Seeing ‘Swan Lake’: An Alluring Night with the Grand Kyiv Ballet

“Swan Lake,” a tragic love story brimming with deception and betrayal, played Oct. 1 at the Harris Theater in a breathtaking interpretation revitalizing the classic ballet.

The dazzling show was performed by The Grand Kyiv Ballet, a company founded in 2014 by Oleksandr Stoianov which, according to their website, tours around the world in hopes of preserving and spreading awareness of Ukraine’s culture and recent struggles in war. The company features an international cast, its dancers changing depending on the location of the performance. 

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s first ballet composition, “Swan Lake,” is the story of Prince Siegfried falling in love with Princess Odette, who’s cursed by an evil sorcerer to be the White Swan during the day and a woman only at night. 

The ballet began with the prince celebrating his coming of age, interrupted by his mother demanding he choose a wife by the next day. A lighthearted waltz played after her exit, demonstrating the prince’s disinterest in this task. Performed by a crowd of peasants providing entertainment to acknowledge the prince’s birthday, the spirited waltz emulated folk style dancing that helped to portray the village setting.  

The well-thought-out tone and pace of the dances compelled the audience to sympathize with the character’s sentiments. 

With the approach of dusk, Prince Siegfried and his friend Benno followed a flock of swans to a mountain landscape with a lake surrounded on each side by a forest concealing old chapel ruins.

The set’s soft shades of blue in combination with the lighting angles and use of smoke gave an enchanting quality to the lake, making it shimmer in the eerie moonlight and reflect the mysteriousness of the princess’s curse. 

With so much attention called to the lake, the ruins on the edge of the scene are barely noticeable. The scene was so consuming, the audience’s attention was turned back to the dancers.

As swans glided across the lake and disappeared behind the ruins, cursed Princess Odette descended the staircase, donning a glittering crown and ethereal white dress that mirrored the perfect white feathers of a swan. 

In comparison to the simple costume of the prince, the intricate costuming of the swans — especially the White Swan and Black Swan — emphasized the female characters as the focal point of the story.

As the scene progressed, Prince Siegfried and Princess Odette became entangled in a duet known in classical ballet as a pas de deux. The dancer’s chemistry and joint fluidity made the connection between characters palpable.

As the swan princess and maidens danced together on-stage during the “Dance of the Cygnets” – or the Dance of the Little Swans – their grace and elegance were captivating, enticing the audience to fall in love with the performance just as Prince Siegfried falls in love with Princess Odette. 

Act I concluded as dawn approached and Princess Odette retreated back into the ruins with the other swan maidens, who reappeared as swans floating upon the lake. 

After a 20 minute intermission, Act II was introduced in the opulent castle ballroom as the prince’s birthday ball commenced. The gold hues and bright colors, signifying wealth and status, were a stark contrast to the serene lake set.

Then the evil sorcerer Baron von Rothbart entered with his daughter Odile, the Black Swan.   

The existence of the White Swan, a pure feminine ideal, and the Black Swan, a representation of dark seduction, are almost indistinguishable from each other. The juxtaposition is meant to reflect the internal struggle between conscious control and an unconscious wish to give into one’s desires. As the same ballerina plays both characters, the message of duality is seamlessly incorporated. 

Next came the pas de deux between Prince Siegfried and Odile, appropriately one of the most famous of its kind because of its dramatic intensity and bold portrayal of Odile’s fervent attempts to seduce the prince.

As the dance concluded, the prince officially vowed to marry Odile thinking she was Princess Odette, sealing the promise with a kiss on her hand. 

A startling change in music caused panic, alerting the audience to the prince’s fatal mistake before the scene changed and the true natures of Rothbart and Odile were revealed. Along with their identities, Rothbart admitted how Odile disguised herself with the princess’s identity to trick the prince. Now bound to her curse forever, Princess Odette was rendered helpless in the background as she watched the scene unfold. 

The final scene began with the horrified prince chasing Princess Odette back to the lake. Because he’d broken his vow to her, Princess Odette’s only way to be free was through death. 

The apex of the scene unfolded as the evil sorcerer appeared at the lake, inciting a confrontation between himself, the lovestruck prince and the ill-fated Princess Odette. The dance’s quick and sharp movements brought to life a battle between good and evil, as white and black swans danced in the background. 

The tragic story of love and betrayal drew to a close as the prince and Princess Odette, preferring to die together than be forcibly separated, leapt into the lake and sealed their fate. That final, selfless act of love not only freed Princess Odette but the rest of the swan maidens from the spell, too. 

This bewitching rendition of “Swan Lake” received a standing ovation filled with a multitude of verbal praises from the audience.