Giselle And Gender Roles

Giselle, a ballet production, has three main characters who are a woman named Giselle, a man she is in love with whose name is Albrecht, and another man who is in love with her whose name is Hilarion. This production is about Giselle who dies of a broken heart due to Albrecht who betrays her. She is brought back to life by the Wilis ', a group of women who dance men to death. The Wilis are targeting Albrecht to summon him to death, but Giselle’s love overpowers their efforts (American Ballet Theatre Giselle). During this production, gender roles are formed. The ballet, Giselle, supports the statements made in Dance, Gender and Culture by Cynthia Novack and Tulle as Tool by Jennifer Fisher by presenting a woman who embodies the presumption …show more content…
The male figure in the dance plays a very large role by being a woman 's support system when she is performing certain movements. Some of the movements executed by the woman cause her to fall back to the male for support. Novack says that women are “fragile creatures supported by powerful men”. This is shown in the ballet by the men supporting Giselle in dance movements such as her being powerfully lifted into the air. This is also seen when the two dancers are briskly stepping forward at the same pace concluding that the male is the one who holds the leading position during this type of dance. Judith Butler in “Bodies That Matter” says that “Sex is a regulatory ideals whose materialization is compelled, and this materialization takes place (or fails to take place) through certain highly regulated practices” (Butler, 235-236). Ballet relates to this in that it is a practice in which the sex ideal creates the gender roles that are present in the …show more content…
This is presented in Giselle by illustrating a woman who is very dependent, frail and delicate falling under the category of being “feminine”. In contrast to the female role, Fisher states that “The the male dancer maintains a solid stance and appears in control, while his partner needs steadying and is led, handled, and manipulated” (Fisher, 6). This quote helps the visual of Giselle and Albrecht dancing be portrayed as a dance in which Giselle is relying on him. Giselle is also portrayed as a very fragile and delicate woman. To further explain the role of women being delicate, Novack states that “the narrative of Giselle and bourgeois values create the image of a female body of Giselle as ethereal and chaste and at the same time, erotic” (Novack, 45). Novack is speaking directly over this ballet production and speaks about it as if the ballerina is ethereal, which means to be extremely delicate and light in a way that seems too perfect for this world. This quote contributes to the idea of the ballerina having a specific role in