Swan Lake - A Story about the Light and Dark in us
- theadventuresofaro
- Feb 14, 2023
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 8, 2023
Swan Lake is such an intense and complicated ballet with an intense and complicated history. First premiering in 1877 with choreography by Julius Reisinger and music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, it initially suffered the same fate as Tchaikovsky's other famous ballet The Nutcracker, opening to terrible reviews. After a new staging shortly after Tchaikovsky's untimely death with new choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov in 1895, the ballet received new success and started on a fast track to becoming a classic.
In the ballet world it is probably the most famous ballet for so many reasons. And f you asked any ballet practitioner or fan they would probably give you a different one. To start, it includes complicated choreography including a sequence of 32 fouettes, the most difficult turns in ballet, that not only have to be completed with precision, but they are done at towards the end of the ballet after having been dancing for nearly two hours already and in the middle of a complicated variation of dancing. Not for the faint of heart. (Check out this cool TedEd video about why fouettes are so difficult.)
The music is equally beautiful and incredible. Powerful and magnificent, it's enough to listen to it alone. Let alone dance to it. Or to sit in a dark theatre surrounded by it in full surround sound. Add in the scenery and the dancing and it really is quite an effect and one that is hard to forget. Here is a clip of the powerful theme. But the real love of Swan Lake might come from one thing we don't see often enough in ballet stories - a bad ballerina. In addition to your traditional lovely, kind, ethereal female heroine, a white swan named Odette, the story brings us a fantastically dark and at times evil female antagonist which really adds some lovely depth to the story - a black swan named Odile.
The plot in short - Swan Lake is a story about a white swan, Odette, who is cursed by an evil sorcerer named Rothbart and who must stay a swan along with her maidens until a prince falls in love with her. Prince Siegfried is that prince. He stumbles upon Odette one night, the only time of day she is able to become a princess again. They fall in love and Rothbart is upset and decides to make things complicated for Siegfried. He brings his evil daughter, Odile to the palace and puts a spell on her to make her look like Odette. Confused, Siegfried confesses his love for the wrong swan. What happens? That depends on which version you are watching. Originally the ending wasn't so great. Odette and Siegfried jump in the lake and die so they can be together forever. Thankfully, more recently, companies have given them a happy ending with Rothbart ultimately being defeated and Odette and Siegfriend living happily ever after. For more plot details you can check out the full story here.
But what makes this all so wonderful is, not just that for once we have a bad female ballerina, but the dancer who dances Odette also dances Odile. Fully exploring the light and dark within her character and her dancing. And the audience gets to enjoy that journey, knowing fully well they'll get to see and experience their heroine in her full glory - both in light and in dark. Not many ballets give audiences or dancers the chance to play such a strong female role.
There’s something about one ballerina playing both parts that really makes the story what it is. So often those roles where we get to explore the light and dark within ourselves are often the most fun, the most exciting, and the most interesting. It’s a natural thing to have different elements to our personality. And taking those elements and exploring them through a story, through a ballet, really make a truly engaging experience. Both for the performer and for the audience.
I was recently reading a children’s book version of Swan Lake (pictured above and linked here) to my niece and nephew and very astutely my niece asked me a question, "If you could be the black swan or the white swan, which would you be?" I felt as an adult trying to be a role model my instinct was to answer, "The white swan of course!" But to be quite honest, I love both ballerina’s roles in Swan Lake. The dark and powerful and enthralling black swan and the light and ethereal and equally powerful white swan. So I told my niece that. Both roles are exciting to play and to be honest, isn't there light and dark in all of us? Of course.
Ultimately, I am more white swan like most people but there’s nothing wrong with enjoying the black swan's role. And to be quite honest, speaking specifically of the ballet, I love the black’s swan dancing a bit more. I’ve always found it more fun to be the wicked character on stage than to try to be good because let’s face it, we spend most of our days trying to be the “white swan” anyway :)
References and Further Reading:
More about the Creators:
Original Choreographer, Julius Reisinger: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Reisinger
Composer, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyotr_Ilyich_Tchaikovsky
Second Choreographer, Marius Petipa : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marius_Petipa
Second Choreographer, Lev Ivanov : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lev_Ivanov
More to watch, listen to and read:
The Pas de Deux Variation (includes Black Swan dancing her 32 Fouettes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfmSv0z205s
TedEd Video on Fouettes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5VgOdgptRg
Swan Lake Theme Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBHGwnmOZk8
The Full Plot of Swan Lake: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_Lake#Synopsis
Swan Lake, Children's Book: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/swan-lake-peter-clover/1125286078?ean=9781946260048
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