Milwaukee Ballet Impressively Reimagines ‘Giselle’

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Photo by Rachel Malehorn

Giselle - Milwaukee Ballet 2025

Jennifer Hackbarth and Parker Brasser-Vos in Milwaukee Ballet's 'Giselle' (2025)

Milwaukee Ballet opened its season this weekend with Adam Adolphe’s Giselle, choreographed and story-adapted by Michael Pink to be set in a war-torn ghetto in the 1940s. 

I saw the closing performance, featuring Lahna Vanderbush as Giselle, Randy Crespo as Albrecht, Marko Micov as Hilarion, and Amanda Lewis as Giselle’s mother. In a ballet full of intricate plot points, these four artists in particular, alongside a formidable ensemble of dancers, drove the story home; their characters’ motivations and arcs were the clear, steady heartbeat under the orchestrations. In my interview with Pink a few weeks back, I accidentally referred to the dancers as “actors” in one moment, and as I began to correct myself, he jumped in, saying, “Well, they are actors!” I understood his point perfectly while watching Giselle.

The top of the show opened in darkness, with bright white spotlights scanning the stage as Hilarion climbed over and leapt down from a tall barricade. All matters of production design, from lighting (David Grill) to scene and costumes (Lez Brotherston) tactfully fit into and further fleshed out the community built on-stage by the dancers and their bustling energy. Powerlines hung over the courtyard, propaganda posters covered the prison walls, the clothes were simple but well cared for, one man even rode a bike through the crowd, and street performers provided real music for dance. I was blown away when they rolled on a piano! The most notable instrument played by the on-stage musicians, however, was the violin provided by Violins of Hope; it served as a reminder of the real history of communities just like the one we saw on stage, and the ability of joy and tragedy to coexist.

Complicated Chemistry

This production of Giselle wars with itself: it is neither just a tragedy about betrayal nor a fable promoting forgiveness. The connection between Giselle and Albrecht cannot be simplified to one-sided lust or manipulation, but it is also not an idyllic love by any means, and Vanderbrush and Crespo played out that complicated chemistry on stage. Their first dance together was playful, and when dancing with the larger community, it was wonderful to see Giselle, emboldened by their love, let herself get carried away in the same dizzying kicks and leaps as her neighbors.

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Photo by Rachel Malehorn

Giselle - Milwaukee Ballet 2025

The Milwaukee Ballet Company in 'Giselle' (2025)

The group numbers were impressive in their display of controlled chaos: the transitions from rowdy and rambunctious partner dances into tight individual choreography were seamless. And when someone jumped in for a solo moment, it was inspired by the encouragement by their neighbors to share their talents. Of course, this display of communal love makes Albrecht’s betrayal—and Hilarion’s discovery of it—only keener.

Here, the music took a sour turn, almost as if it had gone rancid, reflecting in its notes how Giselle herself was growing sick with despair. Her movements turned frantic, classically hysteric, as Albrecht scorned her and the soldiers mocked her; then, she snatched up a bouquet of flowers from her doorstep and passed them out to the soldiers. Just like Hamlet’s Ophelia, her love had failed her, and the madness that followed spurs on her death. Then, leaving no time for the community to mourn, the soldiers backed them up against the barricade as the curtain fell. The rapidity of this act one finale left me breathless, and when a child behind me asked their mother, “Wait, why did they stop there?” I couldn’t help but empathize.

Unjust End

Act II began with the community’s mass execution, then shifted into a world of cold mysticism. The dancers became spirits of the lives they had once inhabited, and they moved stiffly, as if stretching their sleeping limbs for the first time again. Their dancing as well, though a whisper of what once was, had turned harsher: a furor in response to their unjust end. When they force Albrecht to dance in an attempt to end his life, he is thrashed about in a similar manner.

Giselle’s dancing, in contrast, remained airy and elegant. Her desire to save Albrecht, to keep him alive until the light of morning, pulls them into a duet together; there was not a moment in this dance when his hands were not supporting her in various lifts and nose-diving dips to the floor. Despite his betrayal, despite how his choices had affected the fates of all involved, Albrecht demonstrated a commitment to goodwill, and the music itself shifted in tone to almost twinkle with the lights.

Then, finally, in what felt to me like yet another literary reference, the graveyard was the east, and Giselle was the sun. Warm light streamed in from where she stood on stage, and the spirits departed to their rest, leaving Albrecht to continue life in pursuit of becoming a better man.

This Giselle cleverly turned a classical, romantic tragedy into a gripping, modern story about not only war but also the communities and families that can form under its oppression—despite it and in spite of it. It was clear that the artists on stage believed in the value of the story they were telling, and I look forward to seeing more of the company’s wonderful work this season.