Uploaded September 2017 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago

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This is a somewhat truncated version of 'Giselle' produced and directed for television by Margaret Dale in 1959.

Part 1 vimeo.com/233285163
Part 2 vimeo.com/233283409
Part 3 vimeo.com/233281270
Part 4 vimeo.com/233279569
Part 5 vimeo.com/233272707

The cast is quite international and stellar:

Nadia Nerina - Giselle

Nikolai Fadeyechev - Albrecht

Niels Bjorn Larsen (the Danish character dancer) - Hilarion

Lydia Sokolova - Giselle's mother

Margaret Hill - Queen of the Willis

Peter Wright - Albrecht's equerry

I'd never realised Nadia Nerina was such a strong crisp precise springy dancer. What do you think of her 'Giselle' in its totality?

And, among many things, I love the strength of Nikolai Fadeyechev in partnering - Nerina seems to just float upwards in the lifts.

Lydia Sokolova (Hilda Tansley Munnings) as you'll probably know was the first English dancer to join Serge de Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in 1913, remaining with the company till its disbandment in 1929 with Diaghilev's death.

I've uploaded an interviewed with Lydia Sokolova about the experience of dancing in Vaslav Nijinsky's 'The Rite of Spring' in 1913 - 'Lydia Sokolova - Interviewed about dancing in Nijinsky's 'The Rite of Spring' in 1913'.

Enjoy!