Swan Lake, Tchaikovsky
New Theatre, Cardiff
Northern Ballet Theatre
PURISTS may splutter at the bold liberties taken with both the dance and music of this most popular of ballets.
But choreographer David Nixon lives up to the name of the troupe and certainly puts the theatre into the ballet and makes no pretence of presenting a conventional classical ballet.
Once you accept this is Swan Lake with, well, quite a few differences, the result is electric and enthralling. If you ever doubted ballet could be vibrant theatre get a ticket and be converted.
With a group of enthusiastic and elegant if technically young dancers the choreography is adapted to suit the company but there is much here to delight those with a taste for their fluttering swans and set-piece moves.
The richness of the ballet is the sensitive and effective interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s deeply troubled psyche, his ambivalent sexuality and the despair that dogged his life.
The action is transposed to New England at the start of the 20th century. Our hero of sorts, Anthony, finding a swan corpse as a child and has to be dragged away. We move to the young adult messing around with his college mates, in their preppy flannels and boaters, on the banks of the lake, cycling, playing ball and splashing around. The all-male world is breached by the arrival of the girls in Poiret-inspired frocks and immediately sexual tensions arise.
Anthony rejects his best friend Simon’s advances and at his party panics into marrying Odilia instead. Anthony remains obsessed with swans, scrawling them on his bedroom wall, rejecting Odilia’s sexual advances and eventually succumbing to his love for Simon. In steps Odilia mid clinch.
Odette and her swan maidens are Anthony’s fixation, the embodiment of his inner torment, unrequited love, sexual frustration and yearning. Of course it ends in tears, trauma and tragedy.
The dancers embrace this sexy and taut choreography with gusto which particularly suits the men, liberating them to give strong and bold performances. Jonathan Ollivier exudes despair, anguish, longing and confusion in clean, crisp steps while Christopher Hinton-Lewis is a boldly-danced, charming and appealing Simon.
Keiko Amemori plays a coy and perhaps flirtatious Odette producing moments of pathos and tension blended with delightful scenes with her protective swans. Victoria Lane Green plays a sophisticated and worldly Odilia who is immediately thrust into the uncomfortable sexual tension between Anthony and Simon.
An attractive and challenging Swan Lake, here conducted by John Pryce-Jones, sexy, fluid and enticing.
New to ballet? Dip your toe into Swan Lake. You might take to dance as theatre like a duck to water.
New Theatre, Cardiff until Saturday, June 19.
