Leanna Bales / the current Alexandra Ballet presents "Giselle" at the Touhill on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

Ballet—that most poised and particular of art forms—depends entirely on the story that it is matched with.

With the right narrative, ballet can walk the fine line between the moving and the melodramatic, tempering all of its content with the necessarily surreal nature of the art. “Giselle,” a haunting (pun intended) German ballet, opened at The Touhill Performing Arts center Saturday night, and was performed by The Alexandra Ballet company.

“Giselle” takes place in a small village and focuses on a story of betrayal, lost innocence and love beyond the grave. The story is split neatly into two acts: the first in the realm of reality (or as close as ballet gets) and the second in a spiritually blended landscape.

Though there are only two sets, their atmosphere and detail are crucial to establishing the tone of the production. Onstage in the Anheuser-Busch auditorium, the Alexandra Ballet’s sets were splendid, from the first act’s florid, watercolor-like, bright-sky village setting, to the second act’s ghostly graveyard, complete with craggly trees and graves.

“Giselle” follows the tragic story of its titular heroine and the men who seek her affection, all while her village celebrates her impending crowning as Harvest Queen. Shorter, intimate duet pieces brought levity to the dark story as Giselle and her lover Albrecht flirted, pantomiming the tentative, shy, endearing routines of young love.

These pieces contrasted with slower celebratory dances involving the entire village and its harvest rituals. As tensions between Giselle, Albrecht, other potential suitors and a smattering of royal intrigue build, the young girl’s weak physical nature is overwhelmed and the first act concludes with her tragic death.

This opening act crescendoed to a spectacularly melodramatic finale, executed by the Alexandra’s principal players with bravura and soul.

Ballet is, of course, an art of the body, and faces are taken for granted, but in scenes like the end of “Giselle’s” first act, they are absolutely critical. The excellent work by the Alexandra Ballet’s leads imbued these thrilling, swirling moments with true emotion.

Such emotional investment was more and more important as the story shifted into its ghostly second act, in which Albrecht and Giselle fought to be together even as she was inducted into the “Wilis,” banshee-like spirits of girls who died before their marriage and now seek vengeance on young men.

The sharp transition into this territory subconsciously sinks the audience deeper into the eerie love story, performed with virginal sensuality and artistic perfection. A- –Chris Stewart