Giselle and the Power of the Arts. Perhaps Life is a Ghost Story and We Are Merely Spirits on a Stage.
Spoiler alert: She dies…at the end of Act I. Pacific Northwest Ballet company dancers in Peter Boal’s acclaimed staging of Giselle. PNB presents Giselle onstage at Seattle Center’s McCaw Hall, April 10 – 19, 2026. For tickets and information, contact the PNB Box Office, 206.441.2424 or PNB.org. Photo © Angela Sterling.
It's not just everyday that you get to see a ballet that may be the reason that we have a specific turn of phrase added to our lexicon of idiomatic expressions--unless, of course, you watch Giselle everyday--but if you do that, then you are probably either trapped in your own hell or perhaps, stuck in some sort of balletic Twilight Zone. Maybe, even one where you are forced to watch the same dances over and over again, dancing along until you die of exhaustion, very much like the sickly, overwrought Giselle, and her selfish, unfaithful suitors--who, with the exception of one, are forced to dance themselves to death, though, Hilarion--Giselle's jealous ex?--is actually thrown into a river by the vengeful demons, the Wilis, before he can die from dancing! Anyway, as I was saying, according to those that keep track of these things, there is reason to believe, in fact, that the saying that something gives you "the Willies," may come from 19th century audiences reacting to this balletic tour-de-force! It is, actually pretty exciting to realize that ballet was once so important to the culture of that era that it could inflect our conversation and the way that we see the world--especially when we now compare it to the world we live in where a pretty-boy actor, with a chiseled jaw and a baby-face can openly impune the arts, saying that no one cares about the ballet and opera. I could go on about that, but that is a story for a different day.
Giselle, which originally premiered in Paris in 1841, as Giselle, ou les Wilis, (Giselle, or the Wilis,) is a ghost story--perhaps, as some suggest, the ultimate Classical, Romantic era balletic ghost story, it looks back at previous ballets of the Romantic era, an era that saw the rise of the female dancer, toe dancing, the war between good and bad, and an era that often fell back on tropes of the supernatural. In this era, many ballets dealt with the impossibility of love, especially love beyond the veil of life and death, and the war between men and women when it came to matters of the heart and fickle, cheating men.
Pacific Northwest Ballet soloist Amanda Morgan as Myrtha, summons the ghostly Wilis in Peter Boal’s acclaimed staging of Giselle. PNB presents Giselle onstage at Seattle Center’s McCaw Hall, April 10 – 19, 2026. For tickets and information, contact the PNB Box Office, 206.441.2424 or PNB.org. Photo © Angela Sterling.
Giselle, as presented by the PNB, on opening night begins with one of the most spectacular backdrops that I have ever seen--and while I have critiqued PNB's Giselle a few times over my history of covering the Pacific Northwest Ballet--I really didn't remember it looking quite this beautiful. Ballerina, Sarah-Gabrielle Ryan as "Giselle, a peasant girl" is amazing as she manically dances to her death and weightlessly moves across the stage while she fights for her lover, the feckless, undercover "Duke Albert of Silesia" as performed by the extremely talented and charismatic Kyle Davis and Amanda Morgan as Myrtha, the Queen of the Wilis practically steals the second act.
The first act, however is not particularly memorable, displaying the over-simplistic townspeople going about their everyday chores and presenting their quaint, somewhat silly dances in front of the aristocracy, dressed in their bright red hunting attire. I kept thinking, that this ballet reminded me of so many other ballets that came before and after it--nothing super-exciting or innovative. It introduces us to the characters in that silent, mimetic way that Ballet has about it, creating a kind of sign language for insiders to enjoy in its own clever way; but all the while, I kept thinking--I remember liking this story, liking its set up and delivery--like, really liking it. And then, suddenly, like ghosts overlaid atop this production--past versions, past iterations, past Giselles, Alberts and Hilarions crept into view and this specific version of Giselle became haunted by my own memories of ghost stories' past.
When, Hunter (my girlfriend and poet,) and I were sat down in our regular spot, we had the extreme pleasure of sitting next to some lovely, young dancers from the upcoming NEXT STEP, and a lovely woman whose name I completely forgot--but who is working on a history of all the dancers at PNB, which sounds amazing and which I can't wait to read! I also got to see my old friend Ryan Henry Ward, who I hadn't realized was a regular to the PNB ballet. We used to paint murals together in the old days of Seattle's SubPopArt in the aughts and have plans together for the future as well. Anyway, as I sat there, I couldn't help but wondering what was missing from my take-away of this iteration.
Pacific Northwest Ballet principal dancers Sarah-Gabrielle Ryan and Kyle Davis as Giselle and Albert, in Peter Boal’s acclaimed staging of Giselle. PNB presents Giselle onstage at Seattle Center’s McCaw Hall, April 10 – 19, 2026. For tickets and information, contact the PNB Box Office, 206.441.2424 or PNB.org. Photo © Angela Sterling.
Then it hit me, the last time I saw Giselle, I was in a completely different place, my parents had passed away, both of them in the course of a year. I was dealing with a lot of big issues, life, death, loss. My apartment had had a fire and two floods. I lost almost all of the pictures of my family and life as a teenager and for all intents and purposes, I was very much a mess. To get all supernatural on you, my dear reader, they call it Saturn's 2nd return and it is a period of intense change, filled with immense loss. It is a period of intense spiritual upheaval and the re-evaluation of all of our life's goals, if one is lucky it is a period of self-evaluation and growth in all ways. So it makes sense that Giselle--this spiritual, ghostly tale of the fractures of love in an imperfect world of treachery and deceit--where the only hero is a small-town girl who gives her heart away maybe just a little too easily would strike a viewer differently depending upon where they are in their own life's journey.
It also speaks to just how important the ballet really is and probably all of the arts including the opera and just how full of poop Timmy Chalamet really is. Art, all art has the power to hold up a mirror--to help us see our world in a different way--to change our language and to cause us to look inside and re-evaluate our very existence. All ballet is a ghost story, bringing with it the spirits of our pasts and presents on a stage that includes us in its verisimilitudinous veil. If that is not reason enough for the ballet to exist, then perhaps we deserve remake upon remake of movies whose only reason to exist is to make as much money as possible and to sell barrels-full of popcorn and that wretched sauce they call butter--which, if I'm honest, I absolutely adore! Would the ballet be better with a little bit of popcorn? Sure! But then, again, maybe Chalamet's Dune would be better with some artistic integrity as well, and better acting, grumble grumble...
In closing--while doing research on this article, I came across an old review I did, while I was going through some things (as they say,) here is the link to it--if you would like to read a more incise, though equally personal review of Giselle--check it out! I hope you like both!
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/3485439779078966012/3136499016347843309
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