This is now the second version of the Swan Lake ballet I’ve seen. I recognised a lot of similarities to the Bolshoi Ballet version, especially when it came to the costumes and some of the effects used.
I really felt that the sets in this ballet for the palace and the lakeside were really beautiful. I felt the setting on the stage was really lovely and I did especially like the costumes and the dancing in this.
I did think that the character of Siegfried was too young and naive in this. I felt there were better ways he could have been deceived, especially because the dancer playing Odette/Odile was so good, I felt she portrayed the two different characters remarkably well. And my sister agreed.
I did feel that some of the dancing seemed to be merely placeholders to extend the ballet. It was really nice to watch (and I have a lot of respect for the amount of work the dancers do), but there didn’t seem a lot of point to some of the dancing. And there seemed to be a lot of the other dancers having to stand or sit around and just watch the ‘main’ dancers.
The storyline wasn’t as clear in this ballet as in the previous version I saw, but it was still beautiful to watch and the dancing was amazing. It did feel like there were real emotions in the dancing… and although the ending was confusing, this ballet was really good to watch and I did enjoy the journey.