“Giselle” is one of the most famous, and often produced of all the classical ballet’s of the 19th century.  A ballet in two acts with a story devised from tradition by Vernoy de Saint-Georges, Theophile Gautier and Jean Coralli is danced to the music of Adolphe Adam.  While this is the most famous of Adam’s ballets, he is best remembered today as the composer of the beautiful Christmas carol, “O Holy Night.”

Gautier wrote the original story, but it is Saint-Georges who adapted the folk tale to the stage in the version so well-known to audiences today.  The original legend was made popular by the German poet Heinrich Heine.   The choreography was created by one of the greatest of all choreographers of the Romantic period, Jules Perrot, who was also married to one of the leading ballerinas of the day, Carlotta Grisi.  It was Grisi who danced the title role in the premier in Paris in 1841.

Often the expression “It gives me the Wilis” is said when there is something that touches on the mysterious, eerie or frightening.  “Giselle” is the legend from which that expression has grown over the years.