The role has inspired the world’s best ballerinas and her story is as popular as ever – whether revived, reimagined or deconstructed. Dancers explain the appeal of Giselle

‘I thought I looked too healthy to play her,” says Miyako Yoshida of her debut in Giselle, back in the 90s, when she was a vibrant, strong young dancer asked to play the part of the sweet village girl with a weak heart. “But from the first time I came on stage, I could just live her,” she says; she simply became Giselle. Yoshida is not the only dancer, or audience member, or ballet critic, to fall in love with this 19th-century peasant girl. “It was always my favourite,” says English National Ballet’s Erina Takahashi, “emotionally you can explore yourself in such a wide range.” “It’s a perfect ballet choreographically,” according to veteran dancer Alessandra Ferri.

Giselle is almost the oldest ballet heroine to still grace the stage, created in 1841 by librettist Théophile Gautier, choreographers Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot, and a young star ballerina of the day Carlotta Grisi. Through the decades the character has inspired legendary performances from some of the world’s best ballerinas: Galina Ulanova, Natalia Makarova, and more recently a startling interpretation from Natalia Osipova.

As she brings A Shadow Work to the UK, the New York choreographer talks about therapy, ‘pulling up women with me’ and art-led activism

Chanel DaSilva has always been a dancer. “I felt completely free,” she says of her first class. “I felt at home. Like I was doing exactly what I was supposed to be doing. And it’s weird to know that at the age of three.” The New Yorker, 38, is a rising star choreographer in the US, with credits including Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet, and is about to make her international debut in London.

DaSilva’s dance style has been described as “technique meets humanity”, in the sense that she draws on the precision and virtuosity of classical and modern dance, but brings in a freedom and naturalism. The piece she has made here for the company Ballet Black, called A Shadow Work, is in part about dealing with grief over the death of her mother when DaSilva was 19. At the time, trying to get through her college education, she couldn’t cope with it. “So I packed up that grief, put it in a little box, and pushed it down deep. And it stayed there for about 10 years until I was finally brave enough to reckon with it.” In hindsight, “I should have mourned,” she says. “But we’re not judging.”

Ballet Black: Shadows is at Hackney Empire, London, 13-15 March. Then touring