Skylar Brandt (Giselle) and Herman Cornejo (Albrecht). Photo: Wang Xiaojing / National Centre for the Performing Arts

When Skylar Brandt first got the opportunity to dance Giselle, it came as a shock. The year was 2020 when, in conversations with American Ballet Theatre artistic director Kevin McKenzie, he casually mentioned the 1841 ballet, a role every ballerina aspires to, but offered no commitment. Even so, she spent weeks studying with husband-and-wife team Maxim Beloserkovsky and Irina Dvorovenko, former ABT principals who had been privately coaching her for four years.

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Months later, with a Kennedy Center performance looming, Misty Copeland, the company’s renowned principal, suffered an injury, and Brandt got the call. With time for only one rehearsal with partner Herman Cornejo as Albrecht, the pair took the stage. Brandt danced flawlessly, including the demanding mad scene at the end of act one, and the critics gushed, some calling it “jaw-dropping” and “breathtaking.”

Following its triumphal revival at the Met earlier this month, ABT brings Giselle to the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in........

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