Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg: Red Giselle

Dedicated as a tribute to great Russian ballerina Olga Spessivtseva, Red Giselle tells the story of this great artist — whose greatest role was Giselle – from the time she was selected to star in the Imperial Theater, through her complex and often abusive relationship with a secret police agent, to her flight from Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution and 20 years in a psychiatric ward in New York.

Red Giselle is one of Eifman’s best known productions, with a sweeping narrative expressed through the lens of Spessivtseva’s most celebrated role. It’s a compelling ballet-within-a-ballet that blurs the lines between real and imagined in a gripping, contemporary tragedy performed with richness and ingenuity by Eifman’s gifted company.