While captivating audiences worldwide with the movements of love, death, vengeance and salvation, the timeless romantic ballet “Giselle” has rarely ever been stripped from its traditional choreography and original score.

This very bind of being creatively constrained to the original work is precisely why Australia native Graeme Murphy has decided to shatter the ballet world’s artistic shackles and create a groundbreaking new version of “Giselle.”

In partnership with the Universal Ballet Korea, Murphy’s highly anticipated re-envisioning of the time-honored classic is slated to make its world premiere in Seoul next month. 


“The world has had 170 years of this production,” said Murphy during a press conference held at the Universal Arts Center in Seoul on Wednesday.

“So part of the process of creating this work has been ― not to forget that tradition, to uphold that tradition ― but to face it from a new direction,” the choreographer added. “If you consider that the traditional Giselle is the least changed of the many of the great classics, it is almost as if every note of the original and every step have been glued together.”

Although staying true to the original storyline in his contemporary reinterpretation, the choreographer decided to make a major alteration in the music, by giving it a new score.

“When I started to work on this, every time I heard the music ― the original score ― I could only see the original steps. It was as if I was absolutely forced to do the original choreography,” he explained.

“I got down on my knees and begged to use a new score,” he added. “… from that point on, my world changed. I love the original story and I’ve kept fairly true to the original story, but I have had to reimagine it in a new world.”

One of the biggest changes that the local audience can anticipate in the upcoming premiere, aside from a new score, is the added depth and darker dynamics to the characters. While Giselle is more often than not portrayed in most productions as a fragile and emotionally venerable peasant girl, Murphy’s Giselle can be seen as “feisty.”

“I was thinking about Giselle having a frail heart, the choreography is so hard in this production, she should wouldn’t last the first ten minutes if she had a frail heart,” he explained.

“Like Shakespeare, I find great works can be reinterpreted,” said Murphy. “I’m not doing it to shock, I’m not doing it because I don’t respect the original, I’m doing it because if we weren’t reinterpreting Shakespeare in current times, how would we get new audiences, how would we get young people involved?”

The world premiere of Murphy’s “Giselle” will be held at the Seoul Arts Center’s Opera Theatre from June 13 to 17 (except for Monday, June 15).

The role of Giselle will be played by Universal Ballet Korea principal dancers Hwang Hye-min, Kang Mi-sun and Kim Nah-eun, while the role of Albrecht will be played by Konstantin Novoselov, Lee Dong-tak and Kim Min-woo.

Ticket prices for the ballet range from 10,000 won ($9) to 100,000 won. For more information, visit www.sac.or.kr.

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)