Re-envisioning Giselle

In April 2020, the Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle will present its fresh staging of Giselle by its artistic director, Peter Boal. This is a rare instance of an American company basing a revival of a 19th-century classical ballet on primary source documents. The manuscripts of original source material on Giselle—from 1842, from the 1860s, and from around 1903—are particularly rich, and one of the manuscripts has emerged only recently. Taken together, they provide crucial information, about both mime and dance scenes, information that has been forgotten over time.