Summary of the Ballet "Giselle" Essays

The most successful aspect of the performance for me were the scene changes. I found that the rotation of the blackboard, center stage, where the actors were able to stoop beneath it in order to enter and exit the stage, was an effective touch to this

While observing this dance ballet, there were many things that caught my attention. First, the theater itself was extremely large, and the stage itself was big, and the dancers had plenty of room to move across the stage and perform their routines. There were many dancers, and they all played various roles that ranged from Clara, Fritz, Herr Drosselmeyer, the Rat King, the Nutcracker, the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier, and many more. All of the performers wore vivid costumes

Whether we look at a romantic ballet like La Sylphide or a classical ballet such as Sleeping Beauty, audiences are constantly mesmerized by the gracefulness and weightlessness of the ballet dancers. They seem to defy the laws of physics, which is greatly possible due to the use of the pointe shoe. However, many masterworks that were created in the Romantic era did not solely rely on the pointe shoe to help convey messages. Instead, the choreography, dancers, scenic elements, subject matter, and music all helped shaped masterworks such as La Sylphide, Napoli, and Giselle. Similarly, in the Classical era, these elements all played a role in shaping famous ballets like La Bayadere, Sleeping Beauty, and Swan Lake. But once we take a closer look at these ballets from the Classical era, we can see how much ballet evolved. Nevertheless, it is important to note that the Romantic era was the stepping stone for this pure art form that we have been able to preserve for more than 160 years.

Giselle is one of the few many famous ballets still know in the ballet world today. A little about this ballet is a peasant girl in a village

1 in G Major, BWV 1007. I really loved this piece because the first part, the prelude, is super familiar and it helped to know the music beforehand so I could just follow along with the melody. The other two movements, Sarabande and Gigue, were new to me but just as exciting and pleasant as the prelude. Technique-wise, this entire piece is lovely and Dr. Snyder executed it very well. The notes were very clean and precise, and his use of vibrato and rubato were excellent. Because he was a soloist, it did not matter whether he kept tempo since he did not need to maintain a rhythm with anyone else, unless the music instructs the musician to keep a steady tempo. It is the same with dance, if one is a soloist, that person does not have to worry about matching the movements of another dancer. I also enjoyed that the Sarabande was so peaceful. It was quite flowy, smooth, and overall gentle. I especially loved the intro to this movement, with a grand entrance that figuratively just filled me with anticipation for the rest of the song. It was also just the right amount of time; it was not too long or too short. I also really liked the Gigue. One reason is because it’s different than the prelude and the Sarabande, so it gives variation to this collection. This last movement was very lively and cheerful, a difference compared to the previous two movements. When I listened, I could imagine a village scene with little kids dancing around a maypole, and it just made me

My favorite part of the entire play, which may seem weird is that face that the scene changes were in character. As Jean put on her jack, she was in character looking out into the crowd. That was just such a nice touch that they added and should be applauded. Secondly, the fact that they had the performance in the upstage rather than in the large auditorium. It was such a minor thing, but I actually had to move me feet because I was worried that I would accidentally trip an actor. That was amazing! It made the play feel more intimate and like I was actually in the rooms, experiencing what they were.

Dance critic Théophile Gautier states, “Nothing resembles a dream more than a ballet...” (Anderson 77). The effortless technique of the ballerina paints most ballets as exactly this. Consequently, there is more to a ballet than technique and dancing. Different types of ballets and their structural components separate one ballet from the next. It is important to understand the difference between the two main types of ballets: Romantic Ballet and Classical Ballet. Romantic ballet in the 19th century differs from Classical ballet in the 20th century structurally, technically, and socially. The two dance forms also vary in costumes and narrative. However, with all of those differences, they both use ballet technique for a specific purpose.

Many elements most commonly associated with Giselle include white romantic tutus, the daunting Wilis, or light, captivating gracefulness of the dancing. This particular ballet has always been easy to identify because of the specific qualities it possesses. Watching Giselle, audiences are always drawn to the charming, gentle nature of Giselle, despite how technically difficult the steps are. In her famous variation from the first act, Giselle completes thirty ballonnés en pointe with great ease. Furthermore, the eery synchronicity and solemn countenance of the Wilis is

French Ballet began in the 17th century. It was a flamboyant entertainment presented in front of the aristocracy and royalty in the courts. French Ballet was also performed when they were celebrating marriages and showing off the wealth and power of the ruler. Besides, Ballet was called “la belle danse”, and it means “the beautiful dance.” In order to help the audience to recognize the characters in the story, dancers usually wore extravagant costumes. Moreover, the idea of different ballet movements was based on the social dance of royal courts, like beautiful arm and upper body movements and floor patterns were included. Also, in the beginning, only men were allowed to dance ballet, and women played the first ballet with parts until 1681.

Sleeping Beauty was a Russian ballet composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and choreographed by Marius Petipa. I first premiered in 1890 and was choreographed in traditional ballet style. Appalachian Spring was an American ballet composed by Aaron Copland and choreographed by Martha Graham, who also danced the lead female’s role. The ballet premiered in October of 1944, and was more modern that Sleeping Beauty, but still had classical elements to it.

As The ballet bag article previously said, Giselle was declared as the greatest ballet of its time, and I have to agree. There has been many versions since the first in 1841. Watching the video “Alessandra Ferri and Mikhail Baryshnikov - Giselle second act II pas de deux” gave me a goose bombs in a good way. Alessandra Ferri and Mikhail Baryshnikov as the main dancers

Women play a very important in ballet. Just like George Balanchine said, “Ballet is woman.” However, as much as I love his choreography, I do not agree with what he said. Although Balanchine preferred female performance in his work, the type of women he like to use did not represented the real feeling of female. According to Catherine L. Tully, Balanchine preferred girls with small bones and small breasts, instead of mature and curvy women. Also, the choreography work women will have. It is obvious that Balanchine preferred the dancers to have characteristics that belongs to immature and adolescent girls. So the statement “Ballet is woman” is not true.

I'm a pretty visual person so spectacles usually little notice first. I was drawn in by the dancing, as well as the very primal, animalistic movement. I liked how Dionysus and the Bacchae all wore all black and the sort of uniformity that created. I also loved the image of Pentheus behind all of the microphones looking like a politician. The part where the Bacchae dance for Dionysus was particularly striking for me because it really demonstrate his power over them in a way that I could understand. It looked like he could completely control them like puppets. He also yells,”Who am I?” to which they all scream, “Dionysus!” Since I am more visual person, for me the dance added a lot of emotion and tension to the play. This made it really exciting to wonder what’s going to happen next. It reminded me of in Backwards & Forwards where Ball talks about forwards. According to Ball, “A forward is anything that arouses an audience’s interests in things yet to come. Playwrights want the audience hooked not on the present but the

Giselle is a classical ballet performed by the Teatro Allo Scala Ballet Company and originally choreographed by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot. The ballet company was founded in 1813 as an academy of ballet in Milan, Italy. The choreographers were famous French ballet dancers known for their choreographies in pinnacle performances such as Giselle and Childreich, King of the Franks. Giselle, a romantic ballet, was one of their most famous pieces created in 1841. It is the story of a naive peasant girl, named Giselle, who fell in love with a man that was betrothed to another. After a psychotic breakdown, she kills herself leaving her the man she loved feeling guilty about her death. After her death, Giselle was initiated into a group of supernatural beings known as the Wilis. These supernatural beings would lure men to their deaths by wooing them with their dances. Giselle finds it in her heart to forgive her guilty lover and does everything she can to save his life from the vengeful Wilis.

I liked the dance piece because the dancers were limited physically in their bodies, but their dancing was beyond limited and astounding. At first, I was a bit doubtful and sceptical before watching the dance because I thought the dancers were going to perform with very minimal and stiff movements. But to my surprise, the dancers moved gracefully on stage. The two dancers used quite a lot of space. The dancers used all levels of space from low to high. For example, the dancers executed amazing leaps, jumps and lifts in their performance that represented as high levels of space. The dancers movements were grand; however, they were also whimsical, sharp, circular, and clean. The dancers utilized most parts of the stage. The pattern of the space that performers used was more curved than linear. There were two dancers in this piece, the male dancer that had only one leg and the female dancer that had only one arm. The genre of dance that was performed was a ballet; though, in my observations the dance seemed to be more contemporary than ballet. For instance, the tempo of the dance was slower and had less rhythm than most classical ballets I’ve observed. Also, there were a couple of pauses and rests during the performance. The dance