masterwordsmith-unplugged

The first ballet performance I ever watched was that by the Russian Bolshoi Ballet many years ago. It had such an impact on me that my mom sent me for ballet lessons. No kidding. I am not sure what I really enjoyed most at that time - putting on the dance attire such as the tights and tying the ribbons of my pointe shoes or doing pirouttes, bar exercises and the different positions. I had a very fierce ballet teacher back in the 1960's who used to pinch the students including yours truly till I cried. As I was prone to catching colds, eventually my mom stopped my lessons :-( but for over a year, she would make me walk around the room for at least 15 minutes with a book on my head just so I could have good posture and no hunch! Regardless, till this day I still dream of being a ballerina :-),  love dancing and thoroughly enjoy watching ballet presentations over YouTube. My favourite would be Swan Lake.

According to this site:

Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake was composed in 1875 as a commission by Vladimir Petrovich Begichev, the intendant of the Russian Imperial Theatres in Moscow. Like The Nutcracker, Swan Lake was unsuccessful after its first year of performance. Conductors, dancers and audiences alike thought Tchaikovsky's music was too complicated and hard to dance too. The production’s original choreography by German ballet master, Julius Reisinger, was uninspiring and unoriginal. Much is unknown about the original production of Swan Lake – no notes, techniques or instruction concerning the ballet was written down. Only little can be found in letters and memos. It wasn’t until after Tchaikovsky’s death that Swan Lake was revived. Much of the Swan Lake we know of today was a revision by the famous choreographers Petipa and Ivanov.



We do know that Tchaikovsky had much control over the stories content. He and his colleagues both agreed that the swan represented womanhood in its purest form. The stories and legends of swan-maidens date as far back as ancient Greece; when the Greek god Apollos was born, flying swans circled above their heads. Legends of swan maidens can also be found in The Tales of the Thousand and One Nights, Sweet Mikhail Ivanovich the Rover and The Legend of the Children of Lir.

Swan Lake is known for its demanding technical skills all because of one extremely gifted ballerina, Pierina Legnani. She performed with such grace and discipline, the audience and everyone else who saw her claimed she set the bar. Every girl to dance the part of Odette/Odile after her was compared to Legnani's performance. Legnani performed 32 fouettes (a fast whipping turn on one foot) in a row – a move many ballerinas resent because of its extreme difficulty. However, Swan Lake remains a favorite for many girls because of it’s extreme difficulty; technically and emotionally. The prestige that comes with performing Swan Lake flawlessly is invaluable.

The Synopsis of Swan Lake is available HERE.

Recently, Linda sent me the following video clip of Swan Lake. Who would have thought that one day, a Chinese dance troupe would be able to perform Swan Lake in such a spectacular manner?  Perhaps I should have been born in the 1990s - then perhaps, I might have ended up as a ballerina :-) ...dream dream dream.. ...dance with a very dashing lead :-).

I don't think Tchaikovsky had this choreography in mind when he wrote " Swan Lake." How could anyone imagine the performance you are about to see?

We have to coin a New Word for this presentation of Swan Lake.......Gymnastic Ballet.