Black Swans?

[cavycapers]

I have seen various productions of Swan Lake by Russian companies that include some black swans in the corps in the final act, and have never understood why?  I rather like the effect.  Does anyone know why, though?

[Sim]

The Royal Ballet's Dowell version also had black swans in the final act.  I liked it too, and perhaps it is simply because if you have a large flock of swans a few of them may well be black.  I don't know if there is any symbolic significance to it.  Maybe there is, since they don't appear earlier....

[Jacqueline]

I thought the black swans were part of Rothbart's crew. 

[Sim]

Could well be, Jacqueline, although in the RB version they danced with the same sorrow as the other swans....unless it was an act, mirroring that of Odile!

[MAB]

21 minutes ago, Sim said:

The Royal Ballet's Dowell version also had black swans in the final act.  I liked it too, and perhaps it is simply because if you have a large flock of swans a few of them may well be black.

 

It's either/or depending on which hemisphere you're in.

[cavycapers]

Sorry MAB, don't understand the hemisphere ref?

[bangorballetboy]

46 minutes ago, Sim said:

The Royal Ballet's Dowell version also had black swans in the final act.  I liked it too, and perhaps it is simply because if you have a large flock of swans a few of them may well be black.  I don't know if there is any symbolic significance to it.  Maybe there is, since they don't appear earlier....

 

I understood them to be (grown) cygnets, that have darker plumage, rather than black swans.

[Sim]

Makes sense, BBB!

[cavycapers]

I thought that too, BBB, but then i wondered why the dance of the cygnets are not in black too.  Hmmm....

[MAB]

14 hours ago, cavycapers said:

Sorry MAB, don't understand the hemisphere ref?

 

Black Swans are native to Australia, any you might see elsewhere are imported.  Cygnets are greyish/brownish in colour, if the four little swans wore that colour they would look as if their tutus were grubby.

[stucha]

I had the impression that the black swans  in act iv were meant to be harbingers of death. Which makes sense I'm the RB production but not in the Russian 'happy ending' versions. Can anyone else throw any light?  Floss?

[Denver]

The most intriguing puzzle: why did Balanchine put all the swans in black, except for Odette? He reportedly ordered the black fabric himself. When asked why he was doing that, he only answered, "well, there are black swans, too." That's all I've been able to find in various sources. If others have discovered more explanation from Balanchine, please share!

 

http://www.nycballet.com/Slideshows/Ballet-Detail-Slideshows/Swan-Lake-Balanchine.aspx

[FLOSS]

Swan Lake was first performed in Moscow in 1877 and as far as I know the music was performed in the order which Tchaikovsky had intended it to be heard. A section of the ballet was performed in St Petersburg in 1893 with new choreography by Lev Ivanov as part of a memorial concert devoted to Tchaikovsky. It was almost certainly the success of Ivanov's choreography for the first lakeside scene which prompted renewed interest in the ballet score.The Maryinsky first performed the full ballet in 1895 in a production overseen by Petipa with a revised scenario and score and choreography by Petipa for the formal action of the first and third acts with Ivanov responsible for the lakeside acts.This version was notated using the Stepanov system of notation soon after its first performance sometime between 1901 and 1905/6. The 1895 version of the ballet is the one from which subsequent versions derive and even those choreographers who seek to use the score in its original form are heavily dependent on the original St Petersburg version.

 

The question was about the presence of the black swans in act 4.Roland Wiley who advised Anthony Dowell on his production of Swan Lake and has written books about Tchaikovsky's ballets and about Lev Ivanov refers to the presence of the black swans in the last act of the ballet. He describes "eight swan maidens in black entering from rear stage right" (who) "weave their way in a serpentine line through the single file in the centre" later on in the act he says that they form one of the groups of swans among whom Siegfried searches for Odette. In the reconstruction they leave the stage after Siegfried's search and do not return for the apotheosis.I think that Ratmansky explained their presence by saying that they were part of the Maryinsky performing tradition but that part of the tradition would appear to go back at least to the early 1900's and as most of the commentaries about the notation of the ballet say that it records performance practices which predate the practices of the 1900's it seems safe to assume that they are part of the original performing tradition of the ballet. That performance tradition almost certainly explains Balanchine's use black swans as well. 

 

I am not sure that they were intended to symbolize anything in particular although it is tempting to search for symbolism in their presence in performance and plenty of writers have found all sorts of symbolism and structural parallels in the structure of the ballet. It may be of interest to note that Wiley writes that Petipa contemplated rose coloured swans and wonders whether they would have been any improvement. Who knows whether the black swans were Ivanov's original idea which Petipa sought to modify by suggesting that they should be rose coloured or whether they are Ivanov's considered response to Petipa's suggestion about rose coloured ones? Who knows what 2018 will bring? A good biography of Petipa in English or French and perhaps a serious account of the Petipa ballets informed by what the reconstructions reveal about his choreography. his dance vocabulary.his floor patterns, performance style and musicality. Perhaps we may get an opportunity to see some of them, if only in recordings. Ratmansky suggested that if we are going to continue to praise Petipa and admire his works then we ought to find out what his choreography may well have looked like in performance. That seems to me like a good place to start.

 

Edited April 14, 2017 by FLOSS

[Don Q Fan]

I've always associated the black swans with death.  Whatever their meaning though I love them.