@giselle
A technology-infused reimagining of the iconic ballet that examines the ways social media is changing the nature of love and relationships.
Award-winning Joshua Beamish brings his innovative choreographic vision to the classic tale featuring an all-star lineup of artists from American Ballet Theatre, The National Ballet of Canada, and Philadelphia Ballet. This undeniably modern take on a beloved classic will explore our understandings of love, sex, and relationships in a world of dating apps, Snapchat stories, and Instagram. Using motion-captured digital projections and bold visual effects, this is Giselle reimagined as you’ve never seen her before.
Production Team
Director/Choreographer: Joshua Beamish
Projections/Animator: Brianna Amore
Lighting Designer/Supervisor: Abigail Hoke-Brady
Stage Manager: Andrea Bejarano
Costume Designer: Janie Taylor
Rehearsal Director: Heather Dotto
Costume Constructor: Christina Sinosich
Principal Artists
Giselle: Betsy McBride, American Ballet Theatre
Albrecht: Harrison James, The National Ballet of Canada
Hilarion: Sterling Baca, Philadelphia Ballet
Bathilde: Fangqi Li, American Ballet Theatre
Myrtha: Yoko Kanomata, Ballet Edmonton
Berthe: Beverley Bagg
“One of the finest productions to appear in New York in 2023...On every level, Beamish’s @giselle is an audacious and remarkably intelligent retelling of Giselle”
“A profound pairing of past and future, physicality and absence.. the work inspires a fresh encounter with its topics of love, pursuit, death and grief.”
“A contemporary story ballet as audacious in concept as it is in execution... Beamish has created a unique meld of classical form and popular-culture references.”
“Giselle’s famous mad scene played out powerfully in Beamish’s updated scenario, demonstrating the suffocating pressures of social media on teens and young adults.”
“Beamish’s choreography is highly gestural but more metaphorical than literal... It has the look of a quick conversation, reverberating from bodies”
“Beamish’s smart and piercing rethinking of ballet’s greatest ghost story”
“Transports the timeless grief of a broken heart into the Tinder age.”
Samuel H. Scripps Foundation
@giselle photography by Nina Wurtzel
Photo of Harrison James and Betsy McBride by Cara Tench