More Swan Notes

Some more thoughts that I couldn’t cram into the Supersized Culture Cat on Friday.

• Here is a post where I write about Odette’s tutu. All the work that goes into ONE—and there were 34 Swans on the stage! What a feat of costuming. Just when I think that everything is going to computers (or China), I see things like this coming out of our local costume shops.
• The BalletMet costume shop, by the way, is amazing. When I interviewed with BalletMet, I got a tour of the facilities. The costume shop was one of the spots. There are huge wooden work tables, industrial washers and driers, fitting areas, and (the best part), an entire long room full of costumes, tagged with dancers names, the shows they’re a part of, and character tags. It’s a little girl’s dream of a dress-up trunk.
• As with the CSO concert the week before, the performers received a long and loud standing ovation. The only dancers who took bows were the corps of swans, the cygnets, the big swans, Von Rothbart, Odile, Siegfried, and Odette. I thought that was a bit odd—what about the men and the kids?—but now that I think about it, they probably couldn’t all fit on the stage!
• All these standing ovations I’ve seen lately have been well deserved. Sometimes, among theater/music cognoscente, there’s disdain attached to SOs—that they should be reserved for the truly exceptional. Well, what if you’re seeing a lot of exceptional? The Beethoven 9^th—very excellent. Swan Lake—superb. They all deserved SOs, and I’m glad they got them.
• There were props in this ballet. That’s not something I’ve seen very often. Fans, , cups, crossbows, tables for the cups—that was a lot of property. Whoever the stage manager is/was, excellent work. I bet the wings were super-crowded!
• Next BalletMet performance: Night Moves, a collection of pieces, at the BalletMet performance space on Mt. Vernon Avenue. Opening night is Nov. 6, and ticket information can be found here. The black box theater is an intimate, yet casual venue, perfect for up-close-and-personal dance experiences.