English National Ballet’s Swan Lake in-the-round
Royal Albert Hall, London June 2024
Some time ago, and I’d love to know when, Swan Lake became the universal symbol for classical ballet. Unlike The Nutcracker, a staple of the Christmas season everywhere, Swan Lake is a ballet for all seasons. Though a tiny portion of the audience has seen it frequently and might retain clear impressions of different productions, millions more recognize it by name alone, as you might recognize Mt. Fuji or the Eiffel Tower.
The ballet’s name carries such classy cultural connotations that it can be turned to any performer’s advantage. Ronnie Corbett, the English comedian, spoofed Swan Lake on Australian television; Barbra Streisand sent it up in Funny Girl; Rudolf Nureyev partnered Miss Piggy’s Odette on The Muppet Show; and Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo dances it in drag. All felt safe assuming that the general public would get the joke.
Certain set pieces have acquired their own following. Audiences cheer the four cygnets, who dance the identical steps at the same time linked by their crossed hands, simply for realizing several minutes of clockwork precision. The Guangzhou Military Performance Group translated the cygnets into bounding little frogs; the hip-hop pioneer Toni Basil assigned the sequence to cygnets and four popping Poppers, placing their interpretations side by side.
That dance can’t fail, nor can the infamous 32 fouettés (a turn in which one leg repeatedly whips the body around), which Pierina Legnani contributed to the 1895 production in St. Petersburg. Now the bravura highlight of Act III, the turns were then an embellishment to “the exceptional charm and simplicity of her execution,” as one contemporary critic wrote.
Not every aspect of Swan Lake has remained as constant over the years as those passages. Two dancers have split the role of Odette-Odile in the same performance. Wearing a scarlet tutu, the black swan, Odile, has occasionally become a red swan. Sometimes Odette and her prince die at the end, or one of them dies. Sometimes only the evil sorcerer Rothbart dies, and the lovers live happily ever after.
Anything can happen, and the public keeps coming back. Derek Deane’s 1997 production for English National Ballet introduced another enticing twist. Setting the action “in the round” to suit the vast oval shape of London’s Royal Albert Hall, Deane reworked all the choreography to accommodate every segment of the encircling audience.
He did a masterful job, expanding the story in space and extending the viewers’ access to it by maneuvering each individual number to face all of them in turn. Of course, he had to enlarge the company to make it work; the current program lists 63 guest dancers of whom 18 are men plus four jugglers.
Jugglers? Oh, yes. Subtlety doesn’t read on this massive scale. To fill it, the opening scene includes the jugglers, back-flipping acrobats, and skipping children along with ten couples as courtiers, eight couples as peasants, and another twelve dancers for a featured pas de douze.
As for swans, at one point I counted five dozen of them, though I could easily have missed a few amidst the dizzying kaleidoscopic patterns Deane created for them. Arms meticulously synchronized, feet pattering like rain as they swooped into neatly balanced configurations, they proved more engaging than anyone onstage except Sangeun Lee.
Making her debut in the leading role, on opening night this riveting artist danced with her eyes, face, and torso, enhancing the impact of her steps by displaying the character’s thoughts as well as her body. Neither her partner, Gareth Lee, nor James Streeter, as Rothbart, projected a drop of conviction, so we got to see their admirable energy, and the company’s, and not much more.
Is Swan Lake the instrument that plays itself? However well-schooled and carefully rehearsed, dancers in a dramatic narrative are merely exercising if they don’t involve us. But when the title alone can sell tickets, it’s no surprise that the ballet is ubiquitous.
This production occupies the Albert Hall until June 23. ballet.org.uk
The Royal Ballet dances Swan Lake at the Royal Opera House until June 28. roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events/
The Acrobatic Swan Lake by China’s Xi’an Acrobatic Troupe is at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, June 21-29. sadlerswells.com
In New York, American Ballet Theatre will offer Swan Lake during its summer season at the Metropolitan Opera House, July 1-6. abt.org
State Ballet of Georgia presents Swan Lake at the London Coliseum, August 28 to September 8, londoncoliseum.org/whats-on/ and in Dublin, November 20-24, bordgaisenergytheatre.ie/show/swan-lake-state-ballet-of-georgia/
For Christmas, the circus group Circa reimagines the ballet as Duck Pond, Royal Festival Hall, December 19-30. tickets.southbankcentre.co.uk/
This clip features Sangeun Lee as Odette.