Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake

To all non-dancing friends. As this is what I do, I think it would be nice for me to do some educational work. The following ballet/film is the version of that ballet Swan Lake (that you might have heard of...) by Matthew Bourne:

"Thrilling, audacious and totally original, Matthew Bourne's legendary production transforms one of ballet's best -loved stories into a stylish, witty, poignant, contemporary tale with extravagant, award-winning designs by Lez Brotherston."

Read more about it here: New Adventures: Swan Lake.

All I say is, save it for the evening, make some tea, and watch this. It will be a cultural AND fun watch, and a very important piece of the international world of dance. I have stolen it all from youtube, (but would you have found it on youtube yourselves?) including the text. You don't need to read it, it's just there in case you get lost (well detailed). The story should be clear enough.

ENJOY (and learn)!

Act One
In the prologue, the Prince, as a child, is awakened by a nightmare of a swan. The Prince's mother comes in to comfort him, but becomes nervous with the intimacy of the situation and leaves, looking over her shoulder indecisively.
Scene One opens with the Prince being prepared for a day of official duties by a small army of chambermaids and valets.
In Scene Two, arrayed in his full dress uniform, the Prince becomes bored by a boat christening, a ribbon cutting and other symbolic tasks.



Act One
In Scene Two his mother prods him to keep up appearances while giving most of her attention to handsome young soldiers. During this scene there is a transition from the child actor playing the young Prince to the identically-dressed adult dancer who portrays the grown Prince. This now-adult Prince is introduced to a gawkish girl called "the Girlfriend". Although the girl seems foisted on him by von Rothbart, the Private Secretary.



Act One (Scene Two)
The Prince enjoys her freshness as an alternative to his duty-bound life. The Queen finds the Girlfriend completely inappropriate.



Act One
In Scene Three, the Queen, one of her admiring soldiers, the Private Secretary, the Prince, and the Girlfriend all appear in a theatre box, where they watch a ballet that is staged for the actual audience as well for as the characters. It is a mawkish, campy send-up of a romantic ballet, in which a fairy princess fights off tree goblins and wins the love of a Tyrolean lumberjack.



Act One
Scene Four finds the disgruntled Prince drinking in his private chambers in front of a mirror, to the shock of his mother. A nearly violent pas de deux ensues in which he pleads for her attention and love and she determinedly rebukes him.

This rebuke sends the Prince into the streets and to the Swank Bar, a 1970s-style disco, in Scenes Five and Six. Here is where the choreography most obviously veers from classical ballet, with jazz forms and modern dance dominating. The Prince seeks love from anonymous strangers who reject him.



Act One
In Scene Seven, he sees the Girlfriend being paid off by von Rothbart, the Private Secretary, to disappear.

While sitting in the street at the end of Scene Seven the Prince imagines a group of swans flying towards him but the vision quickly disappears. It is the first flash of the Prince's descent into madness.



Act Two A Park in St Jame's 1/3

Disappointed that he will never find affection, the Prince contemplates suicide in Act Two, but is saved by the sight of beautiful swans on the lake of a public park. This Act is the most direct rendering from the original plot of Swan Lake, but it contains the most talked-about dancing of the ballet due to stylistic changes. Male dancers portray the swans as aggressive and arrogant animals rather than the delicate, sentimentalized swans traditionally portrayed by ballerinas. The traditional white tutus and tiaras are also discarded, to be replaced with bare chests, feathered knee-length trousers, and bold, black facial markings. Initially rejected by the lead Swan, the Prince is eventually taken into his loving embrace. This is what the Prince has always desired, and the Act ends in triumphant happiness. The swans then fly away. It is not entirely clear whether the Prince has in fact interacted with the swans, or if they are figments of his imagination.



Act Two A Park in St Jame's 2/3



Act Two A Park in St Jame's 3/3



Act Three: The Palace Ballroom 1/4
Scene One begins with princesses from various European nations and their escorts arriving at the palace gates for a grand ball. The Girlfriend sneaks in amongst them.



Act Three: The Palace Ballroom 2/4
Scene Two takes place in a proto-fascist ballroom where gigantic torchieres gripped by fists recall those of Jean Cocteau's La Belle et la Bête.



Act Three: The Palace Ballroom 3/4
..... It commences with the arrival of the Queen and the Prince, but quickly degenerates into a debauched party of drinking and lascivious come-ons. Into this arrives the charismatic and sexually aggressive son of von Rothbart,[4] the Private Secretary, in black leather pants, who intensifies the sexual tension even further by flirting with every woman present, including the Queen.



Act Three: The Palace Ballroom 4/4
Just as in the original Swan Lake one ballerina performs the white Odette and the black Odile, the same danseur performs the white Swan and the black-clad young von Rothbart in this version. The Prince sees something of his beloved Swan in the son and he is as much attracted to his bravado and animal magnetism as he is repulsed by his lewdness. During bump and grind group numbers and a sequence of national dances, it becomes clear that the Queen is powerfully attracted to von Rothbart's son. His father, the Private Secretary, looks on with an increasingly triumphant approval. But the Prince, in a pas de deux, also tries to approach young von Rothbart, only to be rebuffed. The Prince retreats into his mind and imagines dancing intimately with him, but the Prince's confusion interrupts the fantasy, and the son's movements turn quickly from loving to violent. The Prince imagines the other guests at the ball laughing and ridiculing him. The Queen and young von Rothbart embrace and begin kissing, signalling her acceptance of him as her lover. Overwhelmed by his conflicted feelings, the Prince produces a pistol and threatens to shoot his mother. In an ensuing scuffle the Girlfriend tries to dissuade the Prince, while the Private Secretary draws a pistol and points it at the Prince. As shots ring out, the Girlfriend and the Prince fall to the ground, but only the Girlfriend has been hit. She lies unconscious on the ground and the Prince is dragged away, while the Queen throws herself into young von Rothbart's arms. He gives the pistol he had taken from the Prince to his father, the two of them laughing.



Act Four (1/2)
In the final act of Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake the Prince, regarded as having lost his mind, is confined to an asylum in a room with a high barred window, and is treated by a doctor and a team of nurses wearing masks that resemble the Queen's face, in a scene reminiscent of his dressing at the beginning of the ballet. Again, the Queen is unable to fully express love for her son.

The Prince crawls into bed and appears to sleep. However, he begins writhing as he dreams of the troupe of swans emerging from under and behind, dancing menacingly around him. He wakes from his nightmare, checking under his bed and around his room for swans. His tortured expression and jerky movements convey the Prince struggling to deal with reality and fantasy.



Act Four (2/2)The Last
......His lead Swan then slowly emerges from within the Prince's bed. It is unclear whether this is happening in reality or is merely another of the Prince's visions. The Swan lovingly dances with the Prince, before the rest of the swans enter and turn on the lead Swan when he makes it clear that he values his relationship with the Prince more than he values membership amongst them. They separate the two and begin attacking the Prince before the Swan leaps in to save him. The swans descend again and begin attacking the Swan. The Prince, despite his efforts, is too weak to save his love. Heartbroken, the Prince cries and collapses onto the bed. The Queen then finds her dead son's body and breaks down in sobs. However, it is in death that the Prince and the Swan can be together; a tableau above showing the lead Swan holding the young Prince from Act One in his arms.