Le Lac des Cygnes (Swan Lake, ACT II)

Music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Choreography after Lev Ivanovich Ivanov
Costumes by Mike Gonzales
Decor by Clio Young
Lighting by Kip Marsh

Swept up into the magical realm of swans (and birds), this elegiac phantasmagoria of variations and ensembles in line and music is the signature work of Les Ballets Trockadero.

The story of Odette, the beautiful princess turned into a swan by the evil sorcerer, and how she is nearly saved by the love of Prince Siegfried, was not so unusual a theme when Tchaikovsky first wrote his ballet in 1877—the metamorphosis of mortals to birds (and visa versa) occurs frequently in Russian folklore.

The original Swan Lake at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow was treated unsuccessfully; a year after Tchaikovsky’s death in 1893, the Saint Petersburg Maryinsky Ballet produced the version we know today. Perhaps the world’s best-known ballet, its appeal seems to stem from the mysterious and pathetic qualities of the heroine juxtaposed with the canonized glamor of 19th-century Russian ballet.

Benno: Kravlji Snepek (friend and confidant to)

Prince Siegfried: Araf Legupski (who falls in love with)

Colette Adae (Queen of the)

Swans: Artists of the Trockadero (all of whom got this way because of)

Von Rothbart: Yuri Smirnov (an evil wizard who goes about turning girls into swans)

INTERMISSION

Pas de Deux, Solo, or Modern Work to be Announced

Yes, Virginia, Another Piano Ballet

Music by Frédéric Chopin
Choreography by Peter Anastos
Costumes by Olivia Kirschbaum
Lighting by Kip Marsh

The surfeit of “piano ballets” that have appeared since Jerome Robbins’ Dances at a Gathering (1969) sought to somehow humanize the classical ballet dancer and his milieu. Piano ballets take the aristocracy out of ballet dancing by presenting the dancers as affectionately friendly, democratic, just plain folks relating to each other; in much the same way, television talk shows demystified the glamor of Hollywood by featuring noted celebrities discussing their laundry problems.

The Trockadero, not unaware of these trends, now tenders its own sensitive relationships.

INTERMISSION

Paquita

Music by Ludwig Minkus
Choreography after Marius Petipa
Staged by Elena Kunikova
Costumes and Decor by Mike Gonzales
Lighting by Kip Marsh

Paquita is a superb example of the French style as it was exported to Saint Petersburg in the late 19th century. It was originally a ballet-pantomine in two acts, choreographed by Joseph Mazillier, to music by Ernest Deldevez. The story had a Spanish theme, with Carlotta Grisi (creator of Giselle) as a young woman kidnapped by gypsies, who saves a young and handsome officer from certain death.

Premiering at the Paris Opera in 1846, the ballet was produced a year later in Russia by Marius Petipa. Petipa commissioned Ludwig Minkus, the composer of his two most recent successes (Don Quixote and La Bayadère) to write additional music in order to add a brilliant “divertissement” to Mazillier’s Paquita. Petipa choreographed for this a Pas de Trois and a Grand Pas de Deux in his characteristic style. These soon became the bravura highlights of the evening—to the point that they are the only fragments of Paquita that have survived. The dancers display a range of choreographic fireworks, which exploit the virtuoso possibilities of academic classical dance, enriched by the unexpected combinations of steps.

Ballerina and Cavalier
Varvara Laptopova
with
Bruno Backpfeifengesicht