Swan Lake

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Format: Ballet
Genre: Drama
Date: June 1 2016
Location: Liverpool Empire Theatre

There are many different approaches that one can take to ballet. For some, it's about telling a story. For others, it's about the costumes and how they visualise a show for you. A couple might just be expecting a bear in a car (Simpsons reference). But in this case, the Scottish Ballet team have decided to tell the story of Swan Lake by focusing solely on the ballet, and allowing the dancing to tell the story. No fancy settings, no cute costumes, and no dialogue. And by concentrating on key aspects - and its strengths - it results in a very good production of this classic ballet tale, and ensures that the audience are impressed by the dancing on display, since their eyes are locked solely on the performers.

Although this retelling of the classic story is as modern as you can expect in such a setting (the ballet aspect provides limitations on how modern it can be; for example, don't anticipate that the slow, soft and gentle orchestra music will be replaced by rap or R&B!), the plotline itself is anything but. The very first production of Swan Lake was written in 1877 and was backed up by the music of Tchaikovsky, and it is this classic score which serves as the audio for this 2016 version as well.

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