Choreography: James Kudelka

Music: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Live Music with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra

The Centre for the Performing Arts in Vancouver


September 28 29 30, 2005 • 8PM

October 1 , 2005 • 2PM* and 8PM
(* NEW! Tea Matinee)

James Kudelka’s new interpretation of Swan Lake pays homage to earlier productions of the most beloved of all classical ballets. In this version, important questions are raised: Who is Rothbart? What is his realm? Does the court fall because Siegfried has chosen the wrong woman, because he has capitulated to the customs of a corrupt court, because of Rothbart’s unexplained antagonism or simply from coincidence? Have the worlds we know, and gender relations within them, become so degenerate that they must be destroyed? Is a better world possible?

Questions like these can be definitively answered in fiction, but in this production Kudelka rejects the easy plausibility of fiction to leave space for the chaos, confusion and uncertainty in which Siegfried and Odette live, shaped and driven by forces beyond their control and comprehension.

"James Kudelka's Swan Lake re-creates the world's most famous classical ballet, a touchstone for dancers since it was originally choreographed by Petipa/Ivanov in 1895. Kudelka's version remains true to the original story in a production that will thrill newcomers and the most avid ballet fans."

John Alleyne

 

World Premiere:
The National Ballet of Canada, May 5, 1999, Toronto, Ontario