The more nuanced answer is that many ballet choreographers, often reworking the famous 1895 version by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, find it difficult to get “Swan Lake” right. (A major exception: Alexei Ratmansky, whose production is faithful to the original and somehow sparklingly modern.) Contemporary dance choreographers — Mats Ek, Matthew Bourne, Dada Masilo — have tended to provide a specific take on the tale that departs substantially from tradition. He uses Tchaikovsky’s great score, with a few electronic music interpolations and extracts from other works, including Tchaikovsky’s Second and Fourth Symphonies. (In the traditional version, the prince has only a mother, but here he has a father, too, played with melodramatic, slicked-hair villainy by Baptiste Coissieu.)

Source: New York Times October 08, 2020 18:11 UTC