!VAR HAGENDOORN

Swan Lake Will Never Be The Same Again

In her book "May I have the pleasure? The story of popular dancing" (1976) the British dancer and dance historian Belinda Quirey (1912 - 1996) complained that the Rose Adagio act (at around 5:05) in The Sleeping Beauty, in which the ballerina, standing on pointe, is approached by four suitors, is one of the worst circus tricks in the ballet repertoire (p. 122). (The link is to the Royal Ballet. The same act at Dutch National Ballet at around 4:30).

But isn’t much of classical ballet a circus act? A pure or, if you wish, mere, display of virtuosity? And what’s wrong with circus tricks anyway?

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo perform the clownesque version of Swan Lake. This is the original Small Swans Pas de Quatre: at the Bolshoi and the Kirov.

In the above video the Guangzhou Acrobatic Troupe of China takes balletic acrobatics to new heights. Here's a different angle. And the original, ballet version of the finale from Act 4 with Siegfried and Odette united in death. Yes, I know there is no "original", that there are multiple productions and that in some productions Siegfried and Odette don't die.

But how to interpret the ending in the Guangzhou Acrobatic version? What does it mean that Odette is standing on top of Siegfried's head? An act of submission on Siegfried's part? Is Odette rising to heaven?

Swan Lake: from the Bolshoi to Bourne and beyond in pictures.