The Swan Lake Ballet

Heard about Swan Lake ballet? Ask anyone on the street or in your neighborhood to name a type of ballet, and find out what they’ll gonna say. Did they mention Swan Lake? Well, that’s no wonder. Swan Lake ballet is undoubtedly the most popular form of ballet in the whole world. Thousands of people know it, and for them it’s the dance that confines the full spectrum of human feelings and emotions, like no other.

The Swan Lake ballet was first staged in 1877 at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia. It is believed to be composed by Peter Tchaikovsky and it was until his death in 1883 that the Swan Lake ballet remained in the repertoire. New revisions then emerged, highlighting particularly the Swan Lake ballet revision of Tchaikovsky’s brother, Modest, and the conductor Riccardo Drigo. It was this revision actually that gained premiere in 1895 at the Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg, with the choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, the brilliant choreographer who fully developed the central dramatic idea of Swan Lake.

But what is that central dramatic idea behind the Swan Lake ballet?

As much as the story is concerned, the Swan Lake tells about a young prince named Siegfried who falls in love with a swan, or rather with Queen Odette, a woman who was transformed into a bird by an evil sorcerer. Charmed by her beauty, Siegfried pledges his love to Queen Odette, but was tricked by the sorcerer, Von Rothbart, into declaring his love for the evil twin of Queen Odette, Odile. As the story progresses, the prince realizes the unintentional betrayal and rushes back to the Lake where he first saw Odette dancing in a moonlit dell. He then battled with the sorcerer and in the end destroys the sorcerer’s power, allowing them to reunite again. So to put it simply, Odette is once destined to remain as a swan until she was saved by the prince’s undying love for her.

So, you’ve known the story. Now, the most central dramatic idea behind the Swan Lake ballet was the concept of presenting a woman trapped in the body of a bird through the delicate movements of the dancer’s arms. Also, in Swan Lake ballet, you will be enthralled by the articulations of the dancer’s feet, as well as by the way she positions her head and neck. For many critics, this idea is what probably makes the Swan Lake ballet revision of Lev Ivanov and Petipa the most excellent ballet performance ever produced.

Note that it was also due to the dancer’s remarkable movements, the way the Italian ballerina name Pierina Legnani dances the central dual role of Odette and Odile, that the Swan Lake ballet is considered as one of the more technically demanding ballets ever developed. What did Legnani do? She applied in Swan Lake her ability to perform 32 fouettes in a row. Fouettes are actually determined as a fast whipping turn on one foot. For many spectators of the Swan Lake, that was so far the best ability that every ballerina should possess. It’s no wonder also that because of that ability, Legnani’s name is still cursed by many ballerinas in the whole world for the fact that any ballerina who will dance the dual role of Odette and Odile had to perform the 32 fouettes.

Today, the Swan Lake ballet remains as the most favorite ballet. It is known throughout the world as one of the few classical ballets that is consistently exigent emotionally and technically.