Cyg Win

Heather Ogden and Guillaume Cote

Swan Lake was not a success during Tchaikovsky's life, mostly because the original ballet was rather lacklustre. Since then, there have been numerous versions of this story. I attended James Kudelka's Swan Lake performed by the National Ballet of Canada.

I was able to purchase a ticket in a box seat in the Grand Ring. The seat was discounted because it was only a few hours before curtains. Though stage left was obstructed by maybe 5% (so I missed the first few seconds of some dancers' entries), the proximity of the seat to the stage allowed me to see the dancers' faces quite visibly.

As an aside, I don't think it's hard to sneak into a box seat. First, the staff do not check tickets on this level, especially for the seats along the side. And if it looks like they do, just duck into the washroom until they wander off. Second, go into a box seat, maybe 10 minutes before curtain. Count off the empty seats, possibly also the empty ones in the adjacent box seats. Go back out and loiter around until curtain falls, keeping track of the empty seats as people file in. Now, just go back in and grab your upgraded Grand Ring seats. For added safety, pick the box seat with the most empty seats. Since box seats have their own doors, and thus patrons can enter late (or whenever), there's a slight chance there may be some "confusion". But $20 for a ring 5 ticket to gain entry, it might be worth a try.

In the standard story, Prince Siegfried's is celebrating his 21st birthday. He feels a great malaise until he meets and falls in love with Odette, who has been enchanted into a swan by the evil magician Rothbart. He broke his promise to her by also falling in love with Odile (the Black Swan), who he mistook for Odette. Odette drowns herself in the lake and Siegfried follows suite. In an apotheosis, the lovers are reunited in heaven.

Kudelka made some changes to his version. Siegfried's birthday is not celebrated by the courtiers and peasants, but by his male friends and lackeys. So most of the dancing typically done by women in Act I are now performed by the male corps de ballet, to the delight of the male dancers. Rothbart is not an evil magician, but some sort of divinity, whose goal is the destruction of Siegfried's world by introducing him to both Odette and Odile. Kudelka insists that Odette is a real swan, and representing the purity of nature, and Odile is a woman that Siegfried mistakenly conflates with this purity. However, since the love between Siegfried and Odette is still part of the story, that may make you want to say: hmmm. Siegfried's court is drowned in a flood because of his betrayal. Though Odette and him reconciled, he loses a battle to Rothbart and dies. Kudelka's Swan Lake ends with Odette fluttering around Siegfried in distress.

All the principal dancers dance the roles of Siegfried/Odette/Odile for this staging, on various days. The main focus has been on Jiri Jelinek and Xiao Nan Yu, mostly because Jiri is make his debut as a principal dancer for the National Ballet. The consensus seems to be that he hasn't quite found his comfort here yet and there is some technical weakness, but not musicality and expressivity, with Xiao. Some are also a-flutter over the pairing of Guillaume Cote and Heather Ogden, because they are a real-life couple. Oddly, no one mentions that Swan Lake partners Zdenek Konvalina and Bridgett Zehr are also a real-life couple, according to her facebook profile.

It's this last couple who danced at my Saturday night show. They are obviously junior, making their debut in these roles, and having only 2 matinees and 1 evening show. However, Bridgett Zehr has been turning heads, making principal dancer after only 3 years.

It was a beautiful performance. Here and there, there was a slight leg tremble on a jump landing, a foot being adjusted for balance. During the court scene, one of the ladies dropped her fan. When the action moved to another part of the stage, one of the knights quietly picked up her fan and casually flung it off-stage. Such tiny things compared to 3 hours of dancing. Watching dance recitals, I am always struck by the seeming impossibility of a human being to remember so much choreography as well as such astonishing control over their body. Let's not forget all the interactions with other dancers. Most of us can barely flail our limbs with any rhythm.

Some favourite moments. The pitter-patter of the entire female corps de ballet en pointe sound like swans flapping their wings. As they balanced in place, also en pointe, their tiny foot adjustments cause their swan tutus to flutter, almost like feathers. The chaotic precision of the white (and black) swans as they criss cross each other on stage. The Black Swan's 32 fouettes. During the performance itself, when the audience claps for Odette/Odile, instead of the ballerina's standard bow, Bridgett bows deeply in a kneeling position, with one leg tuck under, one leg stretch forward (a position done by all the swans to represent the bird at rest), with both arms straight up and back like out-stretched wings.

There's obviously no online footage of this performance, but here's Bridgett and Zdenek in a pas de deux.