Black Swan

New hair and a dress inspired by the black swan in Swan Lake my absolute favorite ballet besides Giselle and Satanella...

Okay actually any ballet choreographed by the great Petipa is my favorite ;p

His choreography is timeless and I love how for generations companies have kept his original work only varying slighty. But it takes a great ballerina to do justice to Petipa's lead roles they are not easy in fact many ballerinas claim Petipa's choreography is the greatest challenge of their career. Especially the role of the black swan in Swan Lake. It is the greatest test of a ballerina's training and technique because she must dance first as a swan docile, weak and timid. Then when she is in the role of the black swan she is the complete opposite confident, strong, virile and seductive. Her movements must express this character but sadly many prima ballerinas only use their facial emotions to show the change and not their bodies.

Oh how I wish I was born earlier so that I could have seen the great partnership of Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn I have only seen the tape of one of Margot Fonteyn's last performances with Nureyev when she was already about to retire. You can see the strain in her movements and how altered the choreography was to adhere to her stiffness but I heard in her youth there were none like her.

My dream is to one day go to old Leningrad which is now St. Petersburg, Russia to see a performance at the Kirov. Oh if I were to see the great Russian ballerinas I would die with no regrets in my life. Hopefully one day I will get there I'm crossing my fingers :)