BWW Q&A: Nicole Kelsh Talks GISELLE at Ballet Theatre of Maryland

Since Giselle opened in Paris in 1841, its poignant themes of betrayal and mercy have been captivating audiences worldwide. With music by Adolphe Adam and choreography based on Petipa’s late-19th-century revivals, Giselle has become the epitome of Romantic-era ballet.

Pull back the veil between the living and the dead with us on October 17-19 for a bittersweet love story you won’t soon forget.

Giselle opens in a German village, where the peasant girl Giselle meets with her sweetheart, Albrecht. She believes that he is another peasant, but Albrecht is secretly a nobleman taking a brief escape from his responsibilities. Despite this subterfuge, Albrecht is madly in love with Giselle.

Giselle loves nothing more than to dance, but her mother cautions her that her heart is too weak. When a jealous peasant boy, Hilarion, reveals that Albrecht is a nobleman and is betrothed to someone else, Giselle goes mad. Her heart fails her, and she dies tragically.

In Act II, her heartbreak extends into the afterlife: a sisterhood of vindictive spirits, called wilis, awakens Giselle from her grave. Because the wilis all died of broken hearts, they now seek revenge by capturing men and forcing them to dance to their deaths. When Albrecht comes to lay flowers at Giselle's grave, she must decide whether to punish the man who broke her heart or protect him from the wilis' wrath. 

Contrasting the joy of rustic peasant dances with the malevolence of the wilis’ revenge, this haunting ballet is a perfect companion to your Halloween season. Experience the joys of first love and the tragedy of its loss in Giselle this October!

Nicole Kelsch received her early training from Peter and Kristin Degnan at Ballet Northeast in Pennsylvania. She also received training from Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet, Ballet Austin, Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts, and Princeton Ballet. Nicole graduated from Point Park University in Pittsburgh, receiving her Bachelor of Arts in Ballet Performance in three years. Upon graduation, she danced professionally with Columbia City Ballet, Atlanta Festival Ballet, and Connecticut Ballet. ​

In 2006, Nicole joined The Ballet Theatre of Maryland as an apprentice under the direction of Dianna Cuatto. She was promoted to Principal Dancer in 2008 and throughout her career was featured as Clara and The Snow Queen in The Nutcracker, Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, the Firebird in The Firebird, Swanhilda in Coppelia, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, as a Principal in Antony Tudor’s Continuo, the Principal Couple in Italian Symphonette, Titania and Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Magdalena in An American Southwest Carmen, Cinderella in Cinderella, Guinevere in Excalibur, Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, Pearl in The Little Mermaid, and has performed the Don Quixote Pas de Deux. 

In 2008, after having served on the faculty for two years, Nicole became the School Principal for The Ballet Theatre of Maryland Conservatory. She was named the Ballet Mistress for the company in 2015. Nicole retired from performing in March 2020 and became the Artistic Director in July 2020. She successfully led the company through a full 2020-2021 performing season at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, staging performances of Edward Stewart’s Dracula, Dianna Cuatto’s The Nutcracker, An American Southwest Carmen, and The Little Mermaid. 

What inspired you to take on the role of Artistic Director for the Ballet Theatre of Maryland?

I worked closely with our previous Artistic Director, Dianna Cuatto, who taught me the ins and outs of running a professional ballet company. Ultimately, I love watching the next generation of professional dancers achieve their goals, and I'm passionate about providing dance experiences for everyone in our community. My job allows me to do that everyday.

Can you share your approach to staging Giselle this season?

I almost always start with the principals learning their choreography first so they have time to get comfortable with the steps and then we can add the acting and emotion. As they learn the steps, I try to give them the emotional motivation for each section so they can think about that as they review the choreography. When they feel comfortable with the steps and their spacing on the stage, we can really get into the coaching of the character and deep emotions. For Giselle, I also have started the corps de ballet in Act 2 right away because of the difficulty and amount of dancing they have. Their energy adds to the depth of the emotion of the ballet and their precision and commitment to their ghostly characters is paramount to the overall feel of the ballet. Everyone, corps and principals have been diligent and rising to the occasion through the process!

How has your previous training influenced your current work as an Artistic Director?

During my career, I had the opportunity to dance many leading roles in different ballets with characters that ranged from comical to tragic. I loved delving into the characters and imagining who they were outside of the ballet and what their motivations were. I bring that experience to the dancers learning new characters through their coaching process. Ballet is a highly technical art form, and the dancers have studied the technique for many years by the time they join the company. That technical work is never done, but every person onstage has to also have a commitment to character and acting in order for us to give the audience the best possible show. My early training really stressed that point and I always try to carry that forward to the dancers in the company.

How did you handle the technical difficulties of Giselle during the staging process?

Since most of the classics in ballet repertoire were created for the grand stages and large companies of Europe, I've had a lot of experience over the past few years at adjusting the staging to work for our stage and the size of our company. I did a lot of that adjusting for Giselle when we first performed it in 2021. Now, I can look at those adjustments and change things if I see that we can make it look better for our dancers and facilities. Overall, I don't look at them as "difficulties", but more a puzzle to solve that ultimately results in the best show we can put onstage.

How did you help the dancers prepare for the demanding roles in Giselle?

Giselle is an exhausting ballet not only because of the difficulty of the steps but because the emotional depth needed to portray the characters can be incredibly draining. Ramping up their stamina is crucial, and we do that by focusing on one act at a time before doing both acts together. I give them character motivation if I think something isn't quite reading, but I try to give a lot of space for them to interpret that guidance for themselves. It needs to be true to them and their personality in order to be authentic to the audience.

What unique touches have you added to this rendition of Giselle?

We're excited to have all new sets for the production this time around. When we performed the ballet in 2021, we rented the sets, and they were wonderful. This time, our Technical Coordinator, Aaron Bauer, is building new more elaborate houses for Act 1 and we will have a brighter, more vibrant backdrop.

Why should people come to see this production of Giselle?