Programme

After Phèdre!, François Gremaud takes up a new challenge and invites Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s former dancer Samantha van Wissen to embark on the funny yet edifying choreographic journey of one of the most famous ballets of the romantic repertoire: Giselle.



Giselle dies of heartbreak and her lover is bewitched by a vengeful dance, but Giselle’s spirit manages to save her beloved by dancing with him. Inspired by a dancer Théophile Gautier was passionately in love with and with music by Adolphe Adam, this poetic, musical and choreographic gem from 1841 is the ultimate dream of every ballerina and requires tremendous performers to convey its indescribable and ineffable emotion. 

Joined by four young musicians, the talented Samantha van Wissen gives a new life to this ancestral ballet, gently dusts it off and shares with the audience her passion for an art to which she dedicated her whole life. With a light touch of irony, she unveils all the various aspects of the work and its character, sometimes becoming a speaker telling a tale, sometimes a ballerina whose whole moving body is inhabited by the dizzy heights of love. Everything is brought to the stage, with an extra je ne sais quoi.