Dance Theatre of Harlem founder Arthur Mitchell -- the first African-American principal in a major American dance company -- sets the classic ballet of "Giselle" in Louisiana circa 1841, a time when the social status of freed black Americans was determined by their family's distance from slavery. The poor Giselle (Virginia Johnson) falls in love with the secretly upper-class Albert, but tragedy occurs when she learns they have no future.

The ballet tells the story of a peasant girl named Giselle whose ghost, after her premature death, protects her lover from the vengeance of a group of evil female spirits called Wilis

The peasant girl Giselle discovers the true identity of her lover Albrecht – and that he is promised to another. Giselle kills herself. Her soul enters the ranks of the Wilis – shades of young women who died before their wedding day. All men that come across their path are compelled to dance themselves to death, and Albrecht falls into their trap. Giselle’s intercession saves Albrecht and releases her soul from the Wilis’ power.

During the intermission of the ballet Giselle, Victoria, a promising young dancer, clashes with her mother Soledad —a failed ballerina who projects her own disappointment onto her daughter. Inside the dressing room, applause fades into tension, and admiration turns into something far darker.

Blake is a talented acting student as well as an unrealistic dreamer when it comes down to how to make a living until he makes it "big". Continuously fired from minimum wage employment, Blake and his best friend Elliot get sucked into the dangerous world of gambling. Luckily, Blake's sister Angela has proven to be a reliable roommate and so far taken care of her irresponsible younger brother. When a car crash on the way to a job interview lands her in the hospital, Blake offers to start the job in his sister's place, which turns out to be more complicated than expected: His ward is the homely and socially inept 20-year-old agoraphobic Giselle, who insists on a female assistant. However, the girl and her mother have never met Angela in person, and thus Blake is able to transform himself into a convincingly enough version of his sister.

When a prima ballerina sees her long career coming to an end, she and her unfaithful husband are put to the test when they accept an offer to stage the ballet "Giselle" at a mysterious isolated community.

Discover acclaimed Swedish choreographer Mats Ek’s 1987 reworking of the ballet classic, Giselle, for the Cullberg Ballet. With the sensational Ana Laguna in the title role, Mats Ek’s interpretation of the ballet classic has all the whimsy and imaginative innovation so closely associated with the choreographer. In this version of Giselle, the traditional romantic Rhineland village is replaced by a landscape in the shape of breasts, and the supernatural realm of the Wilis is replaced by the harsh reality of a lunatic asylum giving this interpretation a harsh modern relevance. Ana Laguna dances superbly as the barefoot girl who falls ‘madly in love’.