I think Swan Lake is one of those ballets that’s quite well-known, but I haven’t seen it until now.
I think this was a really beautifully-done ballet. The lighting was used to really good effect. It was interesting to see the paler, almost ethereal light when the swan maidens were dancing.
I did recognise some of the music in this ballet and it was really nice. The costumes were really beautiful as well. There was a nice variety of different ones, especially when it came to the princesses in Act 2.
I found it a little amusing how, in Act One, the King and Queen both seemed to have an entourage of nobles who basically copied their movements. It was a little distracting at times. I also didn’t really like how the dancers kept breaking character to bow to the audience during the ballet, which made it hard to get truly into the ballet.
I recognised the dancer portraying Siegfried from the Nutcracker ballet I saw and I liked him in this. I felt both him and his ‘leading lady’ showed emotions pretty well for the most part in their dancing. I did think that the dancer who portrayed Odette did a really good job, too, especially since she had to portray two very different characters and did that really well, the dancing being completely different in both of them.
There was good use made of the set in this, too, particularly towards the end. I did enjoy watching this ballet and I would watch others by this company. I also intend to see the version of Swan Lake by the other ballet company in March
