Impressionistic scenes of backstage and city scenes of a girl in a cafe and a man dancing on a rooftop bookend and beautifully punctuate what is a highly traditional staging of Giselle. For anyone who saw the avant-garde production at Ballet B.C. earlier this spring, here is the New Zealand Royal Ballet’s real, frothy-tutu’d classic. Auburn-haired Gillian Murphy makes for a lithe, passionate lead. But it’s Qi Huan’s Albrecht who almost literally looks like he’ll get danced to death; just wait till you see the showstopping scissoring sautés the Willis put him through.

Vancity, September 29 (10 a.m.); Centre, October 5 (4 p.m.), Playhouse, October 9 (6:30 p.m.)