As the last production in its 2025-26 season, Houston Ballet has presented a gem of the Romantic ballet tradition: Giselle. Artistic Director Stanton Welch’s iteration, celebrating ten years since its premiere, is significant in that he retains the entirety of Adolphe Adam’s luxurious original score. Adam’s music is rich and decadent, and Welch exploits this by offering multi-dimensionality to the narrative and characters.
For the uninitiated, Giselle tells the story of a young village woman who falls in love with Albrecht, a nobleman in disguise. Albrecht, unbeknownst to Giselle, is betrothed to the Duke’s daughter, Bathilde. When the ruse is revealed by Hilarion, the Duke’s gamesman and jealous admirer of Giselle, she goes mad with despair. Giselle’s heart is weak, and the deception is too much for her; she dies in her mother’s arms and becomes one of the feared Willis, spirits of young women scorned by their lovers before their wedding day. Men who cross their paths are cursed and forced to dance until death.
As a production, Giselle is stellar in the German fairy tale rendering. Roberta Guidi de Bagno’s costume and scenic design are as indulgent as Adam’s score, and the ghostly visual effects in Act II thrill without imposing on the gravitas.
On opening night, Principal Yuriko Kajiya shone as Giselle, a role Welch created for her in 2016. Her dancing seemed almost weightless, as transparent as the spirit entity she would later become. She is a superb actress, conveying Giselle’s feminine naivete without rendering her childlike. Her misplaced love for Albrecht (danced splendidly by Principal Conor Walsh) is believable and taken seriously – who wouldn’t fall for a handsome, charming, seemingly good guy? Her earnestness makes her Mad Scene, the moment she realizes she has been deceived, all the more heartbreaking.
By comparison, Welch’s rendering of this scene is quite long, and Kajiya takes advantage of this to show Giselle’s breaking bit by bit. We see the full range of heartbreak, from disbelief, to denial, to realization, to despair. Kajiya conveys that Giselle’s love runs deep and we see the full scale of Albrecht’s foolhardy folly. Giselle, though young and inexperienced, is to be taken seriously. Only when crazed does Albrecht realize this, and only when she collapses in death does Hilarion understand he has acted without care.
Act II represents one of the finest ballet blancs in the Romantic tradition, with the Willis summoning the spirit of Giselle to join their jilted ranks. It was stunning, as expected, but opening night offered a revelation in the form of Danbi Kim’s conjuring of Myrtha, Queen of the Willis.
Kim imbues this enraged feminine specter with a regal beauty that enhances every sharp movement and arabesque line, her gaze filled with both a chilliness of heart and wonderment of her enchanted forest domain. Through Kim’s embodiment, we can gauge a glimmer of history and pre-ethereal persona; Myrtha was a woman once, made of flesh and bone and the capacity to feel and love beyond her mortal limits. The way she commands her handmaidens, Zulma and Moyna (danced in luscious detail by Alyssa Springer and Jacquelyn Long), with a steely visage yet soft, shimmering port de bras, suggests an understanding and care for her denizens. She does not command a coven; she is leading a sisterhood.
I was mesmerized by this rendition of Myrtha, Queen of the Willis, often portrayed through villainous archetypes. There was a quality about Kim’s expansive dancing and direct, yet, soft gaze that generated a spark of humanity that not only dominated the Act II narrative, but altered it, at least for me.
The Willis congregate for their manhunt, impressive in their marching arabesque formation, and under Myrtha’s direction, track down Hilarion and force him to dance until death. Despite his pleas, Zulma and Moyna dispose of him over a cliff. Myrtha and the Willis then turn their attention to Albrecht, whose fate is halted by an imploring Giselle, her love for the man who deceived her stronger than ever.
Traditionally it is understood that it is Giselle’s eternal love that resists the curse of the Willis. But when Kim yields each time, her body wilting and morphing into elegant shapes of repose, I had the impression of witnessing an impassioned exchange of perspectives. In Kim’s prudent performance, Myrtha is listening to Giselle, another feminine vessel, a sister in disagreement.
When the church bells signal dawn, Myrtha and her Willis retreat. Again, a traditional rendering would say that this moment is a defeat of sorts, but with Kim’s solemn fade into the hazy background, I had the impression of acquiescence. She has spared Albrecht not because of some arbitrary signal of time, but because Giselle has stated her case. Myrtha disagrees, her hatred of men still intact, but she will not impose on a fellow Willi, once a woman like herself who also loved with abandon.
Through her single performance alone, Kim offered a feminist rendering of a ballet created at the height of the Victorian cult of the ballerina. I did not expect to have such a revelatory experience watching the beloved, yet, familiar Giselle. As expected, it was a jewel in every way, but Danbi Kim gave a lesson in the power of performance, and how it can reshape long-established tropes and archetypes in new and startling ways.
Performances continue through June 21 at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 1:30 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at Wortham Theater Center, 501 Texas. For more information, call 713-227-2787 or visit houstonballet.org. $25-$230.