Eifman Ballet

Red Giselle

Returning with the sumptuous and cinematic ballet that first captivated our attention in 2000, Eifman Ballet brings back their unforgettable Red Giselle for the Northrop season finale. This drama tells the story of Russian prima ballerina Olga Spessivtseva, who fled Soviet Russian in 1923 to win acclaim in Paris, London, and the United States. Her lightness, virtuosity, and perfect technique made her an international star, but her own life tragically mirrored that of the fragile romantic heroine Giselle—a role for which she earned great acclaim. She succumbed to depression and madness and spent two decades languishing in an asylum, presumed dead by the dance world. Propelled by an electrifying score that combines Tchaikovsky and Bizet, Red Giselle is a spellbinding full-length work performed only by Eifman Ballet.

“It took courage to make Red Giselle just before the fall of communism, and it took genius to make it this good.” –The San Francisco Chronicle

“Eifman's ballet offers up scenes from Spessivtseva's life and takes the audience from revolutionary Petrograd to Paris in the Jazz Age, from the shelter of ballet class and the insular world of art to the horror of political oppression and the ineffable melancholy of exile.” –The San Francisco Chronicle