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Thu 22.09.2022 Ksenia Ovsyanick

Notes on Giselle by Ksenia Ovsyanick

Photo: Mariia Kulchytska Photo: Mariia Kulchytska

In each ballerina's career, GISELLE is like Hamlet for actors. It tests you both artistically and technically and offers an amazing playground for interpretation.
There are so many ways you can approach the story. It can be about forgiveness, selflessness, the naivety of love or what loving truly means.
The challenge, especially during the iconic »mad scene«, is to understand and perform (so it is not just in your head) your every emotional transition, so the audience can follow and believe you.

The way I start building my character is by putting myself in the situation and setting and then see how I would react to the surrounding circumstances. After the production surrounding me, dancers influence how the storytelling develops. Because of that, every time I dive into this role with new sets of factors, I emerge with a slightly different approach, sometimes discovering a new perspective on a role or the story altogether.

And then there is Act 2…I could probably work on this part forever, getting rid of any elements in my dancing that could possibly disturb from story and surreality of Giselle's presence. You perfect the technique so that everybody forgets about it and instead follows the journey Giselle and Albrecht go through and such important emotions we have the responsibility to project. More than anything this ballet teaches us about selflessness (and the consequences of when you only think about yourself). And I believe it is extremely important to communicate that. After all our job exists to make our world a slightly better place.