Sheer magic

For 100 years, ballet has been represented by the image of a ballerina with a feathered headdress and an arm raised as a quivering wing. Then, in 1995, came Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake, and ballet’s icon lost its long-held supremacy. The Swan Princess met her masculine match: a bare-torsoed, bare-footed, muscled Adonis in feathery trousers. Never before, in ballet history, had the revisitation of a well-known work acquired the same iconic status as its predecessor.

Almost ten years down the line, Bourne’s Swan Lake is still splendidly engaging. Central to it remains the amazing transformation of the traditional tutu-ed ladies into now fiery, now subtly ambiguous guys. Although the original surprise has waned, the choreographic ideas conceived for the male swans have not lost their impact. Bourne’s ‘swans’ scenes can be numbered among other legendary moments in theatre-dance history, for they stand out for their choreographic inventiveness, dramatic drive and visual appeal.