Ballet West's Swan Lake glides beautifully | Buzz Blog

Friday, February 12, 2010

Ballet West's Swan Lake glides beautifully

Posted By on February 12, 2010, 10:31 AM

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Caught Ballet West's Adam Sklute's take on Swan Lake last night at the Capitol Theatre. The final dress rehearsal for his mix and match version of Swan Lake, pulling in contributions from dancers and colleages at Ballet West was surprise, surprise, given all the people involved, seamless. Bar some stumbling dancers, it was an extraordinary experience, building up a slow fire that burned white hot by the end of the second act.---

Chris Rudd demonstrated his typical economic grace of movement as the love-forlorn Prince Siegfried, while Christiana Bennett's Odette was a gorgeously icy creation, offering glimpses into a heart that can only comes out at night. Against impressive backdrops and sets and some truly stunning costumes, what really shone last night were the swans.

When they emerged from a bank of fog at the beginning of the fourth act, the audience all but held their breath. Of the half dozen versions of Swan Lake I've seen, this was the first where I truly felt the grace and the nobility of the birds reflected so generously in the movements of the dancers.

Sklute has reshaped, it seems, Swan Lake into an oddly stripped down yet eye-poppingly rich experience that will no doubt wow the traditionalists in Ballet West's core audience of fanatics while giving food for thought to those who crave something new, some different and perhaps, just a little bit subversive.

 

 

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