Famous stories Part 2

Last time I wrote about 3 large ballets: "Swan Lake", "Sleeping Beauty", and "The Nutcracker".  Now I would like you to know other famous stories.

"Giselle", "La Sylphide" and "Swan Lake" are called "Ballet Blanc"(that means "white ballet"). A lot of dancers who wear white costumes come on the stage. White costumes are used for ghosts (in "Giselle"),fairy(in "La Sylphide") and swans (in"Swan Lake"). The scene with many white dancers are very beautiful and romantic, so these ballet are called "romantic ballet".

I want to introduce "Giselle" to you.
Giselle is a girl who is in poor in health but loves dancing. She has a boyfriend whose name is Albrecht. But he concealed the fact that he is nobleman and has a fiancee. One day his fiancee appeared and made friends with Giselle. Giselle treated her a lot. But because of the fiancee's visit, Giselle realized that Albrecht is going to get married to the fiancee, not to Giselle. Giselle got mad with sadness and collasped. She died because she was weak and loved him deeply.
In this story women who died before she got married (because she was betrayed men) become ghosts called "Willi". When they find a man, they make him to dance until he dies because of exhaustion. Giselle also became Willi. 
Arbrecht came to Giselle's grave. He regreted what he did. He meet Giselle again. Then other Willi made him to dance. He danced with Willi all the night and got very tired out. Giselle danced with and encouraged him all the night. When the sun rised, Willi disappeared; he survived the crisis with the cheer of Giselle. When Giselle disappeared, he found that he has a flower which are left by Giselle.

In this story, a dancer who performs Giselle must perform both a girl and a ghost. Ghost doesn't have weight, so this character is difficult to perform. In act 2, Giselle is ghost, but she still loves Arbrecht deeply.  Performing Giselle needs both great power of expression and enough techniques.


There are many other famous ballet stories; "Romeo and Juliet" is one of them. The story is famous.
When you make a plan to see ballet, I recommend that you should choose the story you know. I think "Giselle", "Lake Swan" and "Romeo and Juliet" are easy to understand.