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.
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