My blog inspiration book, “Everything I Need to Know I Learned From a Little Golden Book”
reminds us to “Take in some culture once in awhile”. There is nothing more
cultural than the ballet Swan Lake. In fact, this love story is
the pinnacle of classical ballet with the demanding technique of the dance for
the principle dancer who takes on the roles
of both Odette (White Swan) and Odile (Black
Swan). With the additional pairing of Tchaikovsky’s score which was performed live by the PBT Orchestra, this was a masterful performance!
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| Masterful performance ** |
Reflection
Even if you're new
to ballet, the story in Swan Lake is easy to follow. As it unfolds you
can’t help being in awe of the beauty
and skilled dance in all four
acts. In this ballet an evil sorcerer casts a spell that turns a
princess into a swan by day and human at night. The spell is only broken by
true love (of course). The princess(Odette) and prince (Siegfried) fall
in love but the sorcerer (Von Rothbart) sends his daughter (the Black Swan) to
trick him into professing his love to this impostor which seals Odette's fate as a swan forever. This is a fairy tale drama to match the fairy tale dance.
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| Swans dance in unison** |
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| Four swans dance in unison with speeding precision on point** |
Odette(Amanda Cochrane)*
fluttered her arms like a bird and seemed to be on point forever with so much
grace. The stage was often filled with dancers in white who were easily identified as swans with one
arm raised and with a slightly flexed hand resembling the neck of the bird. Then
the dancers in sets of four, with hands clasped, moved in unison with speeding
precision across the stage on point- amazing!
Not to be outdone by the swans in the Act 1 and 3, the men
filled the stage with power jumps and multiple turns at the prince’s 21 birthday party and in the Great
Palace Hall. I am not sure how many times I leaned over to the wide eyed little
girl beside me and said, “that’s amazing”!
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| Prince and Black Swan |
There was just so much to take in and it was all augmented by the beautiful set and sound of the full PBT Orchestra (listen to the Swan theme here). This was a classic, masterful, beautiful fairy tale night!
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| fairy tale night! |
(Pittsburgh
Ballet Theater's Swan Lake runs from Feb.
16-25, 2018 at the Benedum Center. For tickets and for more
about the 2017-18 ballet season go to www.pbt.org )
* also preformed by Hannah Carter, Alexandra Kochis and Julia Erickson
Spiritual Refection
Look at the birds in the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns,and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? (Matthew 6: 26)
Other Sources
Look at the birds in the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns,and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? (Matthew 6: 26)
Other Sources
Pittsburgh Ballet Theater https://www.pbt.org/