Halla Ólafsdóttir / John Moström

Giselle goes out to all of you that enjoy; Ballet, Cyberpunk, Celine Dion, J.S Bach, Rihanna and Contemporary dance. Halla Ólafsdóttir and John Moström are remaking the ballet Giselle together with 40 Giselles from Balettakademien Stockholm.

Giselle is hemmed by darkness and has an almost apocalyptic wildness where we witness the unravelling and morphing of various characters from the world of ballet. We are confronted with the hierarchies within the language of ballet: it’s technique and pantomime, the distortion of the narrative through score making, the blurring of the roles between male and female, prima ballerinas and corps de ballet. Where princes turn into trees that turn into eagles that turn into farmers that turn into Wilis that turn you inside out.

Giselle features a group of artists who have been hardcore workshopping Giselle for two weeks at the Uferstudios in Berlin. It has been a collective individual process generating a new version of Giselle every day and now we want to share her with you. Come as you are to studio 12 at the Uferstudios and join us for a 90 minutes horrific dream odyssey through the world of ballet, where there is too much of everything.

The initial idea for the project springs out of a love/hate relationship towards classical ballet and we want to explore new ways to practice it that can generate joy and a sense of togetherness. The journey leading us to where we are now has been shared with Elizabeth Ward, Amanda Apetrea, Balettakademien Stockholm and other various stars from all over the world.