Swan Lake Studies 48-50

48, 49, 50. The first photograph (by Donald Southern), 48, here shows the Royal Ballet corps de ballet of swan maidens in perhaps 1979. (Can anyone date it more closely?) The Royal corps was a phenomenal ensemble in the 1960s and 1970s, with a combination of stylistic rigour and finesse neither it not any other Western company has since possessed. And its three rows - not two as In some “Swan Lake” productions - suggest the swan-maidens are evenly ranked.

What a starling transformation came therefore with Anthony Dowell’s 1987-2017 production. See photograph 49 (by Bill Cooper)! The eight junior swan-children who had knelt at Odette’s feet now became the corps’ central row. Strikingly younger, they danced their share of the great waltz without pointwork, sharing the same main vocabulary as their seniors, but giving precedence to their elders, who were given more to do. With its big swans, its cygnets, and its swan children, this ensemble now became a community of multiple levels. I missed the higher tutus of the old Leslie Hurry productions; I was consoled by the next complexity of dramatic poetry.

In Alexei Ratmansky‘s 2016 Zürich production, the central row of the corps seems composed of senior students or junior corps (50). They wear point shoes, and are only slightly shorter than their sisters. At the start of the waltz, they keep their arms low, not raised. Perhaps this is what Lev Ivanov asked for in 1895. Having adjusted to the shock of those so vulnerable Dowell swan-children, however, I can’t help but miss them now.

Thursday 30 July

Royal Ballet, corps de ballet of swan maidens, late 1970s. Photo: Donald Southern.

Royal Ballet, corps de ballet of swan maidens,

1987-2016 Anthony Dowell production

Zürich Ballet, corps de ballet of swan-maidens, Alexei Ratmansky production, 2016.