Transformations: queen into swan
[NOTE: This is a repeat of a previous post. It highlights one of my favorites moments in the ballet repertory.]
Ballet specializes in transformations. After all, it changes the human body from a lumbering earthbound thing into an ethereal yet steely and gravity-defying, lighter-than-air, transporter of the audience into realms of beauty and transcendence.
Yes, it can be corny, especially the old warhorse ballets such as “Swan Lake” and “Giselle,” featuring doomed maidens and supernatural spells—and in the case of the former a princess who is half-swan half-human.
But that’s part of the fun of it all—going past the schmaltz and the drama and creating something Other. The abominable film “Black Swan” traded at least partly on this mystique.
One of my favorite moments in dance occurs at the end of the second act of the ballet “Swan Lake.” I’ve seen it countless times. To those of you who don’t know the story, it sounds quite absurd, and it is: the prince has been out hunting, sees a swan he’s about to shoot, but before he does so the bird transforms before his eyes into a swan-maiden (whatever that is). They fall in love, and she explains that an evil magician has put her under a spell. After he plights his troth (which occurs in dance when a person touches his/her heart and then holds two fingers aloft; it’s a mime thing) the magician comes out and changes her back into a swan again and she flies off, as he watches helplessly and longingly.
That transformation is the moment I’m talking about. On the stage, when it’s well-done, it never fails to give me chills. You can see the moment the spell starts taking hold, then her struggles to fight against it, and then the instant when the spell totally overwhelms her and she is transformed into a flying bird.
Here are a number of versions of the same moment, all with somewhat different choreography. None of them, of course, have anything like the same magic and illusion they convey on the stage. But they’ll do. Here’s the Kirov-trained Natalia Makarova, in a production I saw many times:
Here’s the American (although born in England) Gillian Murphy:
This next one is the great Bolshoi dancer Plisetskaya (see this):
And here, for variety, is the much more restrained British dancer, Margot Fonteyn:
A wonderful post, thanks so much. Makarova’s transformation and “flight” was the best by far – her facing away from the audience as the transformation is conveyed through the graceful arm/wing movements makes the unfolding tragedy the most dramatic of all shown. The movement in Fonteyn’s legs – away from the centrally defining choreography of the fluttering “wings” – struck me as very fragile and thus more bird-like.
This is like watching clips of Ruth, Mays, Aaron, and Bonds putting one into the seats. All reach the same result, but the individual athletic grace and aesthetics of each player’s swing will please some eyes more that others.
I preferred the Plisetskaya and Murphy endings more, but then maybe that was because the quality of the videos was better than the one with Makarova, who I could barely see in the dark. And on the first two, the arm movements were literally mesmerizing- could have sworn both dancers had two extra joints in their arms.
As for Black Swan, I think one has to approach the movie as not being about ballet at all, but about mental illness.
I have a record of the Swan Lake music and the music is just beautiful. If ballet doesn’t turn you on, the music will. Tchaikovsky was a brilliant composer.
Thanks, Neo, for reposting this, and for keeping the flame burning for ballet. You mention Swan Lake as a “warhorse” with “corny” elements. But you must admit (and Ray, above, beat me to this) that Tchaikovsky’s music elevates this work to the sublime. Everyone, from vaudevillians to Bugs Bunny, have tried to make make it trite, but this music endures, from its quietest moments to its majestically layered flourishes. How could what we hear possibly have begun with a pen putting notes on ruled paper? Pure genius. This is why music may be as close as we can ever come to witnessing ex nihilo creation. Happy New Year all you denizens of this wonderful site.
Thank you, beautiful post. I know classical music but not ballet; learned more about ballet from this post than I have in 50 years prior.
For a different interpretation, try this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RZLan_dp80
Vivate!!!
Repeats can help keep us on our toes…
though i fear given the new superior arts, where the classical western (hated) stuff will end up once in the future, this becomes the great classic made superior over time. or at least thats what they might think… 🙂
Feminist Scream Singing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzsGmdmhDTI
Ralph Kinney Bennet:
See this.
@ArtfldgrsGhost: Reminded me of jackals.
PatD Says: Reminded me of jackals
no, feminists idolize hyenas.. not jackals
Males in most hyena species are larger than females, though the spotted hyena is exceptional, as it is the female of the species that outweighs and dominates the male. Also, unlike other hyenas, the female spotted hyena’s external genitalia closely resembles that of the male
but i find it more interesting that nyc will protect transgendered people from comments with a 250,000 dollar fine
Incidents that are deemed “wilful and malicious” will see property owners face up to $250,000 in fines, while standard violations of the law will result in a $125,000 fine. For small business owners, these sums are crippling.
So the next time there is an all male version of swan lake or similar with transgendered men dancing in tights in ballet. make a comment and buy them a house
[free speech? what is that tovarish?]
you can be sure that men are dressing up as women now to go to bars to be annoying and win a 250k gender lottery…
and in violation of the state promoting a religion, now has a law to protect muslims, but no law to protect christians, or jews…
House Resolution 569 was introduced on December 17th by the Democrats and it’s dangerous. Its self-described purpose is “condemning violence, bigotry, and hateful rhetoric towards Muslims in the United States.” Resolutions of this nature have a tendency to be reintroduced later as binding legislation to be forwarded to the Senate. The introduction of this resolution is not yet newsworthy, but it will be if it emerges intact from committee to be voted on by the whole House
cant wait for my grave…
ovens and gallows, and so on are not my thing…
Thank you, Neo
For drawing my attention to your earlier post regarding the composer’s additions to Swan Lake, and the enduring beauty of the music. I’m not sure how I missed that. You are, indeed a kindred spirit. Even though this is music I have heard many hundreds of times (perhaps more than a thousand). I, too, have experienced tears “rise in the heart and gather to the eyes” at moments in its performance.
Ralph Kinney Bennett:
You’re welcome!
That’s one of my favorite poems, of course (see also this).
Neo,
Thanks again. We really are kindred spirits. Many of the poems you mentioned in that second post are ones I “have to heart.” I try to take a long bike ride almost every day, and poems like these and many of Shakespeare’s sonnets and other passages are my companions on my trip. I recite them to myself and they make the miles fly by. I consider them good exercises for the (aging) mind and their beauty and wisdom never fades.
Ralph Kinney Bennett:
Well then, here’s another post you might enjoy, if you haven’t seen it already.
Dear Neo,
I had not discovered you yet, back when this poetry post was written. I will have to dig and delve a bit more into your archives. Uncanny. I felt as though your fingers had taken over my keyboard as I read it. I was very resistant to poetry at first, thinking it somehow “prissy.” But, as was your experience, the diligence of great teachers and the latent effect of my mother reading to me left me a lifelong treasure. I once tried to make a list of all the poems etc. I have memorized and I lost count. Friends say, how do you do that? And I remind them that they know all the words to this or that popular song or span of movie dialogue. It’s partly what you choose to memorize,isn’t it? Ah, those old teachers of yore! I have always reminded my children and grandchildren that, if they are lucky there will be a handful of teachers that they would want to someday shake hands with and thank, and they are precisely the ones they “hated” or feared when they were in school. They were TEACHERS, not friends.
Ralph Kinney Bennett:
Glad you feel the same way. Then you’ll probably like this one, too. The teacher described there also used to make us memorize a lot of poetry as well as write it. He was one of the best.
Thank you again, Neo. Superb. You were very lucky to have such a teacher. I had a few, too, for which I am ever grateful. And I had a mother who read to my brother and me — every night, from as early as we could remember. No matter how tired she might be from work, the books came out and she read to us. Not just kid stuff. Shakespeare, the Bible, O’Henry, Bram Stoker! Kipling, Thurber (wonderful). We were reading when we started first grade. We thought everyone could.