What do you need to know about Giselle (1841) as an optional set work in the Romantic ballet period?
Giselle (Coralli and Perrot, 1841): an optional set work within the Romantic ballet period, its choreographic intention, two-act structure, movement, aural setting, physical setting and Romantic context.
The optional AQA A-Level Dance set work Giselle (Coralli and Perrot, 1841) and its area of study, the Romantic ballet period: intention, two-act structure, pointe work and ballet blanc, Adam's score, Romantic staging and context, for Component 2 Section B.
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What this dot point is asking
Giselle (Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot, 1841) is one of the four optional set works for AQA A-Level Dance, studied within the area of study the Romantic ballet period. If your centre chooses it, you answer the Component 2 Section B essays on this work. You need secure knowledge of its choreographic intention, two-act structure, movement and conventions, aural setting, physical setting, and the Romantic context that produced it, and the skill to use that knowledge to analyse and evaluate how meaning is made.
Context and choreographic intention
The intention is to dramatise quintessential Romantic themes: idealised and betrayed love, the fragility of the heart, madness and death, and the supernatural. Giselle, a peasant girl, loves the disguised nobleman Albrecht; when his deception and his betrothal to another are revealed, she loses her reason and dies. In the afterlife she becomes one of the Wilis, the spirits of betrayed brides who dance men to death, yet her love and forgiveness protect Albrecht until dawn. The work reflects the wider Romantic movement's fascination with emotion, imagination, the otherworldly and the tension between the real world and an idealised, spiritual one.
Structure
The ballet is in two contrasting acts:
Act 1 (the real world). A sunlit Rhineland village at harvest. Giselle loves Albrecht, who is disguised as a peasant. The jealous gamekeeper Hilarion exposes Albrecht as a nobleman betrothed to Bathilde. Giselle, who has a weak heart and has been warned against dancing, breaks down in the famous mad scene and dies.
Act 2 (the supernatural world). A moonlit forest graveyard. Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis, and her ghostly corps summon Giselle's spirit. The Wilis condemn Hilarion and then Albrecht to dance until they die, but Giselle's enduring love shields Albrecht until the dawn breaks and the Wilis lose their power.
The two-act structure stages the Romantic opposition between the earthly and the ideal, the living and the spirit world. The shift from the warm, communal village to the cold, moonlit graveyard is the structural heart of the work.
Movement, aural and physical setting
The aural setting is Adolphe Adam's score, which uses recurring leitmotifs (themes associated with characters or ideas) to unify the ballet and underline emotional moments, such as the motif heard at Giselle's mad scene. The physical setting contrasts the two acts: a realistic Rhineland village with folk costume and harvest props in Act 1, against a misty, moonlit graveyard in Act 2, with the female corps in white Romantic tutus. The original staging used gas lighting to create the atmospheric, supernatural glow the period loved. Design and music work together so that the audience feels the shift from the natural to the supernatural.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of AQA exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
AQA 2019 style6 marksExplain how the choreography of Act 2 of Giselle uses Romantic ballet conventions to create an ethereal, supernatural effect.Show worked answer →
A 6-mark "explain" rewards named conventions tied to the supernatural effect.
- Pointe work
- Explain that dancing en pointe makes the Wilis appear weightless and barely touching the earth, suggesting they are spirits rather than living women.
- Ballet blanc
- The corps in white Romantic tutus, dancing in unison patterns by moonlight, creates a uniform, ghostly mass that embodies the otherworldly realm.
- Floating, lifted line
- Soft, lifted arms, gliding bourrees and supported lifts give a sense of hovering and lightness.
Markers reward correctly named Romantic conventions and a genuine link from each to the ethereal, supernatural atmosphere of the second act.
AQA 2022 style12 marksDiscuss how the structure and physical setting of Giselle reflect the concerns of the Romantic ballet period.Show worked answer →
A 12-mark "discuss" wants structure and physical setting argued against the Romantic context.
- Two-act contrast
- Discuss the deliberate contrast: Act 1 is the earthly, sunlit Rhineland village of peasants and harvest; Act 2 is the moonlit graveyard of the supernatural Wilis. The structure stages the Romantic opposition of the real and the ideal, the living and the spirit world.
- Physical setting
- The village set and folk costume in Act 1 versus the misty forest, Romantic white tutus and gas lighting in Act 2 visually mark the shift from the natural to the supernatural.
- Romantic concerns
- Connect both to the period's fascination with idealised love, betrayal, madness, death and the supernatural, and with atmosphere and emotion over classical formality.
Strong answers tie specific structural and design choices to named Romantic concerns and judge how effectively they create the period's characteristic mood, rather than retelling the story.
Related dot points
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- Contextual study of a set work: examining the choreographic intention, constituent features and the cultural, historical, social and production context that shaped a set work, and applying this in analysis and evaluation.
How AQA A-Level Dance expects you to study a set work in context: its choreographic intention and constituent features, plus the cultural, historical, social and production context that shaped it, applied in Component 2 analysis and evaluation.
- Analysing and interpreting dance: describing the constituent features (movement, dancers, physical setting, aural setting) and interpreting how they combine to create meaning and communicate the choreographic intention.
How AQA A-Level Dance Component 2 expects you to analyse the constituent features of a dance (movement, dancers, physical setting, aural setting) and interpret how they combine to make meaning and communicate the choreographic intention.
- Key practitioners and styles: the choreographers, performers and companies central to the areas of study, their distinctive choreographic styles, influences and signature works.
How AQA A-Level Dance expects you to know the key practitioners of your areas of study: their distinctive choreographic styles, influences, signature works, and how their style shaped the works you analyse for Component 2.
Sources & how we know this
- AQA A-level Dance (7237) specification: Critical engagement — AQA (2016)
- Giselle — Encyclopaedia Britannica (2024)