The Creation of iGiselle: Classical Ballet Meets Contemporary Video Games

The unusual marriage of Romantic ballet and artificial intelligence is an intriguing idea that led a team of interdisciplinary researchers to design iGiselle, a video game prototype. Scholars in the fields of literature, music, design, and computer science collaborated to modernize the 1841 ballet Giselle. Their goal was to revise the tragic narrative of the nineteenth-century culture of death, allowing players to empower the eponymous heroine for possible "feminine endings." The eight interrelated chapters chronicle the origin, development, and fruition of the project and exemplify collaboration.

Dancers, gamers, and computer specialists will all find something original that will stimulate their respective interests.Contributors: Vadim Bulitko, Wayne DeFehr, Christina Gier, Pirkko Markula, Mark Morris, Sergio Poo Hernandez, Emilie St. Hilaire, Nora Foster Stovel, Laura Sydora