The Dying Swan
Encyclopedia
The Dying Swan is a ballet
choreographed by Mikhail Fokine in 1905 to Camille Saint-Saëns
's cello solo Le Cygne from Le Carnaval des Animaux as a pièce d'occasion
for the ballerina Anna Pavlova. The short ballet follows the last moments in the life of a swan, and was first presented in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1905. Pavlova performed the dance about 4,000 times. The ballet has since influenced modern interpretations of Odette in Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake
and has inspired non-traditional interpretations and various adaptations.
's poem "The Dying Swan", Anna Pavlova (who had just become a ballerina at the Mariinsky Theatre
) asked Michel Fokine
, who had also read the poem, to create a solo ballet for her for a 1905 concert being given by artists from the chorus of the Imperial Mariinsky Opera. Fokine suggested Saint-Saëns's cello solo, Le Cygne (which Fokine had been playing at home on a mandolin to a friend's piano accompaniment) as the work's musical basis and Pavlova agreed. A rehearsal was arranged and the short dance completed very quickly. Fokine remarked in Dance Magazine (August 1931):
In 1934, Fokine told Arnold Haskell
, author of Balletomania:
The French critic André Levinson
wrote:
, New York on 18 March 1910, with Pavlova in the role. American dance critic and photographer Carl Van Vechten
noted that the ballet was "the most exquisite specimen of [Pavlova's] art which she has yet given to the public." Pavlova performed the role some 4,000 times and, on her deathbed in The Hague
, reportedly cried, "Prepare my swan costume."
Fokine's granddaughter Isabelle notes that the ballet does not make "enormous technical demands" on the dancer but it does make "enormous artistic ones because every movement and every gesture should signify a different experience" which is "emerging from someone who is attempting to escape death". She notes that modern performances are significantly different from her grandfather's original conception and that the solo today is often made to appear to be a variation of Swan Lake—"Odette at death's door". The ballet is not about a ballerina being able to transform herself into a swan, she states, but about death, with the swan simply being a metaphor for that.
, particularly in the parting of the lovers in the first lakeside scene.
The dance was almost immediately adapted following its premiere by various ballerinas across the globe to suit their techniques and temperaments. As a result, Fokine published an official version of the choreography in 1925 highlighted with 36 photographs of his wife Vera Fokina demonstrating the ballet's sequential poses. At a later date, Kirov-trained Natalia Makarova
commented:
The ballet has been variously interpreted and adapted. The 1917 Russian film The Dying Swan by director Yevgeni Bauer
, for example, tells the story of an artist who strangles a ballerina. Maya Plisetskaya
re-interpreted the swan simply as elderly and stubbornly resisting the effects of aging; much like herself (she performed The Swan at a gala on her 70th birthday). Eventually the piece came to be considered one of Pavlova's trademarks. More recently, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo
perform a parody version that emphasizes every excess dormant in the choreography, and, in 2000, street theatre artist Judith Lanigan created a hula hoop
act based on the Fokine-Pavlova ballet divertissement that has been performed at international street theatre festivals, comedy and burlesque events, and in traditional and contemporary-style circus
es.
Several figure skaters have performed The Dying Swan with skate-choreography inspired by the original ballet. Maribel Vinson (1936 Olympic bronze medallist from the US) reviewed Sonja Henie
's 1936 professional debut for The New York Times
and noted:
Some ballerinas, including Ashley Bouder of New York City Ballet
and Nina Ananiashvili
, formerly of American Ballet Theater, have used "Dying Swan" arms in Swan Lake
when making Odette's exit at the end of Act II (the first lakeside scene).
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
choreographed by Mikhail Fokine in 1905 to Camille Saint-Saëns
Camille Saint-Saëns
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony...
's cello solo Le Cygne from Le Carnaval des Animaux as a pièce d'occasion
Star vehicle
A star vehicle has historically been a movie, play, TV series, or other production whose primary purpose, besides turning a profit, is to enhance someone's career. Vehicles are most commonly produced when a young or inexperienced actor has signed a long-term contract with a major studio...
for the ballerina Anna Pavlova. The short ballet follows the last moments in the life of a swan, and was first presented in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1905. Pavlova performed the dance about 4,000 times. The ballet has since influenced modern interpretations of Odette in Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake
Swan Lake
Swan Lake ballet, op. 20, by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, composed 1875–1876. The scenario, initially in four acts, was fashioned from Russian folk tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger...
and has inspired non-traditional interpretations and various adaptations.
Background
Inspired by swans that she had seen in public parks and Alfred, Lord TennysonAlfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular poets in the English language....
's poem "The Dying Swan", Anna Pavlova (who had just become a ballerina at the Mariinsky Theatre
Mariinsky Theatre
The Mariinsky Theatre is a historic theatre of opera and ballet in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Opened in 1860, it became the preeminent music theatre of late 19th century Russia, where many of the stage masterpieces of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov received their premieres. The...
) asked Michel Fokine
Michel Fokine
Michel Fokine was a groundbreaking Russian choreographer and dancer.-Biography:...
, who had also read the poem, to create a solo ballet for her for a 1905 concert being given by artists from the chorus of the Imperial Mariinsky Opera. Fokine suggested Saint-Saëns's cello solo, Le Cygne (which Fokine had been playing at home on a mandolin to a friend's piano accompaniment) as the work's musical basis and Pavlova agreed. A rehearsal was arranged and the short dance completed very quickly. Fokine remarked in Dance Magazine (August 1931):
It was almost an improvisation. I danced in front of her, she directly behind me. Then she danced and I walked alongside her, curving her arms and correcting details of poses. Prior to this composition, I was accused of barefooted tendencies and of rejecting toe dancingEn pointeEn pointe means "on the tip" and is a part of classical ballet technique, usually practised using specially reinforced shoes called pointe shoes or toe shoes. The technique developed from the desire for dancers to appear weightless and sylph-like and has evolved to enable dancers to dance on the...
in general. The Dying Swan was my answer to such criticism. This dance became the symbol of the New Russian BalletRussian balletRussian ballet is a form of ballet characteristic of or originating from Russia. In the early 19th century, the theaters were opened up to anyone who could afford a ticket. There was a seating section called a rayok, or 'paradise gallery', that consisted of simple wooden benches...
. It was a combination of masterful technique with expressiveness. It was like a proof that the dance could and should satisfy not only the eye, but through the medium of the eye should penetrate the soul.
In 1934, Fokine told Arnold Haskell
Arnold Haskell
Arnold Lionel Haskell was a British dance critic who founded the Camargo Society in 1930. With Ninette de Valois, he was influential in the development of the Royal Ballet School, later becoming the school's headmaster.He became fascinated by ballet when his mother prevailed on him to come with...
, author of Balletomania:
Small work as it is, [...] it was 'revolutionary' then, and illustrated admirably the transition between the old and the new, for here I make use of the technique of the old dance and the traditional costume, and a highly developed technique is necessary, but the purpose of the dance is not to display that technique but to create the symbol of the everlasting struggle in this life and all that is mortal. It is a dance of the whole body and not of the limbs only; it appeals not merely to the eye but to the emotions and the imagination.
Plot summary
The ballet was originally entitled The Swan but acquired its now familiar title following Pavlova's tremulous interpretation of the work's dramatic arc as the expiration of life. The dance is composed principally of supple upper body and arm movements and tiny, nibbling steps called pas de bourée suivi.The French critic André Levinson
André Levinson
André Yacovlev Levinson, Андрей Яковлевич Левинсон; Andrey Yakovl'evich Levinson was a French dance journalist.- Literary works :* Meister des Ballets, 1923...
wrote:
Arms folded, on tiptoe, she dreamily and slowly circles the stage. By even, gliding motions of the hands, returning to the background from whence she emerged, she seems to strive toward the horizon, as though a moment more and she will fly—exploring the confines of space with her soul. The tension gradually relaxes and she sinks to earth, arms waving faintly as in pain. Then faltering with irregular steps toward the edge of the stage—leg bones aquiver like the strings of a harp—by one swift forward-gliding morion of the right foot to earth, she sinks on the left knee—the aerial creature struggling against earthly bonds; and there, transfixed by pain, she dies.
Performances and critical commentary
The Dying Swan was first performed at a gala in the Noblemen's Hall, St. Petersburg, Russia on Friday, 22 December 1905, and first performed in the United States at the Metropolitan Opera HouseMetropolitan Opera House (39th St)
The Metropolitan Opera House was an opera house located at 1411 Broadway in New York City. Opened in 1883 and demolished in 1967, it was the first home of the Metropolitan Opera Company.-History:...
, New York on 18 March 1910, with Pavlova in the role. American dance critic and photographer Carl Van Vechten
Carl van Vechten
Carl Van Vechten was an American writer and photographer who was a patron of the Harlem Renaissance and the literary executor of Gertrude Stein.-Biography:...
noted that the ballet was "the most exquisite specimen of [Pavlova's] art which she has yet given to the public." Pavlova performed the role some 4,000 times and, on her deathbed in The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
, reportedly cried, "Prepare my swan costume."
Fokine's granddaughter Isabelle notes that the ballet does not make "enormous technical demands" on the dancer but it does make "enormous artistic ones because every movement and every gesture should signify a different experience" which is "emerging from someone who is attempting to escape death". She notes that modern performances are significantly different from her grandfather's original conception and that the solo today is often made to appear to be a variation of Swan Lake—"Odette at death's door". The ballet is not about a ballerina being able to transform herself into a swan, she states, but about death, with the swan simply being a metaphor for that.
Legacy
Pavlova was recorded dancing The Dying Swan in a 1925 silent, nearly complete film, to which sound is often post-applied. The short ballet has influenced interpretations of Odette in Tchaikovsky's Swan LakeSwan Lake
Swan Lake ballet, op. 20, by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, composed 1875–1876. The scenario, initially in four acts, was fashioned from Russian folk tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger...
, particularly in the parting of the lovers in the first lakeside scene.
The dance was almost immediately adapted following its premiere by various ballerinas across the globe to suit their techniques and temperaments. As a result, Fokine published an official version of the choreography in 1925 highlighted with 36 photographs of his wife Vera Fokina demonstrating the ballet's sequential poses. At a later date, Kirov-trained Natalia Makarova
Natalia Makarova
Nataliya Romanovna Makarova is the legendary Soviet-Russian-born prima ballerina. The History of Dance, published in 1981, notes that “Her performances set standards of artistry and aristocracy of dance which mark her as the finest ballerina of her generation.” She has also won awards as an...
commented:
Of Fokine's original choreography [...] only scattered fragments remain [...] he created only the bourées [a walking or running ballet step usually executed on the points of the toes] for Pavlova. Subsequently, every performer [...] has used the piece at her own taste and at her own risk [...] In Russia I had danced DudinskayaNatalia DudinskayaNatalia Mikhailovna Dudinskaya was a Russian prima ballerina who dominated the Kirov Ballet in the 1930s and 1940s.Dudinskaya's mother was Natalia Tagliori, a ballerina coached by Enrico Cecchetti. Trained by Agrippina Vaganova, Dudinskaya matriculated from her school in 1931. She danced all the...
's version and [...] experienced a certain discomfort [...] from all the sentimental stuff—the rushing around the stage, the flailing of the arms [...] to the contemporary eye, its conventions look almost ludicrous [...] the dance needs total emotional abandon, conveying the image of a struggle with death or a surrender to it [...] As for the emotional content, I was helped by Pavlova, whose film of the work I saw. Even today, her Swan is striking—the flawless feeling for style, the animated face—although certain melodramatic details seem superfluous.
The ballet has been variously interpreted and adapted. The 1917 Russian film The Dying Swan by director Yevgeni Bauer
Yevgeni Bauer
Yevgeni Franzevich Bauer was a Russian film director of silent films, a theatre artist and a screenwriter. His work had a great influence on the aesthetics of Russian cinematography at the beginning of the 20th century....
, for example, tells the story of an artist who strangles a ballerina. Maya Plisetskaya
Maya Plisetskaya
Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya , born is a Russian ballet dancer, frequently cited as one of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th century. Maya danced during the Soviet era at the same time as the great Galina Ulanova, and took over from her as prima ballerina assoluta of the Bolshoi in 1960...
re-interpreted the swan simply as elderly and stubbornly resisting the effects of aging; much like herself (she performed The Swan at a gala on her 70th birthday). Eventually the piece came to be considered one of Pavlova's trademarks. More recently, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo is an American all-male drag ballet corps which parodies the conventions and clichés of romantic and classical ballet. The company was co-founded by Peter Anastos, Natch Taylor and Antony Bassae in New York City in 1974, producing small, late-night shows, in...
perform a parody version that emphasizes every excess dormant in the choreography, and, in 2000, street theatre artist Judith Lanigan created a hula hoop
Hula hoop
A hula hoop is a toy hoop that is twirled around the waist, limbs or neck.Although the exact origins of hula hoops are unknown, children and adults around the world have played with hoops, twirling, rolling and throwing them throughout history...
act based on the Fokine-Pavlova ballet divertissement that has been performed at international street theatre festivals, comedy and burlesque events, and in traditional and contemporary-style circus
Circus
A circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists...
es.
Several figure skaters have performed The Dying Swan with skate-choreography inspired by the original ballet. Maribel Vinson (1936 Olympic bronze medallist from the US) reviewed Sonja Henie
Sonja Henie
Sonja Henie was a Norwegian figure skater and film star. She was a three-time Olympic Champion in Ladies Singles, a ten-time World Champion and a six-time European Champion . Henie won more Olympic and World titles than any other ladies figure skater...
's 1936 professional debut for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
and noted:
The crowd settled quickly into a receptive mood for Sonja's famous interpretation of the Dying Swan of Saint-Saëns. With spotlights giving the ice the effect of water at night, Miss Henie, outlined in a blue light, performed the dance made immortal by Pavlova. Whether one agrees that such posturing is suited to the medium of ice, there is no doubt that Miss Henie's rendition is a lovely thing. Too much toe work at the start leaves the feeling that this does not belong to skating, but when she glides effortlessly back and forth, she is free as a disembodied spirit and there is an ease of movement that ballet never can produce.
Some ballerinas, including Ashley Bouder of New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Leon Barzin was the company's first music director. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company...
and Nina Ananiashvili
Nina Ananiashvili
Nina Ananiashvili is a Georgian ballerina and artistic director of the State Ballet of Georgia.- Career :...
, formerly of American Ballet Theater, have used "Dying Swan" arms in Swan Lake
Swan Lake
Swan Lake ballet, op. 20, by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, composed 1875–1876. The scenario, initially in four acts, was fashioned from Russian folk tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger...
when making Odette's exit at the end of Act II (the first lakeside scene).