BalletMet to perform elegant, large-scale 'Swan Lake' for first time in a decade
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For the first time in a decade, the Ohio Theatre will be inundated with swans.
No actual swans will be present, of course, but dozens of elegant, athletic ballerinas incarnating that most graceful of waterbirds.
Friday through Sunday, for its season finale production, BalletMet will perform “Swan Lake,” a classic story ballet not performed by the company since 2013, which also happened to be Artistic Director Edwaard Liang’s first year on the job.
BalletMet, which employs 26 professional dancers, keeps a certain number of its signature productions in rotation: “The Nutcracker,” of course, is performed every year, while ballets such as “Cinderella” or “Giselle” are brought back every few seasons. “Swan Lake,” however, has been MIA since Liang’s first season, when the ballet was co-produced by Cincinnati Ballet, which contributed its own dancers to the production. By Liang’s account, it has taken all of the years in between for BalletMet to have the ability to perform the ballet solo on a grand scale, as it will next weekend.
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“It’s been a multi-year plan,” said Liang, who, this time, contributed his own choreography set to the music of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. “We’ve been growing our trainee program ... and having participation with the academy and trainee program.”
Even audiences accustomed to BalletMet’s large-scale productions might find themselves wowed by the scale of “Swan Lake”: In addition to the 26 company dancers, 25 trainee dancers, BalletMet 2 (up-and-coming) dancers, countless student dancers from the BalletMet Academy and one guest dancer — Brooklyn Mack — will be featured in various combinations and configurations.
Some 32 swans will share the stage — a rare number for a company the size of BalletMet, Liang said.
Ten years ago, he said, “It took two companies, BalletMet and Cincinnati Ballet, to have 24 swans. (That amount) is already pretty high in number for even large companies.”
This time, though, Liang added more swans and drew dancers from his own ranks rather than in conjunction with a partnering company.
“(The 32 swans) will be a majority of BalletMet 2 and trainees, and then I have eight to 10 company members that rotate more in terms of the soloist parts, which are the tall swans and the cygnets,” he said.
It isn’t just the sheer number of dancers that will make the effect powerful, but the technique each performer possesses.
“You have the bodies, but then you need the time and the technique to be able to have what I believe is what makes ‘Swan Lake’ beautiful: the beautiful symmetries, the patterns and thinking outside the box in dancing,” Liang said.
What is the ballet about?
The fairy-tale-like ballet, first performed by the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow in 1877, centers on Odette, Queen of the Swans, a woman inhabiting the body of a swan.
“She’s very graceful and beautiful, and that itself is kind of a challenge in a way because you are not a human at that point,” said dancer TyLeigh Baughman, a 24-year-old native of Sand Springs, Oklahoma, and one of three dancers who will appear in the part of Odette.
Depending on which cast performs during a given show, Sophie Miklosovic and Caitlin Valentine will also appear in the role. (Casting is always subject to change.)
“You are fully a swan and you have to portray that to the audience, that you are no longer human, but you still have the emotions of a human,” said Baughman, whose character kindles a romance with Prince Siegfried (a role shared by Miguel Anaya, David Ward and guest dancer Mack).
“I want to fall in love, but I cannot because I am a swan,” Baughman said of the character of Odette. “It’s about showing the battle between yourself and knowing the body that you’re in and wanting that human side to come back out.”
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Dancing, not story, central to show
The story — also involving Odile, a swan who resembles Odette and thus perplexes the Prince — may be intriguing, but in the end, the dancing is what enchants.
“For me, ‘Swan Lake’ is just the epitome of ballet,” Baughman said. “Even as a child looking at ‘Swan Lake,’ that was what made me want to become a dancer because it is so known and it is such a classic.”
Trainee dancer Mallory Sweeney has never before performed the ballet.
“You have to have so much strength but still have to be so elegant,” said Sweeney, 21, originally from Houston, Texas. “I’m in the swan corps, and we all have to look identical while still being our own self, but thinking about six other things: whether or not we’re in line or whether or not we know what’s coming next. I just think it demands a lot from us both mentally and physically.”
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The production itself promises to be grand, including dozens of tutus and what Liang describes as lavish scenery.
He added: “I think this is our biggest undertaking outside of ‘Nutcracker.’”
Sweeney said being in the show constitutes a special moment in her burgeoning career.
“It’s one of those cool bucket-list moments as a dancer to get to say that you got to be a part of it, let alone be a part of 32 swans,” she said.
A perfect ballet for families
Despite the grandeur of “Swan Lake,” the ballet’s traditional length has been winnowed down to something manageable for most families: The two-act production runs about two hours and features a single intermission.
“Usually with ‘Swan Lake,’ it’s either three acts or four acts,” Liang said. “I’ve been able to, hopefully, have a very concise and very clear story because I have a prologue and epilogue.”
Liang uses his newly choreographed prologue to help audiences empathize with all those swans on stage.
“I’m deepening the story a little bit,” he said “The prologue is understanding where the swans come from so that the audience (realizes) why they should care about swans.”
Sweeney said that “Swan Lake” is a perfect introduction for those new to classical ballet.
“It doesn’t get more classical than ‘Swan Lake,’ that’s for sure,” she said. “I know that most people will always say ‘Nutcracker’ is like one of those ballets, but I also think ‘Swan Lake’ is ... I think that everyone should see it at least once.”
At a glance
BalletMet will perform “Swan Lake” at 8 p.m. Friday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday; and 2 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday in the Ohio Theatre, 39 E. State St. A senior dress rehearsal will take place at 11 a.m. Friday. Tickets start at $38.70. For more information, visit balletmet.org.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: BalletMet to perform 'Swan Lake' at Ohio Theatre April 28-30
