Cleveland Ballet is opening its 2026-27 mainstage season with four performances of one of ballet's oldest surviving story ballets, staging Giselle at Connor Palace on Friday and Saturday, October 23 and 24. The production follows a young peasant girl who falls in love with a mysterious stranger, only to discover he is Count Albrecht, a nobleman already promised to another woman.
As reported by Cleveland.com, Giselle dies after Albrecht's betrayal and becomes one of the Wilis, the ghostly spirits of women betrayed by their lovers before their wedding day — yet in the ballet's second act, it is Giselle who ultimately protects Albrecht through love and forgiveness. The story, first performed in 1841 at the Opéra de Paris, is one of the oldest and most enduring works in the classical ballet repertoire, and it explores forgiveness and love beyond death across its two acts.
Two dancers will alternate in the title role of Giselle: Anna Cole and Svetlana Svinko. Opposite them, Johan Mancebo and Lorenzo Mattia Pontiggia will alternate as Count Albrecht, with the full production also featuring dancers portraying Hilarion and Myrtha, the queen of the Wilis, per the same Cleveland.com report.
A Score by Adolphe Adam, Choreography Rooted in Russia's Imperial Ballet
The ballet's score was composed by Adolphe Adam, and Cleveland Ballet's staging follows the choreography of Marius Petipa, whose late 19th-century restagings for Russia's Imperial Ballet remain the global standard for the piece, according to DanceTabs. Cleveland Ballet Artistic Director Timour Bourtasenkov created additional original elements for this production and said adding Giselle to the company's repertoire requires dancers to demonstrate both technical precision and emotional depth.
“Giselle continues to resonate with audiences long after seeing it,” Bourtasenkov said, according to Cleveland.com, adding that he is looking forward to bringing the ballet to Cleveland as the company begins its new season. Bourtasenkov trained at the Moldavian Opera House and the Bolshoi Ballet before becoming a founding principal dancer with Carolina Ballet in 1998, and he holds international competition medals from Osaka, Japan, and Paris, France, according to Dance Magazine.
Sets and Costumes Borrowed From Florida's Sarasota Ballet
The scenery and costumes for this production come from Sarasota Ballet, where Artistic Director Iain Webb and Assistant Director Margaret Barbieri have previously staged Sir Peter Wright's noted production of the same classical story, per the same Cleveland.com account. The arrangement, also detailed by Your Observer, illustrates how mid-sized regional ballet companies often share expensive production assets to mount large-scale 19th-century classics rather than building sets from scratch.
Bourtasenkov's appointment as artistic director in January 2024 followed an internal investigation that led to the removal of the company's original co-founders, Michael Krasnyansky and Gladisa Guadalupe, and Larry Goodman was named the company's permanent president and CEO that April, according to WKYC. As part of that restructuring, Cleveland Ballet severed ties with its former affiliate school and launched the Academy of Cleveland Ballet as its own internal educational institution.
A Third Company to Carry the Cleveland Ballet Name
The current Cleveland Ballet, founded in 2014, is actually the third arts organization in the city's history to use that name. It follows Sergei Popeloff's company, which operated from 1935 to 1942, and Dennis Nahat and Ian Horvath's company, which ran from 1972 to 2000 before relocating to California and becoming Ballet San Jose, according to the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History.
Staging a full-length classical story ballet at this scale also marks continued momentum for the company following a 2023 milestone, when the George Balanchine Trust granted Cleveland Ballet permission to perform Balanchine's 1934 masterpiece Serenade with live orchestra at Connor Palace. Cleveland Ballet has been an official resident company of Playhouse Square since October 2017, when it debuted there with a performance of Les Sylphides, joining longtime resident companies Great Lakes Theater and Cleveland Play House.
Inside Connor Palace and Behind-the-Curtain Talks
Connor Palace originally opened in November 1922 as Keith's Palace Theatre, a vaudeville house designed by Rapp & Rapp in French Renaissance style, and it now seats roughly 2,700 to 2,800 guests. It sits within Playhouse Square, which is recognized as the largest performing arts center in the United States outside of New York City and was saved from demolition by a grassroots preservation campaign in the 1970s.
Cleveland Ballet will offer free lobby activities during the Giselle performances, including a themed photo setup, and a Giselle boutique selling show-related merchandise will be open during all performances. On both October 23 and 24, Bourtasenkov and other artistic staff will host Behind the Curtain discussions beginning at 6:15 p.m. ahead of the 7 p.m. shows. Tickets are on sale now starting at $36, including taxes and fees.
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