Your Daily Dose of Shakespeare and Ballet

By Katie Brown, Sales Associate

“The stage is not merely the meeting place of all the arts, but is also the return of art to life” – Oscar Wilde

Art is not just for those who love to act, sing, or dance. It is meant for everyone to learn from and enjoy. Just like the TV series we ritually set our DVR’s to, ballets and plays are relevant to today’s life situations and serve as tools to educate ourselves on human nature.

Unfortunately, it’s commonly thought that ballets are just for dance lovers and Shakespeare is only for die hard thespians. How are we supposed to grow as artists if we only focus on one form? How are we supposed to grow as individuals if we completely ignore art and what each medium has to offer?

Chicago has a fantastic opportunity this spring to experience the grace and technique of ballet with the emotions and drama we know and love about Shakespeare. The American Ballet Theatre will be performing Giselle March 22-25 at the Auditorium Theatre. Of course, you are all thinking “this girl is obsessed with dance, so of course she’s going to suggest I go see a ballet.” To be quite honest, despite my 19 years of dance training, there is nothing more thrilling to me than to see one of Shakespeare’s plays.

Shakespeare’s plays live on today, not just on the main stage and through ballets, but through our TV screens. Most of these exciting Shakespearian themes have been used as parodies in your favorite TV shows. For example, the love affair between Hamlet and Ophelia is a common unrequited love story we’ve seen many times. Even Claudius’ betrayal to his family is another theme that our favorite dramas draw upon to create tension and suspense. And the idea of seeking forgiveness at the end of a tragic event is very popular among our addictive police, hero, and action TV series.

Giselle carries these same features. It is the story of forbidden love, tragedy, and forgiveness. This story, originally written by French writer Theophile Gautier, truly questions the meaning and importance of love and expresses themes relevant to today’s society. The first act shows the audience two young lovers, whose relationship is forbidden. Giselle is madly in love with a young man named Albrecht. Through many secret meetings and intimate moments, Giselle couldn’t be happier that she’s found the love of her life. However, Giselle discovers Albrecht has many of his own secrets: he is a prince and he is engaged to another woman. Broken hearted, we (the audience) are left breathless as we watch Giselle slip into madness and die. This death scene is one of the most famous scenes in ballet, not only because Giselle’s character is similar to that of the mad Ophelia, but because it is the perfect example of a dancer fully embracing her character to convey a specific emotion to the audience.

In the second act, we see the hopeless Giselle coping with her broken heart in the afterlife. Despite how much Prince Albrecht hurt her, Giselle finds it in her heart and soul to forgive him. She saves him from an exhausting and tormenting death, proving to the audience that love conquers all.

These ideas of love, loss, and forgiveness are aspects we see in everyday life. So, why is it less common to make an outing to see them in a ballet?

As a sales associate, some of the responses I have received are, “I don’t understand ballet” or “I don’t know the story.” With plays, audience members are blessed to have verbal dialogue as their guide to understanding what is happening on stage. It’s a common belief that at a ballet the audience members, who are unfamiliar with the plot, are forced to rely on the plot summary in their playbill.

Like actors, dancers are not just bringing the art to the audience; they bring life to the story. Dancers are actors. Through movement, facial expressions, and gestures, the dancers are telling a story just like the actors, and it’s a story we can all relate to: falling in love, losing someone we care about, and finding in our hearts the ability to forgive regardless of how much we were hurt in the past. The only difference between a ballet and a play is the mode of communication. Actors speak and dancers move.

Audience members will only gain by attending a ballet. Your experiences and insights will be the same as attending a play, but you will be opened up to a new form of art, growing not just as an audience member, but as an artistic individual. And no, you don’t need 10 years of performance experience under your belt to be involved in the arts community.

Art is a necessary part of living. I encourage you to take the time and see Giselle March 22-25. I want you to allow yourself to relish in each movement. Enwrap yourself in every smile, turn, leap, tear, and gesture. Giselle is the best way to experience the elements of dance and theatre in one performance, powerfully showing the meaning of love. Allow yourself to bring art to life.

For subscriptions or groups of 10 plus, please call 312.431.2357.

For single tickets, visit ticketmaster.com/auditorium

Does love conquer all? A look at love through Giselle

By Katie Brown, Sales Associate

Believe it or not, Giselle is one of the most popular ballets among the dance community. Young dancers all around the country take the time to learn and master variations from Giselle for various competitions and auditions.

And guess what? You already know the story! Giselle is a love story with themes you’ve seen through other mediums. In fact, we know most of the plots of famous ballets because of movies, TV, and Disney. For instance, we all know the story of The Nutcracker from watching cartoon TV parodies as children. We know the story of Swan Lake due to the recent popular movie Black Swan. And thanks to Disney, we know the beautiful story of Sleeping Beauty. But, what about the other story ballets? Where did we hear the story of Giselle? The only way to know that is to hear the full story.

Giselle is the story of love, betrayal, and forgiveness. It is truly a story that raises the question “does love conquer all?”

Giselle is a young, energetic girl who loves to dance. She lives with her mother in a small village, where it is not safe at night, especially in the woods. It is believed that mystical beings called the Wilis live in the woods. The Wilis are women once deceived by their lovers, who then died of despair and were left for the rest of eternity dancing in the woods to nurse their aching hearts.

All of the boys and girls in the village are warned about the Wilis, who dislike all men and force them to dance to death if caught in the woods. Girls who love to dance, like Giselle, are more desirable to young men and are therefore more likely to have their hearts broken and end up as Wilis. Giselle’s mother does not want to lose her daughter to a broken heart, so she constantly warns Giselle to be careful.

In Act One, Giselle, our carefree and loving protagonist, falls in love with a man she believes is named Loys; however his real name is Albrecht and he is a prince. Albrecht is engaged to a princess, but ends up falling in love with Giselle at first sight. In order to see Giselle and keep his engagement a secret, he hides his true identity and meets with Giselle in disguise.

Giselle and Loys, Albrecht in disguise, spend their days together in the village. They laugh, socialize and dance. Despite all of the fun and happiness, trouble lurks in the shadows. Hilarion, a young boy and Giselle’s friend, discovers Albrecht’s secret and is distraught by the deception and lies he leads Giselle to believe. Hilarion plans to uncover the truth. He brings Albrecht’s royal clothes and sword to the center of the Village, and there Hilarion exposes Albrecht’s secret, reveling his real engagement and betrayal to Giselle.

Giselle is shocked and goes into a state of despair and hopelessness. She goes around pulling on her hair and making mad gestures to everyone standing by. Unable to live with the truth any longer, Giselle dies of hopelessness and a broken heart.

Act Two takes the audience to the forest, where Giselle’s grave lies. Her grave is simple, with a cross on top. She has become one of the Wilis and is summoned by Myrta, the Queen of the Wilis to spend her time following Myrta’s commands, dancing, and aching from losing her one true love.

One night, Albrecht goes into the forest to bring lilies to Giselle’s grave. When he looks up, all the Wilis are around him, but he only recognizes one of the Wilis, Giselle.

Giselle takes pity on the guilt-ridden, depressed Albrecht and dances with him. Meanwhile, the other Wilis find and capture Hilarion, who was also in the woods looking for Giselle’s grave. They force him to dance until he dies of exhaustion.

Once they finish dancing, Myrta and the Wilis notice Albrecht is still present. Giselle tells Albrecht to seek refuge on her grave and he hides, clutching to the cross for his life. But because Giselle is a Wilis, she is forced to obey Myrta’s commands. She then brings Albrecht away from her grave and dances with him.

Myrta and the other Wilis are in awe of the beautiful, graceful dancing between Albrecht and Giselle. The two dance until the sun begins to rise. Once the first glimmer of light is clear over the horizon, the Wilis fade into the darkness and return to their graves. Albrecht, weak from dancing, begs Giselle to stay.

Regardless of the sunlight, Giselle stays with Albrecht until the very last moment. When she realizes she has saved him from death of exhaustion, she returns to her grave and Albrecht is left in the forest, weeping for his loss.

Giselle found it in her heart to forgive Albrecht when she took pity on him. She realized that despite all the pain he caused her, she loved him unconditionally.

So riddle me this, does Giselle’s actions prove the common ideal that love conquers all? Now that you know the plot, it’s time to decide for yourself.

American Ballet Theatre’s performance of Giselle plays from March 22-25 on the Auditorium Theatre stage.

For subscriptions or groups of 10 plus, please call 312.431.2357.

For single tickets, visit ticketmaster.com/auditorium

American Ballet Theatre Leaps onto Our Stage for Three Engagements over the Next Six Years

Irina Dvorovenko and Maxim Beloserkovsky in Giselle. Photo by MIRA.

We're extremely excited to have one of North America's most prestigious ballet companies, American Ballet Theatre back at the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University for three engagements over the next six years. Starting next year, American Ballet Theatre will return with five performances of the classic story ballet Giselle between March 22-25, 2012.

“This partnership is a significant boon to the cultural community of Chicago, and also marks a landmark moment in the history of the Auditorium Theatre. American Ballet Theatre is undoubtedly one of the finest dance companies in the world. It is with great pride that we welcome American Ballet Theatre to join the other world class companies that have and continue to grace Chicago’s landmark stage.” - Auditorium Theatre Executive Director Brett Batterson

American Ballet Theatre has performed ten critically acclaimed engagements at the Auditorium Theatre. The company’s engagements were in 1969, 1970, 1971, 1973, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1994 and 1995.