Ask any person on the street to name one ballet production he or she has ever seen or heard about, and the most likely response you'll hear is "Swan Lake." Easily the most renowned ballet in modern dance history, every major dance company in the world puts on a production of the historically Russian ballet. You're definitely not a prima ballerina until you've danced the dual roles of queen swan Odette and her evil counterpart Odile.

The music is perhaps even better known; written by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, excerpts from Swan Lake are almost instantly recognizable to classical music connoisseurs and dilettantes alike.

Approximately 230 years old, Swan Lake has held up remarkably well despite being unanimously criticized upon its inaugural performance in Moscow, Russia, in 1877. It wasn't until 1895 that Swan Lake, with fresh choreography from Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov (who together created The Nutcracker) and a revisal of Tchaikovsky's score by Riccardo Drigo (who composed the music for The Magic Flute, not to be confused with the opera version scored by Mozart), gained the extraordinary acclaim it continues to enjoy today.

Since then, various dance companies have performed variations on the original Swan Lake. In 1981, Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB) artistic directors Kent Stowell and Francia Russell (who both retired in 2005) took a leap of faith by choosing to alter choreography and re-stage the entire production of Swan Lake; it was the first full-length ballet created specifically for PNB. The production launched both Stowell and Russell's careers as artistic directors and gave PNB its very own signature production, which the company is staging for the first week and a half of February.

Running through Sunday, Feb. 11, PNB's Swan Lake has undergone additional changes in the past few years. Brand new scenery (by legendary theater designer Ming Cho Lee) and lushly vibrant costumes (by two-time Tony Award nominee Paul Tazewell) now adorn the production and heighten the opulence of the ballet overall.

The lead roles of Odette/Odile and Prince Siegfried rotate between PNB's principal dancers. Last Thursday's premiere saw Louise Nadeau and Jeffrey Stanton in the titular roles.

For those unfamiliar with the plot, Swan Lake relates a fairy tale of romance between Prince Siegfried, who has just turned 21, and the beautiful Odette, a princess condemned by the evil sorcerer Von Rothbart to embody swan by day and woman by night; only true love can save Odette from permanent swan-dom. Siegfried is under pressure from his mother to find and marry a mate by the night of his birthday ball. Upon spying a flock of swans over a nearby forest, Siegfried follows only to be confronted by Odette; immediately he falls in love.

By dawn, Von Rothbart comes to reclaim Odette, and she becomes a swan once again. On the night of Siegfried's birthday ball, the sorcerer arrives uninvited with a mystery guest: his daughter, Odile, who bears a striking resemblance to Odette. Fooled by the doppelganger, Siegfried asks for Odile's hand in marriage. Moments later, Siegfried is blindsided by a vision of the real Odette and realizes his grave mistake.

At this point in the ballet, there are variations on the level of tragedy the ending creates. In PNB's version, Odette and her fellow maidens are condemned to remain in Von Rothbart's power, and she and Siegfried dance a final pas de deux of farewell.

The Grimm's Fairytales feel of Swan Lake is likely the power behind its lasting effect on audiences. Despite this, it's difficult to grasp the entire plot, which is interpreted primarily by dance and in part by emotion and hand signals, without knowing some of the story ahead of time.

PNB's dancers are certainly impressive; the audience applauded numerous times at the plethora of grand jetés, pirouettes and graceful high leg extensions from Nadeau and her fellow dancers.

Despite this formidable show of talent, Swan Lake is a bit too long for its own good. Including two 20-minute intermissions, PNB's version clocks in at nearly three hours. Even for a dance enthusiast like myself, it was hard to take. Split into four acts, Swan Lake could benefit from shaving a few dance numbers off the first and last acts of the production. Act two is by far the most concise and pleasant of all four acts; it also marks the instant where Siegfried first meets Odette and contains some of the most striking choreography in the entire ballet. Seeing 16 dancers move in precise unison is simply thrilling to the core.

Dance aficionado or not, simply seeing Swan Lake is somewhat of a cultural landmark of which one should not deprive oneself.

— Tiffany Wan

arts@thedaily.washington.edu