way bringing out aspects of a human love story as well as the supernatural aspect of the Willis.
The dances are excellent filled with professionalism, which brings out the traditional ballet as very classical and wonderful. The accurate and precise dance moves were very interesting for me and compelled me to be curious about more of the dance. This greatly entertained me as the story line is very clear even without words and this confirms the saying “actions speak louder than words”. The dancers put lots of emphasis on the on precision and professional dancing that made the whole ballet respectable as well as very entertaining.
The performance helps bring out the issue of class in developing relationship and show how it is hard for people from different social status to be together. For Giselle and Albrecht, their love is greatly affected by class and this is seen where Albrecht is unable to come clean with Giselle and tell her that he is a prince because this would affect their relationship. He knows that she would not be accepted as his wife because she is a peasant girl. The ballet also brings out the aspect of forced marriages and the extent to which people go in order to get away from forced marriage for example Albrecht’s attempt to win Giselle by lying to her.