Is "Giselle" dead?

[Hans]

I would say that coaches and AD's permit, or even encourage, dancers to gloss over the mime because they think (or they think the audience thinks) that it's boring, but that it has to be in there because "Giselle" is the oldest continuously performed ballet and it's their duty to leave it unchanged.

That, or--since they know what all the gestures mean--they don't notice that they aren't being performed very clearly since they automatically "fill in the gaps" mentally.

[richard53dog]

So what would make this more dramatically effective?

Perhaps those Giselles who project a certain manic fragility in their First Act gaiety -- a little too much intensity, perhaps, something subtley off kilter -- are more effective as they collapse into madness than are those who really do appear to be happy peasants.

Maybe portray Giselle as being bi-polar?

[sgushyonka]

So what would make this more dramatically effective?

Perhaps those Giselles who project a certain manic fragility in their First Act gaiety -- a little too much intensity, perhaps, something subtley off kilter -- are more effective as they collapse into madness than are those who really do appear to be happy peasants.

Maybe portray Giselle as being bi-polar?

Giselle is certainly not dead in my part of the world - St Petersburg Russia. It's one of the most performed and best loved ballets of all here!