The Comfort of Swan Lake

The ballet Swan Lake needs no introduction. But a blog post does. So by way of introduction let me start by saying that if you are only going to see one ballet in your lifetime, it should probably be Swan Lake, and Pacific Northwest Ballet is one of the best places to see it. I’m not going to do a full review because I’ve done that before, and except for the person sitting behind me who told his friends, “I didn’t look at the booklet, like at all, because I didn’t want any spoilers,” I think most people have a pretty good idea what to expect anyway. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have anything to say about it.

Trying Times

The last couple of years have been hard for everyone, and for some people (me) “getting back to normal” is even harder. I dislike driving at the best of times, but a season of virtual arts events has not improved my ability to navigate the kind of crazy traffic you face heading toward Seattle Center in the evening. Two years of indulging my extreme introversion has not made dealing with crowds easier, and masks still give me claustrophobia. Then throw in the late seating of two busloads of high school students on an arts field trip, and it’s easy to swear off live performances in favor of the comfort of streaming K-dramas at home forever.

The Comfort of Classics

As much as I love the surprise of innovation and the spark of excitement when a performance makes you think, “Is that even ballet?” the classics are a form of comfort food.

Except for that teen sitting behind me, no one watches a story ballet to find out what happens. Like Disney movies, you already know how it’s going to end. You’re watching to see how this cast in this production on this night interprets and expresses the familiar. When the familiar is Swan Lake, and the cast in question belongs to PNB, you don’t have to worry about being disappointed. Unlike a Marvel movie, where you never know when they’re going to spoil a great character with a stupid backstory, Swan Lake will always be beautiful. You will always get to see a ballerina fly like a bird across the stage in a lift that looks effortless and portray two very different women simply through movement. You will see the precise uniformity of four little swans and be swept away by the powerful music. Every time.

A Few Thoughts

I don’t want to do a full review, but I do want to note a few impressions from this particular performance. I’ve always thought of Odette as languorous elegance and Odile as sharp chicness. But Leta Biasucci’s swans felt like honesty against coquetry, and Odile’s fouettés were so mesmerizing that I kind of forgot about Odette for a minute. So I guess that means I have to back off a bit on my opinion that Siegfried is a dick.

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I don’t love the story of Swan Lake – after all it’s another classic tale of a woman (actually a whole flock of them) with basically zero agency, exploited by one man (what is Von Rothbart’s deal with collecting bird-women anyway?) and betrayed by another marketed as tragic love story. But I do love the dancing, which is some of the most beautiful in the canon. So for this production I set out to ignore the story and just enjoy the movement. In most classic story ballets, that wouldn’t be very hard. Usually there’s a bit of mime to move the plot with folk dances and solos inserted between. But I discovered that in this case, Kent Stowell’s choreography, by focusing on the feelings, is really tightly connected to the story. You can’t help but follow the events. Except for one of the teens sitting nearby me. His friend had to explain it to him:

It’s like when you’re dating a twin and you kiss the wrong one and then the other one has to stay a swan forever.

-Teen at the ballet

Yes, just like that.

Trying Times Take Two

There were times when dancers didn’t seem perfectly arranged on the stage (something you can only really see from the balcony). Had that ever happened in the past, I’m sure I would have prided myself on noticing. But this time I was reminded of a recent Instagram post by Lucien Postlewaite (who danced Siegfried in the other cast) about the mental strain of trying to achieve prepandemic performance standards. Dancers this season are returning to the stage two years older, after seasons of practicing at home in Zoom classes, or in small groups in the studio with a mask on (good god, I can barely sit in the audience with a mask on). Just making it to the stage without injury should count as a win.

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Normally, I expect nothing less than otherworldly perfection from classical ballet. But this time those tiny imperfections were heartwarmingly human and a curiously comforting that nobody else is actually back to normal yet either. Striving for the pinnacle of classical technique is harder than relearning how to merge onto the Aurora Bridge during gridlock, but we are all doing our best together during trying times. It may not be perfect, but it is beautiful.  

Tickets

Live performances for this run are completed, but Swan Lake will be available streaming digitally May 12 – 16. You can purchase digital access for $35.

Just the Facts

Swan Lake
Music: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Op. 20, 1875 – 1876)
Choreography: Kent Stowell
Staging: Francia Russell (after Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov)
Scenic Design: Ming Cho Lee
Costume Design: Paul Tazewell
Lighting Design: Randall G. Chiarelli
Original Production Premiere: February 20, 1877, Imperial Ballet, Moscow, choreography by Julius Reisinger; restaged January 15, 1895, Imperial Ballet, St. Petersburg, choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov

Stowell/Russell Production Premiere: October 1, 1976, Frankfurt Ballet
Pacific Northwest Ballet Premiere: April 8, 1981; new production September 25, 2003

Running Time, Live: Three hours, including two intermissions
Running Time, Digital: Approximately two hours and ten minutes

Cast I Saw

Odette/Odile
Leta Biasucci

Prince Siegfried
Kyle Davis

Queen Mother
Louise Nadeau

Jester
Christian Poppe

Pas de Trois
Jonathan Batista
Juliet Prine
Yuki Takahashi

Von Rothbart
Joshua Grant

Swan Pas de Quatre
Rosalyn Hutsell
Ashton Edwards
Melisa Guilliams
Destiny Wimpye

Czardas
Leah Terada
Dammiel Cruz

Spanish Dance
Sarah Pasch
Luther DeMyer

Genevieve Waldorf
Miles Pertl

Neapolitan Dance
Juliet Prine
Ezra Thomson

Persian Dance
Elizabeth Murphy