‘We fell in love with the ballet and with her’: why 184-year-old Giselle keeps us swooning

The role has inspired the world’s best ballerinas and her story is as popular as ever – whether revived, reimagined or deconstructed. Dancers explain the appeal of Giselle

‘I thought I looked too healthy to play her,” says Miyako Yoshida of her debut in Giselle, back in the 90s, when she was a vibrant, strong young dancer asked to play the part of the sweet village girl with a weak heart. “But from the first time I came on stage, I could just live her,” she says; she simply became Giselle. Yoshida is not the only dancer, or audience member, or ballet critic, to fall in love with this 19th-century peasant girl. “It was always my favourite,” says English National Ballet’s Erina Takahashi, “emotionally you can explore yourself in such a wide range.” “It’s a perfect ballet choreographically,” according to veteran dancer Alessandra Ferri.

Giselle is almost the oldest ballet heroine to still grace the stage, created in 1841 by librettist Théophile Gautier, choreographers Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot, and a young star ballerina of the day Carlotta Grisi. Through the decades the character has inspired legendary performances from some of the world’s best ballerinas: Galina Ulanova, Natalia Makarova, and more recently a startling interpretation from Natalia Osipova.