0:00:03 > 0:00:08An idyllic forest in a far-off land, a long time ago.
0:00:11 > 0:00:13A trusting innocent,
0:00:13 > 0:00:15seduced by an upper-class Lothario.
0:00:19 > 0:00:24Betrayed and heartbroken, she goes mad, and dies.
0:00:28 > 0:00:32And then, as a spirit, from beyond the grave,
0:00:32 > 0:00:34she forgives him.
0:00:38 > 0:00:42This could be a fairy tale, but it is the story of Giselle,
0:00:42 > 0:00:45one of the most influential ballets we have.
0:00:47 > 0:00:51It changed the face of dance, bringing it to life.
0:00:51 > 0:00:57Giselle is a defining role, that in its 175 year history
0:00:57 > 0:00:59has challenged every great ballerina.
0:01:01 > 0:01:05This 19th-century drama continues to fascinate choreographers,
0:01:05 > 0:01:07dancers and audiences.
0:01:08 > 0:01:10I'm going to find out why.
0:01:29 > 0:01:31I've grown up with Giselle.
0:01:31 > 0:01:34As a child I saw it so many times,
0:01:34 > 0:01:35and it always intrigued me.
0:01:37 > 0:01:39And now, as a professional dancer,
0:01:39 > 0:01:42I've played Giselle in over 100 performances,
0:01:42 > 0:01:44and I always find something new in it.
0:01:48 > 0:01:51Now, as artistic director at English National Ballet,
0:01:51 > 0:01:55I have recently been involved in two productions that have given me
0:01:55 > 0:01:58the chance to explore it afresh,
0:01:58 > 0:02:00to find out why it's endured so long,
0:02:00 > 0:02:04and what lies at its heart that is so timeless and contemporary.
0:02:07 > 0:02:11The first is the original 1840s version that most ballet-goers
0:02:11 > 0:02:15will be familiar with, peopled by peasants, aristocrats
0:02:15 > 0:02:17and vengeful ghosts.
0:02:18 > 0:02:21Giselle is performed by my colleague, Alina Cojocaru.
0:02:28 > 0:02:33And I played Giselle in a gritty new take on the piece by Akram Khan,
0:02:33 > 0:02:35one of our most exciting choreographers.
0:02:36 > 0:02:39Great! OK, let's try it again.
0:02:41 > 0:02:45These two very different takes on the same story give me a chance
0:02:45 > 0:02:49to explore Giselle, get to its very essence,
0:02:49 > 0:02:53and understand why this great ballet continues to move us so deeply.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00I'm going to start by looking at the 19th-century Giselle,
0:03:00 > 0:03:04and a heroine who turns out to be very much a child of her age
0:03:04 > 0:03:06and the society that created her.
0:03:09 > 0:03:12It was a time of revolution - industrial,
0:03:12 > 0:03:15with its rapid growth in mechanisation
0:03:15 > 0:03:18and its artistic response - Romanticism.
0:03:21 > 0:03:26Romanticism - where imagination and the power of the natural world were all.
0:03:28 > 0:03:30Painters such as Gericault and Delacroix,
0:03:30 > 0:03:36composers like Berlioz and writers, Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo,
0:03:36 > 0:03:39all brought a new, turbulent energy to the arts.
0:03:41 > 0:03:44Romanticism swept across Europe,
0:03:44 > 0:03:49but it was in the heart of France that it flourished.
0:03:49 > 0:03:52Paris - the capital of culture of Europe
0:03:52 > 0:03:55for the first half of the 19th century.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59Here was the greatest museum in the world, the Louvre.
0:03:59 > 0:04:02Here, music and architecture thrived,
0:04:02 > 0:04:06the fashion and perfume industries made their mark,
0:04:06 > 0:04:10and Paris Opera drew composers and choreographers.
0:04:10 > 0:04:14Paris was, quite simply, the envy of the world.
0:04:17 > 0:04:20Giselle was to usher in a new age in dance.
0:04:20 > 0:04:23It will fuse story and emotion,
0:04:23 > 0:04:26music and movement, in a way no other ballet had done before.
0:04:28 > 0:04:31And it set the mould for what ballet was to become.
0:04:31 > 0:04:35By the end of the century, the Russians will have given us
0:04:35 > 0:04:38its greatest classics, Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty.
0:04:41 > 0:04:44The writer and critic Theophile Gautier
0:04:44 > 0:04:46came up with the idea for Giselle.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49He was a Romantic who craved an art form that was sensual,
0:04:49 > 0:04:51opulent and alive.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59Gautier had read a poem by Victor Hugo
0:04:59 > 0:05:03about a young Spanish girl who danced herself to death.
0:05:03 > 0:05:07This was one of the images that spurred him to create Giselle.
0:05:08 > 0:05:14And the girl he came up with is a naive innocent with a fatal flaw -
0:05:14 > 0:05:16she has a weak heart.
0:05:21 > 0:05:25Giselle has purity, she just wants to feel everything.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28She wants to feel love, she wants to dance.
0:05:29 > 0:05:31She is full of joy and life,
0:05:31 > 0:05:36probably because she knows her life is fragile,
0:05:36 > 0:05:38and she may lose it at any time.
0:05:38 > 0:05:39She takes it all in.
0:05:41 > 0:05:43Giselle goes around, yes?
0:05:43 > 0:05:47So for us as dancers, we have to take these elements
0:05:47 > 0:05:50and portray Giselle as a convincing character.
0:05:51 > 0:05:52Only then will she have life.
0:05:56 > 0:06:00I feel strongly that with Giselle, it has such a long tradition,
0:06:00 > 0:06:01the key to its success has to rely
0:06:01 > 0:06:04in the artist that performs it today.
0:06:07 > 0:06:13So I always try to find reasons to make Giselle believable.
0:06:13 > 0:06:17My Giselle, the way I see it is, she does what her heart tells her to do.
0:06:18 > 0:06:21She chooses to be happy.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25She chooses throughout this drama to see the sun shining every day.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28She chooses to be the light for everybody,
0:06:28 > 0:06:31just because she has that in her heart.
0:06:31 > 0:06:35So there must be something in her that separates her from all her friends.
0:06:35 > 0:06:39So as I dance, I just run more, and stronger than everybody else,
0:06:39 > 0:06:43even though my heart is not strong, so it's not good for me to do that.
0:06:53 > 0:06:56Which then gives a certain drama in the moments where
0:06:56 > 0:06:58she really feels unwell.
0:06:58 > 0:07:03So it gives a little bit more depth to the sadness,
0:07:03 > 0:07:08and then it makes the light and the joy a bit more powerful.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17On the face of it, the innocent and fragile heroine now seems
0:07:17 > 0:07:19a bit of a cliche.
0:07:19 > 0:07:22But for the 19th-century audiences,
0:07:22 > 0:07:26she will have embodied some of their deepest concerns.
0:07:30 > 0:07:34I mean, this is a period when women, you know, are dying in childbirth,
0:07:34 > 0:07:38they are victims of un-understood venereal diseases.
0:07:38 > 0:07:40Consumption is a huge problem,
0:07:40 > 0:07:45and the conditions of life are extremely harsh for children,
0:07:45 > 0:07:48girl children and for women.
0:07:50 > 0:07:54You really are, in a way, seeing through a lens,
0:07:54 > 0:07:59so there's an element in which the light, fragile girl magnifies
0:07:59 > 0:08:04in a sort of oddly idealising way, a kind of actual...
0:08:05 > 0:08:07..kind of reality.
0:08:11 > 0:08:16In the early 19th century, Paris was a city in crisis.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19The Industrial Revolution was in full swing.
0:08:19 > 0:08:23The newly-built railways brought waves of immigrants into the cities
0:08:23 > 0:08:25in search of work.
0:08:26 > 0:08:27Poverty was rife.
0:08:30 > 0:08:31For the have-nots,
0:08:31 > 0:08:35this rapid growth only meant squalor of the worst kind.
0:08:35 > 0:08:39People survived in stinking, overcrowded filth.
0:08:39 > 0:08:41Crime and cholera were rife.
0:08:44 > 0:08:47Paris was bursting at the seams.
0:08:47 > 0:08:51But with such brutal urbanisation came a craving for escape.
0:08:54 > 0:08:57So Gautier came up with a pastoral idyll.
0:08:59 > 0:09:03A forest setting, in a romanticised Germany from another age -
0:09:03 > 0:09:04the 15th century.
0:09:09 > 0:09:12There is an atavistic idea that we're going back to a time
0:09:12 > 0:09:16when humans lived in more harmony with nature, with the forest.
0:09:16 > 0:09:19That was a dream of the 19th-century, as it is now a dream.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22Now we talk about wilding, and re-wilding,
0:09:22 > 0:09:27and making these ecological friendships between the lost world
0:09:27 > 0:09:30of the organic and ourselves in our industrial state.
0:09:30 > 0:09:33But the 19th century was definitely very, very aware of that,
0:09:33 > 0:09:35and very anxious about that.
0:09:40 > 0:09:43So the 19th century audience will have connected with Giselle
0:09:43 > 0:09:45in a visceral way.
0:09:46 > 0:09:50But by commissioning Akram Khan to make a new version of Giselle
0:09:50 > 0:09:54for the 21st-century, it was a great opportunity,
0:09:54 > 0:09:57and for me, an important one, to make it connect with us now,
0:09:57 > 0:10:00through our own contemporary concerns.
0:10:03 > 0:10:05And one, two, three.
0:10:05 > 0:10:09One, two, three. One, two, one, two, three.
0:10:09 > 0:10:13I was, kind of, not sure where we were going to land Giselle,
0:10:13 > 0:10:16where we were going to place this, what world it was going to be in.
0:10:16 > 0:10:22And we kept on coming up with the issue about migrants,
0:10:22 > 0:10:26and it has a huge impact on all of us, really.
0:10:26 > 0:10:30And so we wanted Giselle to be placed in that world.
0:10:30 > 0:10:34Just do it again. I'll tell you exactly when, what count it is on the top.
0:10:34 > 0:10:36One, two, three.
0:10:36 > 0:10:38One, two, three. One, two...
0:10:38 > 0:10:41If I could place Giselle in a world that is happening around
0:10:41 > 0:10:44us today, it would mean much more...
0:10:45 > 0:10:50..somehow, without losing focus on Giselle itself,
0:10:50 > 0:10:52the essence of the narrative.
0:10:54 > 0:10:58Akram has transposed the forest village to a walled-off factory,
0:10:58 > 0:11:01and a community of dispossessed migrants,
0:11:01 > 0:11:03dependent on the factory owners for work.
0:11:09 > 0:11:13When I see the classical ballet, it's absolutely powerful and relevant.
0:11:13 > 0:11:15It's just, I wanted to approach it differently,
0:11:15 > 0:11:18so I had to go to the essence of it.
0:11:18 > 0:11:21The narrative itself is extremely pure and simple.
0:11:21 > 0:11:25It's actually how do we...
0:11:27 > 0:11:29..re-change the way we say it.
0:11:34 > 0:11:37In Akram's world, Giselle is also full of life,
0:11:37 > 0:11:40but she's not a naive young girl -
0:11:40 > 0:11:41she's a passionate woman.
0:11:46 > 0:11:53She's independent, she's stronger, she's not ill.
0:11:53 > 0:11:57We thought long and hard about this.
0:11:57 > 0:12:02Is the illness what makes her different to her peers?
0:12:02 > 0:12:04And we believe it isn't.
0:12:04 > 0:12:10It is her essence, her spirit, her love for life and joy of dancing.
0:12:10 > 0:12:13Six, seven, go. One, two, three.
0:12:13 > 0:12:15Two, two, three, three...
0:12:15 > 0:12:19Creating a modern Giselle also allows us to sharpen
0:12:19 > 0:12:21the spiritual themes of the ballet -
0:12:21 > 0:12:23love and betrayal.
0:12:27 > 0:12:31Both of these themes are driven by the character Albrecht.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34In the original he's an aristocrat,
0:12:34 > 0:12:38in our new version he is from the world of the factory owners,
0:12:38 > 0:12:41and has disguised himself in order to seduce Giselle.
0:12:44 > 0:12:46But he's no pantomime villain.
0:12:46 > 0:12:51In both ballets he will undergo a change from seducer to someone
0:12:51 > 0:12:53truly in love.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56And the contemporary setting really brings this home.
0:12:59 > 0:13:02Him being of nobility has taken an element of his life away
0:13:02 > 0:13:04that he wishes to experience.
0:13:06 > 0:13:08And that's why, I believe,
0:13:08 > 0:13:12he must have initially ventured into the world of the immigrants,
0:13:12 > 0:13:16and then fallen in love with this incredible woman.
0:13:16 > 0:13:18So he lives, sort of, a double life.
0:13:22 > 0:13:25For me, we all feel like we've been in love before.
0:13:25 > 0:13:30And until you find true love, you don't realise what true love is.
0:13:30 > 0:13:34And I believe that Albrecht has found true love in Giselle.
0:13:34 > 0:13:37One, two, three.
0:13:37 > 0:13:41This love is very tangible in Akram's version of the ballet.
0:13:41 > 0:13:43It's sensual and intimate.
0:13:45 > 0:13:49This is very significant for me, if I was Albrecht.
0:13:49 > 0:13:52To allow somebody to touch my face,
0:13:52 > 0:13:56and I was thinking of my culture in India, we never touch face.
0:13:56 > 0:13:57Yeah. Yeah.
0:13:57 > 0:13:59So...
0:13:59 > 0:14:01- LAUGHTER - Do you know what I mean?
0:14:01 > 0:14:03To do this is really intimate.
0:14:03 > 0:14:04Only husband and wife.
0:14:15 > 0:14:20The beautiful thing with dance is that it's a dialogue of emotion,
0:14:20 > 0:14:22without the filter of intellect.
0:14:23 > 0:14:27Words can be so easily manipulated.
0:14:27 > 0:14:30But when you put a character in front of an audience,
0:14:30 > 0:14:35only through their emotions, through what they're feeling for each other,
0:14:35 > 0:14:37or about themselves,
0:14:37 > 0:14:40it is just a wonderful experience.
0:14:49 > 0:14:51Such emotions are easy for us to understand
0:14:51 > 0:14:53through contemporary choreography.
0:14:53 > 0:14:58But in the original, it was equally important to convey emotion,
0:14:58 > 0:15:00even if ballet was much more formalised then.
0:15:05 > 0:15:08So when it comes to the seduction scene, in the original
0:15:08 > 0:15:10the convention was to use mime -
0:15:10 > 0:15:13gestures of the hands and arms to portray character.
0:15:17 > 0:15:21Traditionally, these gestures were understood by most of the audience.
0:15:22 > 0:15:25Today, most of the audience wouldn't understand this
0:15:25 > 0:15:28very codified language.
0:15:28 > 0:15:33So we tried to do it in a way that is more gesture than pantomime.
0:15:33 > 0:15:37In a way that's more a natural reaction of the character.
0:15:40 > 0:15:43So for the young, wide-eyed girl,
0:15:43 > 0:15:47there's a coyness and a charm much more of its time.
0:15:47 > 0:15:51There is also a poignancy in seeing how Giselle falls for Albrecht.
0:15:55 > 0:16:00Look at my beautiful dress that I've been sewing.
0:16:00 > 0:16:02I would love to sit, may I?
0:16:03 > 0:16:06Um... OK.
0:16:06 > 0:16:09But that's a little bit uncomfortable.
0:16:09 > 0:16:10I feel you're too close.
0:16:10 > 0:16:13I feel you're too close. I'm going home.
0:16:15 > 0:16:16Sorry.
0:16:18 > 0:16:19I can't even look at him.
0:16:22 > 0:16:24It's just...too much.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29It's a little bit too much.
0:16:29 > 0:16:31Just one minute. Just one minute.
0:16:33 > 0:16:37She's the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.
0:16:37 > 0:16:39- Like you.- I swear I will love her.
0:16:39 > 0:16:41No, no, don't swear.
0:16:41 > 0:16:43That brings bad luck.
0:16:43 > 0:16:44But, wait, I have an idea.
0:16:46 > 0:16:49We can try with a daisy.
0:16:49 > 0:16:52The daisy will tell us if you love me or not.
0:16:52 > 0:16:55- How does that work?- Well, I'll show you, and I'll let you sit,
0:16:55 > 0:16:56- if you want.- OK.
0:16:58 > 0:17:01- One, he loves me.- OK.
0:17:05 > 0:17:07- He loves me not.- All right.
0:17:08 > 0:17:12Let's count them. Yes, no, yes, no, yes...
0:17:12 > 0:17:13He loves me not.
0:17:21 > 0:17:23Look, you made a mistake.
0:17:23 > 0:17:27He loves me, yes, no, yes, no, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes...
0:17:27 > 0:17:29- OK.- You see?
0:17:31 > 0:17:35Since the 16th century, mime had always been an essential part
0:17:35 > 0:17:38of dance. But that will change in act two,
0:17:38 > 0:17:41because ballet itself was at a crossroads.
0:17:45 > 0:17:49It was the music that also put Giselle at the front
0:17:49 > 0:17:51of a new artistic development.
0:17:53 > 0:17:56Reflecting the cultural changes brought about by Romanticism,
0:17:56 > 0:18:01the composer, Adolphe Adam came up with a score that really brought
0:18:01 > 0:18:05the story to life, and paved the way for ballet music to come.
0:18:07 > 0:18:11So imagine we're in 1841, sitting in the theatre,
0:18:11 > 0:18:15and after years and years of ballet scores that start with a hodgepodge
0:18:15 > 0:18:19of themes from the ballet, we come into the ballet, the lights go down,
0:18:19 > 0:18:22the conductor comes into the pit, and you hear this...
0:18:24 > 0:18:26EXUBERANT ORCHESTRATION
0:18:38 > 0:18:42Innovation, and that's the thing I think of what I think of Adolphe Adam -
0:18:42 > 0:18:45this massive, tumbling, tumultuous string phrase
0:18:45 > 0:18:49that doesn't sound like we are going to sit back and have an evening's entertainment,
0:18:49 > 0:18:53or a ballet plot that's quite easy and facile for us to grasp and to learn.
0:18:53 > 0:18:57This is a ballet that challenged - certainly, it did musically.
0:19:03 > 0:19:06So we're fully aware, as classical musicians now,
0:19:06 > 0:19:07of something called leitmotif.
0:19:07 > 0:19:09Now a leitmotif is a small theme -
0:19:09 > 0:19:14it can be anything that depicts one particular character,
0:19:14 > 0:19:16or one particular environment.
0:19:23 > 0:19:27Adam was using this a long time before the undoubted king
0:19:27 > 0:19:29of the leitmotif, Richard Wagner.
0:19:29 > 0:19:33Wagner, in fact, was in the audience at the premiere of Giselle, so,
0:19:33 > 0:19:36who is to say that, you know,
0:19:36 > 0:19:39the greatest operatic cycle of all time
0:19:39 > 0:19:41had been influenced by a ballet.
0:19:44 > 0:19:47So Giselle's theme is immediately distinctive.
0:19:55 > 0:19:59In the theme you hear the use of what's known as a major sixth,
0:19:59 > 0:20:03which means there are six notes between the bottom note...
0:20:05 > 0:20:09..and the top note. And the sixth is a very important interval,
0:20:09 > 0:20:12as they're called, in the character of Giselle.
0:20:12 > 0:20:16Most of her themes, most of the music to which she dances, or acts,
0:20:16 > 0:20:18involves that major sixth.
0:20:21 > 0:20:24Adam uses leitmotifs throughout the ballet.
0:20:24 > 0:20:27He connected the audiences directly with the character.
0:20:33 > 0:20:38And here, music and mime are perfectly fused for dramatic effect.
0:20:38 > 0:20:42As we meet Hilarion, Giselle's peasant suitor...
0:20:44 > 0:20:48..Adam leaves us in no doubt as to how he feels.
0:21:08 > 0:21:13So Adam, like so many ballet composers after him - but he did it first, really -
0:21:13 > 0:21:16he's putting into music what we would put into words.
0:21:19 > 0:21:22Adam, all of a sudden, has given us a look ahead
0:21:22 > 0:21:26to the romantic tone poem in terms of how he's written ballet.
0:21:26 > 0:21:31Because it's coherent, and it's a long sequence of music
0:21:31 > 0:21:34that marries in both dance and acting,
0:21:34 > 0:21:39plot, everything is all in one analogous whole.
0:21:43 > 0:21:47What we're seeing here is Giselle as a crucial building block
0:21:47 > 0:21:49in the flowering of ballet.
0:21:49 > 0:21:52It's moving away from rigid formality
0:21:52 > 0:21:54towards a much more emotional art form.
0:22:00 > 0:22:03But I also think there is something else at work.
0:22:03 > 0:22:07Giselle is showing us a clash of classes,
0:22:07 > 0:22:09and also the consequences of that collision.
0:22:13 > 0:22:16Gautier and his collaborator Vernoy de Saint-Georges,
0:22:16 > 0:22:19both well-educated intellectuals,
0:22:19 > 0:22:23would have been well aware of the inequalities in French society,
0:22:23 > 0:22:25and its attitudes towards women.
0:22:29 > 0:22:32With the Industrial Revolution came not just an underclass,
0:22:32 > 0:22:35but a new, wealthy middle class.
0:22:35 > 0:22:40The women in this new bourgeoisie were to be respected, revered,
0:22:40 > 0:22:42and, above all, virtuous.
0:22:45 > 0:22:48But, for the lord and master,
0:22:48 > 0:22:52women outside this privileged sphere were fair game.
0:22:54 > 0:22:59One of the things I discovered while we were reimagining Giselle
0:22:59 > 0:23:03is how strong this work is.
0:23:03 > 0:23:08How powerful, how deeply moving, and also, how political.
0:23:10 > 0:23:14Once you take it out of the beautiful box
0:23:14 > 0:23:16of the European Middle Ages,
0:23:16 > 0:23:24questions of class, lack of jobs, lack of opportunities, immigration,
0:23:24 > 0:23:26can completely...
0:23:27 > 0:23:32..sit there, and gain even more profound meaning.
0:23:34 > 0:23:38It was a revelation to me to see something that,
0:23:38 > 0:23:43because of the environment in which it was set,
0:23:43 > 0:23:45never came across as strongly...
0:23:46 > 0:23:48..as it did in the new version.
0:23:53 > 0:23:58Giselle and Albrecht can never be truly equal in the eyes of society,
0:23:58 > 0:24:00and that's the tragedy at the heart of the ballet.
0:24:03 > 0:24:07The point at which their two classes collide happens in both versions,
0:24:07 > 0:24:10but we've really upped the stakes in Akram's.
0:24:13 > 0:24:17The ruling elite, Albrecht's people, arrive from their privileged enclave
0:24:17 > 0:24:20onto the streets of Giselle's world.
0:24:20 > 0:24:25Real choices will have to be made, as among them is Bathilde,
0:24:25 > 0:24:26Albrecht's upper-class fiancee.
0:24:32 > 0:24:37For Akram, Hilarion plays a central part in this choice.
0:24:37 > 0:24:39He is a social climber, a go-between,
0:24:39 > 0:24:44on whom the landlords bestow status to keep the workers in their place.
0:24:49 > 0:24:53For me, the hat is something really special for him,
0:24:53 > 0:24:55because it's from the landlords.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58It's like a gift, like, saying, "We respect you."
0:24:58 > 0:25:00And that's how he takes it.
0:25:00 > 0:25:02He gets the hat, and he's the boss.
0:25:05 > 0:25:07He's the type of guy who knows how to survive.
0:25:07 > 0:25:09He's like a cockroach.
0:25:09 > 0:25:13And it's about wanting to have people respect him, and look up to him.
0:25:13 > 0:25:20And at the same time, he has this such deep love for Giselle.
0:25:20 > 0:25:22That's what motivates him, I think.
0:25:27 > 0:25:32With his new-found status, Hilarion feels empowered to provoke his rival
0:25:32 > 0:25:33into revealing himself.
0:25:53 > 0:25:56The choice Albrecht must now make feeds directly
0:25:56 > 0:26:00into the 19th-century ethos -
0:26:00 > 0:26:04should he accept the rules laid down by convention,
0:26:04 > 0:26:06or should he follow his own path and heart?
0:26:10 > 0:26:14The stories I have in my head, it's obviously an arranged marriage.
0:26:14 > 0:26:18But I think, certainly, the love between Bathilde and Albrecht
0:26:18 > 0:26:22isn't true love, and he's felt true love with Giselle.
0:26:22 > 0:26:24But he's obviously put in a predicament,
0:26:24 > 0:26:28he obviously has the challenge of still being nobility,
0:26:28 > 0:26:32and Albrecht realises that we can't live in harmony.
0:26:37 > 0:26:41Albrecht's decision is Gautier's Romantic philosophy writ large.
0:26:44 > 0:26:48For him, bourgeois values are selfish and small-minded.
0:26:48 > 0:26:51In fact, he wrote...
0:26:51 > 0:26:55"Everything useful is ugly, for it expresses a need,
0:26:55 > 0:26:58"and the needs of man are ignoble and disgusting...
0:27:00 > 0:27:02"..like his poor, weak nature."
0:27:07 > 0:27:10But Gautier's disgust at the new middle classes didn't prevent him
0:27:10 > 0:27:13from coming up with ideas that appealed to them.
0:27:15 > 0:27:20Albrecht's betrayal and rejection pushes Giselle over the edge,
0:27:20 > 0:27:24into a very 19th-century preoccupation - madness.
0:27:27 > 0:27:32She is a person of heart, and her heart is liable to break,
0:27:32 > 0:27:33in more ways than one.
0:27:37 > 0:27:39And that runs very central to the, kind of,
0:27:39 > 0:27:44rather morbid fascinations of Romanticism with the sick girl.
0:27:44 > 0:27:49It is the woman as a screen for anxiety's dreams.
0:27:53 > 0:27:56Madness, particularly in women,
0:27:56 > 0:28:00was a very live concern for the 19th-century Parisian audience.
0:28:03 > 0:28:05In the decades around Giselle,
0:28:05 > 0:28:08the science of psychiatry was beginning to take shape,
0:28:08 > 0:28:11and madness, and other nervous diseases
0:28:11 > 0:28:16received particular attention, especially in regard to women,
0:28:16 > 0:28:19who made up the majority of those in asylums.
0:28:21 > 0:28:24The French had a word for madness - hysteria,
0:28:24 > 0:28:27from the Greek word for uterus.
0:28:29 > 0:28:33Previous vocabularies would have been uterine fury,
0:28:33 > 0:28:36the fury, the anger of the uterus.
0:28:36 > 0:28:41There was what some historians have called a culture of hysteria...
0:28:43 > 0:28:51..but one should make the point that the vision that we have of hysteria
0:28:51 > 0:28:53is a male vision...
0:28:53 > 0:28:55of females.
0:28:55 > 0:29:02The story of hysteria is also, of course, a story of male prejudice
0:29:02 > 0:29:06and, in Germany and other parts of Europe, class prejudice.
0:29:09 > 0:29:13At the Paris Opera, the girls in the corps de ballet were usually
0:29:13 > 0:29:17lower class women, and sport for their bourgeois patrons.
0:29:20 > 0:29:25Old-time French psychiatrists would have, perhaps,
0:29:25 > 0:29:29mentioned the idea of hysteria as a form of rebellion.
0:29:29 > 0:29:36It might be a rebellion of women against the male control of society,
0:29:36 > 0:29:43and jobs, it might be a rebellion in favour of more sexual happiness.
0:29:43 > 0:29:46Hysterical people are interested in life,
0:29:46 > 0:29:49and everything that life has to offer.
0:29:49 > 0:29:51And that, of course, has its risks.
0:29:55 > 0:29:59Gautier's Giselle is driven mad by society's contradictions.
0:30:03 > 0:30:07I think we can all understand how it feels to...
0:30:09 > 0:30:10..lose ground under your own feet.
0:30:12 > 0:30:15How painful an experience it is,
0:30:15 > 0:30:19when you realise that what you always thought to be true...
0:30:20 > 0:30:22..is not.
0:30:22 > 0:30:24So how far do you take it
0:30:24 > 0:30:27is entirely up to each individual ballerina.
0:30:31 > 0:30:34So we witness Giselle reliving her moments with Albrecht.
0:30:44 > 0:30:49Everything she's done, she wonders, that must have been a lie,
0:30:49 > 0:30:51or was that real?
0:30:51 > 0:30:54I think it's more of a questioning, and loss of reality.
0:30:56 > 0:31:01I think she's completely broken, not so much in her mind,
0:31:01 > 0:31:02but it's in her heart.
0:31:02 > 0:31:05Everything just...
0:31:05 > 0:31:06collapses.
0:31:07 > 0:31:11Yet the mind just tries to still find a reason to think it was real.
0:31:22 > 0:31:25She hopes for that one glimpse of the fact that it was true love,
0:31:25 > 0:31:30and within the scene, she cannot find it until the very last moment.
0:31:31 > 0:31:34And this is the pivotal point in the ballet.
0:31:36 > 0:31:38At the last minute, Albrecht realises
0:31:38 > 0:31:40that he truly loves Giselle,
0:31:40 > 0:31:43breaking the bond of class and convention.
0:31:45 > 0:31:51It doesn't matter that he realised the bond of this love too late,
0:31:51 > 0:31:53because, to her, it was real.
0:31:55 > 0:31:59That last one moment when I run towards him, for one second,
0:31:59 > 0:32:02we look into each other's eyes, and just before she dies,
0:32:02 > 0:32:04she finds him.
0:32:07 > 0:32:10For one second, we're both at the same level.
0:32:23 > 0:32:25Act one ends with Giselle's death.
0:32:27 > 0:32:31But 21st-century audiences don't relate to madness and weak hearts
0:32:31 > 0:32:34in quite the same way as they used to,
0:32:34 > 0:32:35so we've changed it.
0:32:37 > 0:32:40Instead, our Giselle is murdered...
0:32:40 > 0:32:41by Hilarion.
0:32:44 > 0:32:47And this brings us to act two,
0:32:47 > 0:32:51where the familiar world becomes frightening and unfamiliar.
0:32:57 > 0:33:02Up to this point, our 19th-century drama has been very earthbound.
0:33:02 > 0:33:06But as the sun sets on Giselle's forest,
0:33:06 > 0:33:08a darker side of her home is revealed.
0:33:11 > 0:33:13The forest is, really, emblematic.
0:33:13 > 0:33:17The forest is the mysterious place, the trackless place,
0:33:17 > 0:33:19the place where paths are lost easily,
0:33:19 > 0:33:23where you can very quickly become disorientated,
0:33:23 > 0:33:24where there are mysterious figures.
0:33:27 > 0:33:32Gautier is someone who drew on a lot of folktales and fairy tales,
0:33:32 > 0:33:34east to west.
0:33:34 > 0:33:38And that whole area of retrieval,
0:33:38 > 0:33:42of Northern and Eastern European folklore,
0:33:42 > 0:33:46that all began happening around the beginning of the 19th century.
0:33:48 > 0:33:52And it was a folk tale that was one of the other inspirations for Giselle.
0:33:52 > 0:33:55Gautier's friend, the poet Heinrich Heine,
0:33:55 > 0:33:58had written in his book De l'Allemagne
0:33:58 > 0:34:03about irresistible female phantoms rising from the grave.
0:34:03 > 0:34:04He wrote...
0:34:04 > 0:34:06"In their stilled hearts and lifeless feet,
0:34:06 > 0:34:08"the passion for dancing,
0:34:08 > 0:34:11"which they could not satisfy in their lifetime, still burns.
0:34:12 > 0:34:14"At midnight, they rise,
0:34:14 > 0:34:17"and woe betide any young man who crosses their path.
0:34:20 > 0:34:23"They surround him with unbridled desire,
0:34:23 > 0:34:26"and he must dance with them until he falls, dead."
0:34:32 > 0:34:34These otherworldly images fed directly
0:34:34 > 0:34:37into Gautier's Romantic vision.
0:34:37 > 0:34:40For him, the supernatural was everywhere,
0:34:40 > 0:34:41even though we couldn't see it.
0:34:44 > 0:34:47And there is no coincidence that, at the same time,
0:34:47 > 0:34:52science was making headway into previously unseen worlds.
0:34:52 > 0:34:57Microscopes were being invented, magnetism researched.
0:34:57 > 0:35:01Even spiritualism and psychic phenomena were embraced and analysed
0:35:01 > 0:35:03as legitimate areas of enquiry.
0:35:05 > 0:35:09For Gautier, science wasn't so much disproving the supernatural,
0:35:09 > 0:35:12but somehow reinforcing its existence.
0:35:15 > 0:35:18He even went walking around in cemeteries,
0:35:18 > 0:35:21to immerse himself in the mysterious forces and currents
0:35:21 > 0:35:23he believed surrounded him.
0:35:26 > 0:35:30These forces take on a demonic form in the second act,
0:35:30 > 0:35:33when we are plunged into the supernatural domain
0:35:33 > 0:35:35of Heine's female phantoms.
0:35:37 > 0:35:39These are the Wilis.
0:35:42 > 0:35:47There is a Slavic word, "vila", a female vampire.
0:35:47 > 0:35:51Its plural, "vile", summons a terrifying horde of them.
0:35:53 > 0:35:56In the ballet, they are the angry spirits of women
0:35:56 > 0:35:59jilted by their lovers.
0:35:59 > 0:36:02From beyond the grave, they will make Albrecht, ultimately,
0:36:02 > 0:36:04pay for what he has done.
0:36:05 > 0:36:09These female spectres have been part of folklore for millennia.
0:36:11 > 0:36:15The Greeks had the Furies, vengeful daughters of the night.
0:36:15 > 0:36:19They appear in Serbia as maidens, cursed by God,
0:36:19 > 0:36:23and in Bulgaria as young girls that died before they were baptised.
0:36:26 > 0:36:29They might have been fantastical creatures,
0:36:29 > 0:36:32but their grievances were very real -
0:36:32 > 0:36:34they hurt, they were bitter,
0:36:34 > 0:36:36and they craved retribution.
0:36:39 > 0:36:41Gautier gives us, and the ballet gives us,
0:36:41 > 0:36:45what happens to women's energies when they pass that threshold.
0:36:45 > 0:36:50And here there's, you know, a whole other area of desire and anxiety,
0:36:50 > 0:36:54which is that women just don't lie down quietly when they die,
0:36:54 > 0:36:57they're not benevolent goddesses of death.
0:36:57 > 0:37:01The Wilis are personifications of frenzied eternity
0:37:01 > 0:37:04that engulfs everything it touches.
0:37:04 > 0:37:07They actually have truly demonic power.
0:37:10 > 0:37:15In fact, Heine's folktale also had a more tangible resonance.
0:37:15 > 0:37:21He was intoxicated by the Parisian women he saw at soirees and balls,
0:37:21 > 0:37:25dancing with a burning joy in life, and longing for sweet
0:37:25 > 0:37:27and sensuous oblivion.
0:37:27 > 0:37:30He said they were almost terrible in their beauty.
0:37:39 > 0:37:43The Wilis, with their frenzied revenge, express, I think,
0:37:43 > 0:37:47some of that fear that men and women, probably,
0:37:47 > 0:37:50but men had about the energy of sex,
0:37:50 > 0:37:52when it was considered to be sinful.
0:37:54 > 0:37:56And the solution of the 19th century is to in a way
0:37:56 > 0:38:01imagine retributions, there's no confrontation with the, sort of,
0:38:01 > 0:38:03beauty and energy of sexuality,
0:38:03 > 0:38:06there's much more anxiety about how to...
0:38:06 > 0:38:09How it should be justly dealt with.
0:38:09 > 0:38:11So it's a punitive ethos.
0:38:17 > 0:38:19This is the return of the repressed,
0:38:19 > 0:38:23and the idea of punishment and retribution is a universal one.
0:38:24 > 0:38:28One that we also explore with Akram Khan.
0:38:31 > 0:38:35The second act is set in a dilapidated factory which is haunted
0:38:35 > 0:38:39by the ghosts of women, victims of industrial accidents
0:38:39 > 0:38:41caused by greed, neglect,
0:38:41 > 0:38:42or exhaustion.
0:38:43 > 0:38:47Here, Akram's Wilis seek retribution on the factory owners
0:38:47 > 0:38:49who caused their deaths.
0:38:55 > 0:39:00This group of women were like an army with bamboo sticks.
0:39:00 > 0:39:04It is kind of like a mix between watching Kill Bill...
0:39:06 > 0:39:07..and a horror movie.
0:39:08 > 0:39:12You know, there's something about it that's very martial arts.
0:39:12 > 0:39:16But, at the same time, very threatening and violent and aggressive.
0:39:16 > 0:39:19I didn't want the spirits just to be pretty.
0:39:20 > 0:39:23Why the hell would they be pretty?
0:39:23 > 0:39:24They've just been...
0:39:24 > 0:39:27Their life has been destroyed.
0:39:31 > 0:39:36It is the murderer, Hilarion, who faces the Wilis' retribution first.
0:39:44 > 0:39:48These highly trained dancers - it's really an army of warriors.
0:39:48 > 0:39:52And, so, really, it's a meeting of their technique
0:39:52 > 0:39:55and the vocabulary that I was looking for.
0:39:59 > 0:40:02So Akram not only gives the Wilis vicious sticks,
0:40:02 > 0:40:06but he exploits the dancers' classical training, in pointe shoes.
0:40:08 > 0:40:10The pointe shoes were not just to elevate them,
0:40:10 > 0:40:13but they were also a weapon.
0:40:13 > 0:40:14They are a weapon of justice.
0:40:14 > 0:40:16A weapon of rage.
0:40:18 > 0:40:22From the pointe of the pointe shoes, all the way to the head,
0:40:22 > 0:40:25is like a knife, it's the vertical.
0:40:25 > 0:40:27It's the thing that connects Earth to heaven,
0:40:27 > 0:40:30the tip of your toe to the top of your head.
0:40:32 > 0:40:36And there's something very spiritual about that.
0:40:38 > 0:40:42Even if pointe shoes are an essential part of a ballerina's life
0:40:42 > 0:40:48today, it is still quite unusual for contemporary choreographers to use them.
0:40:48 > 0:40:52But then, 175 years ago, when Giselle premiered,
0:40:52 > 0:40:55being en pointe was also quite a new phenomenon.
0:41:01 > 0:41:05It was to be one extraordinary ballerina that took dancing en pointe,
0:41:05 > 0:41:06and through her skill,
0:41:06 > 0:41:10made it the mainstay of virtually every ballet since.
0:41:11 > 0:41:15She was like a rock star - Marie Taglioni.
0:41:19 > 0:41:21Taglioni was the first one to establish the hairstyle
0:41:21 > 0:41:25that many young dancers still adopt today.
0:41:25 > 0:41:29The classical middle parting, with the hair kept tight and close.
0:41:29 > 0:41:33Her adoring fans longed to perfect her ethereal look,
0:41:33 > 0:41:35even drinking vinegar and water
0:41:35 > 0:41:37to make themselves pale and interesting.
0:41:40 > 0:41:43But Taglioni had one amazing quality.
0:41:43 > 0:41:47The reinforced pointe shoe as we know it today didn't exist -
0:41:47 > 0:41:50Taglioni just had satin slippers.
0:41:50 > 0:41:52And through her sheer strength alone,
0:41:52 > 0:41:54she danced on the tips of her toes.
0:41:57 > 0:42:01Taglioni set the template for ballerinas.
0:42:01 > 0:42:04But it was a young Italian dancer who would take up her baton
0:42:04 > 0:42:06and create Giselle -
0:42:06 > 0:42:07Carlotta Grisi.
0:42:10 > 0:42:15Grisi could be earthy and sensual, but also otherworldly.
0:42:15 > 0:42:18Plus, she was in the right place at the right time.
0:42:18 > 0:42:21Not only was Gautier in love with her,
0:42:21 > 0:42:25but she was married to one of the choreographers, Jules Perrot.
0:42:27 > 0:42:30With Giselle, they fashioned a watershed moment
0:42:30 > 0:42:31in the history of ballet.
0:42:36 > 0:42:39The pointe shoe, the weightless, tragic female,
0:42:39 > 0:42:42the vision of a supernatural world,
0:42:42 > 0:42:45all combined to create the first truly defining role
0:42:45 > 0:42:46for any ballerina.
0:42:52 > 0:42:56And now, the full force of this vision is realised,
0:42:56 > 0:43:01as Giselle is brought back from the dead by the Queen of the Wilis,
0:43:01 > 0:43:02who commands her to dance.
0:43:40 > 0:43:42What about forward?
0:43:42 > 0:43:46'So the stage is now set for, perhaps, the key theme
0:43:46 > 0:43:49'of the ballet - forgiveness.'
0:43:49 > 0:43:53And here is where Giselle really steps out of the past.
0:43:53 > 0:43:56The mime elements have largely gone,
0:43:56 > 0:43:59and we get a taste of what ballet was to become.
0:44:01 > 0:44:05A synthesis of character, plot and emotion in movement.
0:44:10 > 0:44:14This becomes really clear when Albrecht comes to Giselle's grave
0:44:14 > 0:44:16and encounters her spirit.
0:44:17 > 0:44:20For me, this is the heart of the ballet.
0:44:20 > 0:44:23A pas de deux, a declaration of love,
0:44:23 > 0:44:25through which Giselle forgives him.
0:44:28 > 0:44:30The whole pas de deux is very fragile,
0:44:30 > 0:44:33because it is a communication between souls.
0:44:33 > 0:44:38You are kind of feeling each other, like you would feel a ghost
0:44:38 > 0:44:39crossing through you.
0:44:39 > 0:44:44So, in a way, I'm trying to become ethereal,
0:44:44 > 0:44:48so that what I do when I get close to him, is I go inside him,
0:44:48 > 0:44:51into his soul, and transform him.
0:45:16 > 0:45:19How to interpret a spirit?
0:45:19 > 0:45:22It is not a solid being that moves in unison,
0:45:22 > 0:45:26it is something made out of almost air.
0:45:26 > 0:45:29And as she moves, she leaves a trail.
0:45:41 > 0:45:43And it was choreographer Jules Perott
0:45:43 > 0:45:46that translated this into dance.
0:45:46 > 0:45:50This is fluid movement that conveys pure emotion,
0:45:50 > 0:45:53and it's not histrionic gesture or mime.
0:46:01 > 0:46:05As you can see, I lift the arms behind, and the legs behind,
0:46:05 > 0:46:08to give the feeling that I float in the wind.
0:46:13 > 0:46:18What Perott did was capture exactly the essence of Gautier's
0:46:18 > 0:46:19melancholic spirit.
0:46:28 > 0:46:33I think it's a combination of the arms and also the legs
0:46:33 > 0:46:35- staying always in movement.- Yeah.
0:46:37 > 0:46:40Like a leaf, or like a feather in the wind,
0:46:40 > 0:46:44that should bend while the wind pushes it forward.
0:46:48 > 0:46:52And this isn't just our interpretation.
0:46:52 > 0:46:56Jules Perrot had choreographed much of its expressiveness
0:46:56 > 0:46:57very specifically.
0:47:00 > 0:47:05There's a section at the end that Giselle should literally look as if
0:47:05 > 0:47:09she's completely flying across the stage.
0:47:09 > 0:47:13And the secret is that the man looks quite unattractive,
0:47:13 > 0:47:15running in parallel really, really quickly
0:47:15 > 0:47:18whilst holding on to Giselle.
0:47:18 > 0:47:22It's really tricky because we are trying to go in that direction,
0:47:22 > 0:47:25keeping the same position with her.
0:47:25 > 0:47:29For the man, it's really important to go completely parallel,
0:47:29 > 0:47:33which is something that we are not really used to doing while
0:47:33 > 0:47:36keeping her towards the audience,
0:47:36 > 0:47:39so it's quite an uncomfortable position,
0:47:39 > 0:47:42and quite a different use of muscle
0:47:42 > 0:47:47for that part of the ballet - it comes when you are the most tired.
0:47:48 > 0:47:50Usually the ballerina is the only one to enjoy it, that time.
0:47:50 > 0:47:52SHE LAUGHS
0:47:56 > 0:47:59In effect, what Perrot was beginning to formulate here,
0:47:59 > 0:48:02along with the other choreographer, Jean Coralli,
0:48:02 > 0:48:06was a new dance language, one that we now recognise
0:48:06 > 0:48:07as classical ballet.
0:48:16 > 0:48:21But to make something new for our 21st-century reimagining of Giselle,
0:48:21 > 0:48:25we wanted to take what is at the heart of this pas de deux,
0:48:25 > 0:48:29forgiveness, and give it a more visceral spin.
0:48:29 > 0:48:34The act of forgiveness in Giselle is an area of human beings
0:48:34 > 0:48:36that we are losing touch with,
0:48:36 > 0:48:39and forgiveness is being replaced by judgment.
0:48:40 > 0:48:46That quality that we have as human beings is eroding,
0:48:46 > 0:48:50and I really love the sense of being raw, or exploring that area.
0:48:51 > 0:48:53You go here.
0:48:53 > 0:48:56So to get to the heart of the act of forgiveness,
0:48:56 > 0:49:00Akram puts Giselle in a terrible position.
0:49:00 > 0:49:02She has to make a choice,
0:49:02 > 0:49:05in the same way that Albrecht did in the first act.
0:49:07 > 0:49:08Pull her, pull her, pull her, pull her.
0:49:08 > 0:49:10Yes. Release. Good.
0:49:15 > 0:49:17In Akram's supernatural world,
0:49:17 > 0:49:21we find a grief-stricken Albrecht resigned to his fate
0:49:21 > 0:49:23at the hands of the Wilis.
0:49:24 > 0:49:28But it is Giselle who will decide what his fate is.
0:49:30 > 0:49:32The tables are turned -
0:49:32 > 0:49:36now she is given the power that she never had in life.
0:50:00 > 0:50:05I think dance can tap in to a person who's witnessing it
0:50:05 > 0:50:08in a way that no other art form can.
0:50:10 > 0:50:13Because dance has the possibility of questions.
0:50:13 > 0:50:16It has the power of ambiguity, and yet, great clarity.
0:50:18 > 0:50:22And the power of dance also has the sense to rise above,
0:50:22 > 0:50:27into a poetic sense, and damn, I miss poetry, I really do,
0:50:27 > 0:50:29in the world we live in today.
0:50:29 > 0:50:31I miss being suspended.
0:50:38 > 0:50:42After all Giselle has been through, she forgives him.
0:50:42 > 0:50:47This, for me, is ultimately why this story has endured.
0:50:49 > 0:50:55I guess her truth is that she is naive and loving.
0:50:55 > 0:51:00And then, after death, she is generous and forgiving.
0:51:00 > 0:51:02And so if you...
0:51:02 > 0:51:05stick to that, to that essence,
0:51:05 > 0:51:08it really doesn't matter whether you were born in the 19th century,
0:51:08 > 0:51:1020th century, 21st-century,
0:51:10 > 0:51:13because that is something that we can all relate to...
0:51:14 > 0:51:16..and we can try to emulate.
0:51:23 > 0:51:28Back in the 19th century, the Industrial Revolution had its ills,
0:51:28 > 0:51:30but there were some advantages too
0:51:30 > 0:51:32that had a direct impact on this ballet.
0:51:37 > 0:51:41Mechanisation enabled a whole new range of materials to be made,
0:51:41 > 0:51:45and for ballet, this meant the introduction of feather-light,
0:51:45 > 0:51:47almost transparent fabrics.
0:51:49 > 0:51:53A new, lightweight netting named after the French city where it was
0:51:53 > 0:51:59invented, Tulle, was perfect for shimmering, diaphanous spirits.
0:51:59 > 0:52:02Even today, it's an essential element in our costumes.
0:52:05 > 0:52:08But it was another by-product of the Industrial Revolution
0:52:08 > 0:52:13that transformed the stage into a mesmerising spectacle - gaslight.
0:52:17 > 0:52:20In the early 19th century, people went to the theatre
0:52:20 > 0:52:22literally to be seen.
0:52:22 > 0:52:25The auditorium was as bright as the stage.
0:52:25 > 0:52:27But with gaslight,
0:52:27 > 0:52:30designers had a whole new palette of effects to play with.
0:52:32 > 0:52:37Now they could create atmospheric landscapes - a forest at twilight,
0:52:37 > 0:52:38or a moonlit graveyard.
0:52:40 > 0:52:44What's more, they could darken the auditorium so that everybody
0:52:44 > 0:52:47was drawn to the stage.
0:52:47 > 0:52:50A lot of what we see now as absolutely familiar conventions
0:52:50 > 0:52:54would have been astonishing to audiences at the time.
0:52:54 > 0:52:59I mean, this was the space of illusion, the space where
0:52:59 > 0:53:02real women and real men were performing,
0:53:02 > 0:53:03but were somehow transformed.
0:53:03 > 0:53:07So the familiar had become sort of deeply unfamiliar.
0:53:09 > 0:53:12It's much more like an image in the mind, it's like a vision,
0:53:12 > 0:53:16dancing all in white, wafting across the stage
0:53:16 > 0:53:18as if they were weightless.
0:53:18 > 0:53:20It goes through my mind like a wreath of smoke.
0:53:20 > 0:53:24And that, in a way, is what the ballet is trying to be.
0:53:24 > 0:53:26It's very close to a dream image.
0:53:29 > 0:53:32But that is not just an aesthetic thing.
0:53:32 > 0:53:34In its ability to structure and order,
0:53:34 > 0:53:41it actually functions to keep at bay all that unruly noise,
0:53:41 > 0:53:45chaos, horror, that we experience.
0:53:48 > 0:53:50And that is so true of Giselle.
0:53:50 > 0:53:54The 19th-century audience would have experienced its tragedy,
0:53:54 > 0:53:58but also have been transported to a place of hope.
0:54:11 > 0:54:16By the end of act two, Giselle has danced with Albrecht all night,
0:54:16 > 0:54:20keeping him from the full wrath of the Wilis.
0:54:20 > 0:54:26And just as the Wilis are about to destroy Albrecht, a new day dawns.
0:54:29 > 0:54:33The Wilis are banished, and Albrecht is saved.
0:54:47 > 0:54:50But when it comes to the 21st-century Giselle,
0:54:50 > 0:54:53it is not the dawning day that saves Albrecht.
0:54:55 > 0:54:58Akram's other-world is grim and hard,
0:54:58 > 0:55:00not enchanting.
0:55:00 > 0:55:04But the beauty, the message of hope, comes from Giselle herself.
0:55:06 > 0:55:10There's transformation and metamorphosis in life, and in death.
0:55:10 > 0:55:13So in a sense, I've always been fascinated by transformation
0:55:13 > 0:55:17because, in that moment, lies the sacred.
0:55:18 > 0:55:20Somewhere in that place lies the sacred.
0:55:33 > 0:55:38Giselle's transformation in both ballets is not only physical,
0:55:38 > 0:55:39but spiritual.
0:55:42 > 0:55:44We are so terrified of beauty now.
0:55:46 > 0:55:52Giselle has given me new belief, again, that something
0:55:52 > 0:55:55that is beautiful can still be beautiful.
0:56:16 > 0:56:19It's something that's been there for hundreds of years, by great,
0:56:19 > 0:56:24great choreographers. I just did a version of my own,
0:56:24 > 0:56:29but the elemental thing about it is that it's so sacred, it's beautiful.
0:56:44 > 0:56:48In some ways, this is a reflection on Theophile Gautier's
0:56:48 > 0:56:49own 19th-century credo.
0:56:51 > 0:56:54Art for art's sake.
0:56:54 > 0:56:56Beauty above all.
0:56:56 > 0:57:00The ballet Giselle is a hymn to the healing power of beauty.
0:57:05 > 0:57:10Eventually Giselle must leave Albrecht to face his own real-world, alone.
0:57:11 > 0:57:16In two short acts, Giselle has taken us on a transformative journey.
0:57:17 > 0:57:24At its premiere in Paris on the 28th of June, 1841, it was a sensation.
0:57:27 > 0:57:33With Giselle, the face and emotional heart of dance had changed forever,
0:57:33 > 0:57:37and it formulated a tradition that has inspired audiences,
0:57:37 > 0:57:39dancers and choreographers ever since.
0:57:43 > 0:57:47But really, I think Giselle has endured because it speaks
0:57:47 > 0:57:50profound truths to us -
0:57:50 > 0:57:53love, betrayal, forgiveness.
0:57:55 > 0:57:59And, at its heart, is Giselle herself,
0:57:59 > 0:58:01someone who could live in any age.
0:58:04 > 0:58:09I find that Giselle is a character that cleanses you as a human being.
0:58:09 > 0:58:12Something, hopefully, inside changes,
0:58:12 > 0:58:16I think that's part of what I love so much, to be a dancer,
0:58:16 > 0:58:19is the opportunity to become other people,
0:58:19 > 0:58:21and by becoming other people,
0:58:21 > 0:58:24becoming a better person myself.
0:58:24 > 0:58:25Well...
0:58:26 > 0:58:27So it's quite a...
0:58:29 > 0:58:30..beautiful thing to do.