0:00:08 > 0:00:12Dancing Swan Lake is every ballerina's dream.
0:00:16 > 0:00:20It's the one ballet we all imagine ourselves doing.
0:00:24 > 0:00:28And for me, it was one of the first ballets I started getting to know
0:00:28 > 0:00:31and the solo I chose to do was Black Swan.
0:00:32 > 0:00:37From the beginning, for me, I knew that I would be doing Swan Lake
0:00:37 > 0:00:39on a big stage somewhere around the world.
0:00:44 > 0:00:48I remember as a student watching swans on the water.
0:00:48 > 0:00:51Observing for hours, trying to work out how a swan moves
0:00:51 > 0:00:54so that I could incorporate it into my dancing.
0:00:56 > 0:01:00Years later, I realised that this ballet was not about swans,
0:01:00 > 0:01:02but about two ideals.
0:01:02 > 0:01:06The ideal of the white swan - innocence, purity and honesty,
0:01:06 > 0:01:11and the black swan - manipulation, dishonesty and eroticism.
0:01:27 > 0:01:30It is no accident that, when people think of ballet,
0:01:30 > 0:01:33their first thought is Swan Lake.
0:01:33 > 0:01:35It almost defines the genre.
0:01:35 > 0:01:37Yet it's extraordinary to think
0:01:37 > 0:01:40that nothing about it is defined.
0:01:40 > 0:01:43Tchaikovsky's handwritten score is lost.
0:01:43 > 0:01:45No-one knows who wrote the story.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49Even the choreography, passed down the ages by word of mouth,
0:01:49 > 0:01:50remains unfixed.
0:01:52 > 0:01:55Yet the themes Swan Lake embodies are timeless.
0:01:55 > 0:01:58Unfulfilled yearning,
0:01:58 > 0:02:00deception,
0:02:00 > 0:02:02tragic love.
0:02:04 > 0:02:08They speak to us just as vividly today as ever.
0:02:10 > 0:02:12What's more, the lead role is unique
0:02:12 > 0:02:14in all of classical ballet.
0:02:17 > 0:02:18Unusually, this ballet demands
0:02:18 > 0:02:20of the lead ballerina to portray
0:02:20 > 0:02:22two different characters.
0:02:22 > 0:02:24Each the polar opposite
0:02:24 > 0:02:25of one another.
0:02:25 > 0:02:29Odette, the white swan, and Odile, the black swan.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36And how's that reflected on the choreography?
0:02:36 > 0:02:39Odette, the white swan, and Odile, the black swan,
0:02:39 > 0:02:41both do the same steps.
0:02:41 > 0:02:43We do pirouettes
0:02:43 > 0:02:44and we do soutenus,
0:02:44 > 0:02:45we do arabesques,
0:02:45 > 0:02:48but the way we do it, the intensity,
0:02:48 > 0:02:51the attack is completely different.
0:02:52 > 0:02:54Like in literature,
0:02:54 > 0:02:55the words are the same.
0:02:55 > 0:02:59Romeo and Macbeth both say "love".
0:02:59 > 0:03:02What they mean, the intention,
0:03:02 > 0:03:04is completely different.
0:03:09 > 0:03:12It demands extreme physical endurance
0:03:12 > 0:03:14and a faultless ballet technique.
0:03:16 > 0:03:18When you actually get somebody
0:03:18 > 0:03:22who emotionally understands the dual characters as well
0:03:22 > 0:03:24as being able to physically do it,
0:03:24 > 0:03:27it's wonderful, but phenomenally rare.
0:03:29 > 0:03:34I'm going to take you backstage to show you my life as a performer
0:03:34 > 0:03:38and what it really takes to prepare for this thrilling role.
0:03:38 > 0:03:41The living tradition of how the steps are handed down
0:03:41 > 0:03:44and evolve and how to read them.
0:03:46 > 0:03:49And explore the history of Swan Lake
0:03:49 > 0:03:51from troubled beginnings
0:03:51 > 0:03:53to immortal classic.
0:03:59 > 0:04:00I guess...
0:04:02 > 0:04:04..the moment I like the most,
0:04:04 > 0:04:07actually, about the process is...
0:04:09 > 0:04:11..this moment.
0:04:11 > 0:04:14I feel like I've erased my angles
0:04:14 > 0:04:16and I've erased my lines
0:04:16 > 0:04:18and I've erased a little bit my face
0:04:18 > 0:04:20and I've muted my eyebrows,
0:04:20 > 0:04:23which are so strong and defining
0:04:23 > 0:04:26and I kind of, yeah, I erased
0:04:26 > 0:04:29a little bit everything about me
0:04:29 > 0:04:31and then, it's a blank canvas.
0:04:31 > 0:04:33I can start putting on
0:04:33 > 0:04:36this other face of another person
0:04:36 > 0:04:39and then, see what comes out today.
0:05:00 > 0:05:02The attraction of Swan Lake
0:05:02 > 0:05:05is many things.
0:05:05 > 0:05:06First, of course, the music.
0:05:14 > 0:05:18The music is beautiful and it's a music that we all get to know
0:05:18 > 0:05:21very early on in our careers...
0:05:22 > 0:05:25..and also you really can be free in it.
0:05:26 > 0:05:29I think it's partly why it has survived for so long,
0:05:29 > 0:05:34because you can absorb the new range of movement
0:05:34 > 0:05:38that dancers have gained through centuries.
0:05:38 > 0:05:42In Swan Lake, there really is space for each ballerina
0:05:42 > 0:05:43to make it their own.
0:05:50 > 0:05:52Legend has it that it was on
0:05:52 > 0:05:55a family summer holiday in the Ukraine
0:05:55 > 0:05:59that Tchaikovsky wrote a little ballet called The Lake Of Swans
0:05:59 > 0:06:01for the children to perform.
0:06:01 > 0:06:04According to his young nephew, Yuri Davidov,
0:06:04 > 0:06:08the principal theme was the Song Of The Swans.
0:06:08 > 0:06:13Known now to us as one of the most loved melodies in classical music.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17Tchaikovsky really knew
0:06:17 > 0:06:20every instrument of the orchestra inside out
0:06:20 > 0:06:26and he knew the best notes on those instruments.
0:06:26 > 0:06:29And the best note on the oboes of the time was F sharp...
0:06:29 > 0:06:31HE PLAYS "Swan Theme"
0:06:31 > 0:06:33..cos we have the opening of the ballet...
0:06:35 > 0:06:37..and then we have, of course...
0:06:39 > 0:06:41So he's using it, just an octave,
0:06:41 > 0:06:46eight notes, but that very small range of notes,
0:06:46 > 0:06:50somehow gives it a poignance
0:06:50 > 0:06:54that you just don't see in ballet music of the time.
0:07:03 > 0:07:06I don't first appear until Act 2,
0:07:06 > 0:07:08but I always make sure I'm in the wings
0:07:08 > 0:07:10to hear Tchaikovsky's Prologue.
0:07:10 > 0:07:12From the very first notes,
0:07:12 > 0:07:16the music creates an atmosphere of melancholy and yearning.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20It transports me into the very heart of this mythical world.
0:07:24 > 0:07:28SWAN LAKE PROLOGUE PLAYS
0:07:28 > 0:07:31We are still familiar, from our own childhood,
0:07:31 > 0:07:34with stories of castles and princesses.
0:07:34 > 0:07:36But in the 19th century,
0:07:36 > 0:07:39the fairy tale had a greater resonance for adults.
0:07:39 > 0:07:41In formal European society,
0:07:41 > 0:07:45show and etiquette were still of paramount importance,
0:07:45 > 0:07:49but there also lurked an appetite for something other.
0:07:51 > 0:07:54The belief in a parallel supernatural world
0:07:54 > 0:07:57where longing and darker realities dominated.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04The fairy tale of Swan Lake immerses us fully in both worlds.
0:08:07 > 0:08:10It was on a tour of western Europe that a young Tchaikovsky
0:08:10 > 0:08:12took a boat trip down the Rhine.
0:08:12 > 0:08:17What he saw along its banks, the magical castles and palaces,
0:08:17 > 0:08:21can't have failed to impress his hungry mind.
0:08:21 > 0:08:23And it is the fairy-tale setting
0:08:23 > 0:08:28of a great castle in medieval Germany that opens Swan Lake.
0:08:34 > 0:08:38Courtiers are celebrating Prince Siegfried's coming of age.
0:08:39 > 0:08:41He has everything going for him,
0:08:41 > 0:08:45but is suffocated by the formality of life at court
0:08:45 > 0:08:47and longs for something more natural.
0:08:50 > 0:08:52For me, he's another lost soul.
0:08:52 > 0:08:55A man trying to find his own identity.
0:08:55 > 0:08:57He has lived a sheltered life
0:08:57 > 0:09:02and now he's asked by his own mother to find a wife, settle down,
0:09:02 > 0:09:05grow up and be a king.
0:09:08 > 0:09:11It's the Prince's search that drives Swan Lake.
0:09:11 > 0:09:13Repressed desires -
0:09:13 > 0:09:15a preoccupation for artists
0:09:15 > 0:09:17at the end of the 19th century.
0:09:17 > 0:09:21It's just all about your thoughts, that's all.
0:09:21 > 0:09:25In the variation, you have to be at your most lost.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28You're in trouble with your mother, you're sad,
0:09:28 > 0:09:30she wants you to get married, I don't know what to do.
0:09:30 > 0:09:34So you've got to have that weight in the variation,
0:09:34 > 0:09:37that weight of sorrow and sadness.
0:09:37 > 0:09:40'Everybody has the face, everybody has a working face and then,
0:09:40 > 0:09:42'when the door is closed, everybody has another face.
0:09:42 > 0:09:44'I think the Prince is very similar to that.
0:09:44 > 0:09:46'You know, he does have to keep face'
0:09:46 > 0:09:49and I think he does all the way through Act 1,
0:09:49 > 0:09:53but underneath all of that, there is this terrible sadness
0:09:53 > 0:09:55'because he can't find love,
0:09:55 > 0:09:57'that's the real him.'
0:09:57 > 0:10:01..and up, plie.
0:10:03 > 0:10:05Good, plie.
0:10:06 > 0:10:08Plie, and up...
0:10:08 > 0:10:11'Every movement in the variation
0:10:11 > 0:10:13'creates a feeling of sadness.
0:10:13 > 0:10:15'It's the way you take an arabesque,'
0:10:15 > 0:10:18it's the way you put your arms and your head down,
0:10:18 > 0:10:19it's the way you look up.
0:10:19 > 0:10:23Those things create the conversation of the piece.
0:10:29 > 0:10:32You should feel like him at the end of that variation,
0:10:32 > 0:10:34you should feel as,
0:10:34 > 0:10:36as miserable as he is.
0:10:42 > 0:10:47In his personal life, all was not well with Tchaikovsky.
0:10:47 > 0:10:50It's now well-known that he was ambivalent on the subject of
0:10:50 > 0:10:56his own sexuality and was struggling under pressure to marry and conform.
0:10:58 > 0:11:00But his artistic life was flourishing.
0:11:00 > 0:11:03Aged 35, he was already famous for
0:11:03 > 0:11:06his symphonies and a piano concerto.
0:11:06 > 0:11:10It was the commission of Swan Lake from a friend at the Bolshoi
0:11:10 > 0:11:12that gave Tchaikovsky the opportunity
0:11:12 > 0:11:14to explore a whole new world
0:11:14 > 0:11:17and unlock ballet's real potential.
0:11:17 > 0:11:20Ballet music before Tchaikovsky was like this.
0:11:28 > 0:11:32House composers within the imperial theatre system were subject
0:11:32 > 0:11:35to the whims of choreographers, who usually demanded
0:11:35 > 0:11:38a succession of merely formulaic dance numbers.
0:11:40 > 0:11:41It was music by the yard.
0:11:41 > 0:11:45Tchaikovsky blew everything that had gone before out of the water
0:11:45 > 0:11:49and, I mean, Swan Lake is the most typical of these.
0:11:49 > 0:11:53Thematic development actually was part and parcel of the drama,
0:11:53 > 0:11:56it wasn't just music for dance, it wasn't just music for mime -
0:11:56 > 0:11:59the two elements worked together.
0:12:04 > 0:12:07Whenever Rothbart, the evil sorcerer, arrives,
0:12:07 > 0:12:10the music creates a frenzy you just can't resist.
0:12:22 > 0:12:26Swan Lake has particular demands.
0:12:26 > 0:12:28The kind of stamina you need is
0:12:28 > 0:12:32the combination of a marathon runner and a sprinter.
0:12:32 > 0:12:34What we do is long,
0:12:34 > 0:12:36it lasts for three hours
0:12:36 > 0:12:39but it has huge bursts of energy.
0:12:46 > 0:12:49Nerves is something that changes through your career.
0:12:49 > 0:12:53I wasn't a very nervous dancer when I was very young,
0:12:53 > 0:12:57I felt no-one had any expectations of me,
0:12:57 > 0:12:59so I had nothing to lose.
0:13:00 > 0:13:02Then, as my career progressed,
0:13:02 > 0:13:06I didn't want to let the public down,
0:13:06 > 0:13:09but I also realised they were really related
0:13:09 > 0:13:12to how much practice I put into a show.
0:13:12 > 0:13:15The more I practised, the less nervous I was.
0:13:17 > 0:13:23March 1877, and the premiere at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow loomed.
0:13:23 > 0:13:25However, even during rehearsals,
0:13:25 > 0:13:29rumours emerged that the chorography was weak and incoherent.
0:13:29 > 0:13:33While some of the cast claimed Tchaikovsky's music
0:13:33 > 0:13:34was un-danceable.
0:13:35 > 0:13:39The opening night drew a packed house, but mixed reactions.
0:13:39 > 0:13:41Everything was more than once,
0:13:41 > 0:13:44and Tchaikovsky's ballet music certainly was.
0:13:44 > 0:13:50He'd really found ways of depicting emotions that had not been seen
0:13:50 > 0:13:52by ballet audiences up until that point.
0:13:52 > 0:13:56His thematic and harmonic styles were very contemporary
0:13:56 > 0:14:00and very modern at the time, which did turn off a lot of audiences.
0:14:02 > 0:14:06It is unthinkable that Swan Lake might have been lost forever.
0:14:06 > 0:14:09Maybe it was the choreography,
0:14:09 > 0:14:11maybe cuts in theatre budgets,
0:14:11 > 0:14:15no-one really knows why, but after just a few seasons, it petered out.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22It was Tchaikovsky's unforgettable music
0:14:22 > 0:14:25and the collaboration of two unlikely choreographers
0:14:25 > 0:14:28that would save it for another generation.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40It's strange, putting the headdress on feels
0:14:40 > 0:14:44like putting years of tradition.
0:14:44 > 0:14:49Somehow, I suddenly see all the other ballerinas
0:14:49 > 0:14:53that have worn these feathers and what that means.
0:14:55 > 0:14:58The nerves kind of go away and it's just the desire to go on
0:14:58 > 0:15:00and perform.
0:15:05 > 0:15:09I first appear as Odette within a flock of swans.
0:15:09 > 0:15:13A sorcerer has condemned me to remain half-human, half-swan.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16The spell can only be broken
0:15:16 > 0:15:19by the love of someone who has never loved before
0:15:19 > 0:15:22and who swears to love me forever.
0:15:58 > 0:15:59Enter Prince Siegfried,
0:15:59 > 0:16:01who's fled court to go hunting.
0:16:04 > 0:16:06Mesmerised by Odette's beauty,
0:16:06 > 0:16:09he can't bring himself to shoot.
0:16:21 > 0:16:24You can see Odette as just a victim,
0:16:24 > 0:16:25a victim of misfortune.
0:16:25 > 0:16:28Or you can see it as a projection
0:16:28 > 0:16:30of the desire of a frustrated man
0:16:30 > 0:16:32that has to find someone to marry
0:16:32 > 0:16:36and manages to find the one thing he cannot marry.
0:16:43 > 0:16:46The basic language of myths and fairy tales
0:16:46 > 0:16:49looks at all the deep mysteries of being human -
0:16:49 > 0:16:53death, sex, desire.
0:16:53 > 0:16:55They tackle the question of what is forbidden
0:16:55 > 0:16:59and what is allowed in any given society, and that keeps changing.
0:16:59 > 0:17:03So Odette is, at the beginning,
0:17:03 > 0:17:06a vision of some transcendent ideal
0:17:06 > 0:17:08that Siegfried needs to be completed
0:17:08 > 0:17:10as a man, that's how he falls
0:17:10 > 0:17:13in love with something that is going to make him a greater person.
0:17:24 > 0:17:25To dance Odette presents
0:17:25 > 0:17:27a particular set of challenges
0:17:27 > 0:17:29you have to find a convincing
0:17:29 > 0:17:31balance between her vulnerability
0:17:31 > 0:17:34and the movements of a swan.
0:17:34 > 0:17:38Helping me rehearse this is Loipa Araujo, one of my great mentors.
0:17:38 > 0:17:41A former principal with the National Ballet of Cuba,
0:17:41 > 0:17:43she has performed this role
0:17:43 > 0:17:45many times herself.
0:17:47 > 0:17:49As soon as Odette appears,
0:17:49 > 0:17:52it's just a sentiment of sorrow.
0:17:52 > 0:17:53I'm a woman but I have
0:17:53 > 0:17:56to move like a swan,
0:17:56 > 0:17:58but always remember that you have, instead of arms,
0:17:58 > 0:18:00you should think you should have wings.
0:18:00 > 0:18:03Tienes que cambiar, pero hazlo mas lento. Si.
0:18:03 > 0:18:05LOIPA HUMS
0:18:05 > 0:18:09- Y ya que ellos sienten tu mirada... - OK.
0:18:09 > 0:18:12'And there's a certain way of moving wings
0:18:12 > 0:18:15'that has to have that quality'
0:18:15 > 0:18:18of how the swans would move their heads,
0:18:18 > 0:18:22how the swans will clean their feathers
0:18:22 > 0:18:25and how, if something's coming,
0:18:25 > 0:18:27how they will hide behind the wings.
0:18:32 > 0:18:36There is a purity and a strength in the figure of the swan.
0:18:36 > 0:18:41They are not small animals, they are powerful, big animals.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45And that's what's so difficult - to try and balance the real
0:18:45 > 0:18:50characters of a swan, with that vulnerability that Odette has.
0:18:50 > 0:18:52And that beauty, that purity,
0:18:52 > 0:18:54I think, is very much reflected
0:18:54 > 0:18:55on the purity of her character.
0:19:03 > 0:19:07The symbol of a swan is a very potent one, and the myth of the
0:19:07 > 0:19:12swan maiden is one of the oldest and most captivating legends there is.
0:19:12 > 0:19:18Swans have the most powerful myth-generating potential.
0:19:18 > 0:19:22The intermediate beings, in almost all world myths and fairy tales,
0:19:22 > 0:19:25the beings that can move between the forests and the upper air
0:19:25 > 0:19:28are more magical and more powerful.
0:19:28 > 0:19:34And watery birds attract even more, because they can dive.
0:19:34 > 0:19:37And Swan Lake, towards the end of the 19th century,
0:19:37 > 0:19:41is very involved in that era's interest in the unconscious
0:19:41 > 0:19:43and in the roots of sexual desire.
0:19:43 > 0:19:47You know, just before Freud comes out with the definitive
0:19:47 > 0:19:50theory of the unconscious, which we still, in a sense, live by.
0:19:50 > 0:19:54The fairy-tale lake where the swans are found,
0:19:54 > 0:19:57the dark forest where he goes hunting,
0:19:57 > 0:19:59become symbols of the unconscious,
0:19:59 > 0:20:04and symbols of the dark, forbidden things that might go on there.
0:20:04 > 0:20:07And also of dreams, of fulfilment.
0:20:14 > 0:20:17The most likely sources for the story of Swan Lake
0:20:17 > 0:20:21are a Russian folk legend, The White Duck,
0:20:21 > 0:20:25and a medieval fairy tale from Germany called The Stolen Veil
0:20:25 > 0:20:29in which a knight waits for a group of swan maidens to arrive on a lake.
0:20:31 > 0:20:35For the corps de ballet, literally the "body of the ballet",
0:20:35 > 0:20:39the fluidity of a flock on water created a new opportunity
0:20:39 > 0:20:40for synchronous movement.
0:20:48 > 0:20:50At the beginning of my career,
0:20:50 > 0:20:53I spent over a year as a member of the corps de ballet.
0:20:53 > 0:20:57It was really hard work, but also really satisfying.
0:21:01 > 0:21:05The success of the corps de ballet doesn't depend on one person,
0:21:05 > 0:21:07but on everyone doing their best.
0:21:07 > 0:21:12However, when it does work, it's absolutely amazing.
0:21:12 > 0:21:15If you look at a ballet like Swan Lake,
0:21:15 > 0:21:1875% of it is the corps de ballet.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21Of course, they've got to stay in line, look the same
0:21:21 > 0:21:23and do all of those things, but there is an emotional quality
0:21:23 > 0:21:26to the work as well, which is hugely important.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29Heavy elbows, heavy arms...
0:21:29 > 0:21:32Through the feet. Run, ladies, with your feet and legs.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35'When you have 60 swans breathing together,
0:21:35 > 0:21:37'it makes a huge difference.'
0:21:44 > 0:21:48There is this intense feeling of sisterhood,
0:21:48 > 0:21:53a special alchemy that makes you become just one unit, one person,
0:21:53 > 0:21:56hearing each other, feeling each other,
0:21:56 > 0:21:58without really having to look around.
0:21:58 > 0:22:01Just like if they all become part of you,
0:22:01 > 0:22:04and you become part of all of them.
0:22:04 > 0:22:08Nothing makes you prouder than when you feel that is one of those
0:22:08 > 0:22:12special nights and the audience are breathing with you too.
0:22:12 > 0:22:14I love that feeling.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28In the past, these women were a representation of society,
0:22:28 > 0:22:33order and precision, so it has a kind of Utopian aspect to it.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36In Swan Lake, I think they become something more than that,
0:22:36 > 0:22:39they become almost a reflection of her inner life,
0:22:39 > 0:22:43so that when they're gathered around her, they're not just a frame,
0:22:43 > 0:22:47their function's not decorative, it's in fact reflective -
0:22:47 > 0:22:51and it's not just synchrony, it's a community.
0:22:51 > 0:22:56They exist together in this musical world on this stage,
0:22:56 > 0:22:59which becomes its own reality.
0:22:59 > 0:23:02That's what the audience is then pulled into, of course.
0:23:07 > 0:23:12It was this ravishing scene which led to the phenomenon we know today.
0:23:13 > 0:23:15Reworked by Lev Ivanov especially
0:23:15 > 0:23:19for Tchaikovsky's memorial concert in 1893,
0:23:19 > 0:23:21his new naturalistic choreography
0:23:21 > 0:23:24astonished the St Petersburg audience,
0:23:24 > 0:23:28and prompted the resurrection of a complete new production.
0:23:42 > 0:23:45Drawn irresistibly back to the lakeside,
0:23:45 > 0:23:47the Prince is desperate to find the
0:23:47 > 0:23:50creature that has so enchanted him.
0:23:57 > 0:23:59And the beauty of this moment is
0:23:59 > 0:24:02that I too am compelled to find him.
0:24:08 > 0:24:15I want to be the soul mate this prince was dreaming of,
0:24:15 > 0:24:19however strange and however unobtainable it is -
0:24:19 > 0:24:22a man's fantasy of what
0:24:22 > 0:24:25the ideal woman should be.
0:24:34 > 0:24:38It is quite easy to empathise with Odette, because she's not
0:24:38 > 0:24:45quite real, she really is a freak that doesn't fit anywhere.
0:24:45 > 0:24:49So I think it is that feeling of not fitting somewhere,
0:24:49 > 0:24:54whether it's school or society in general or a new country
0:24:54 > 0:24:57where you have no friends, no family.
0:24:58 > 0:25:02I think that's what for me she is,
0:25:02 > 0:25:06and she's forever looking at somebody that makes her feel
0:25:06 > 0:25:10like she belongs, at least to one person.
0:25:10 > 0:25:12With folded wings,
0:25:12 > 0:25:15I'm showing my vulnerability.
0:25:15 > 0:25:18What follows is a pas de deux or a duet,
0:25:18 > 0:25:20over the course of which I offer him
0:25:20 > 0:25:23my trust and our souls unite.
0:25:23 > 0:25:27VIOLIN PLAYS
0:25:38 > 0:25:45When I hear the violin solo, I feel I hear the deep voice of Odette.
0:25:45 > 0:25:51It is the time she has to tell him about her sorrows and her life
0:25:51 > 0:25:54and what she hopes for the future.
0:26:07 > 0:26:08The innocence of young love
0:26:08 > 0:26:10is something I also explore
0:26:10 > 0:26:12through coaching the next generation.
0:26:13 > 0:26:17'Lauretta Summerscales is one of our rising stars
0:26:17 > 0:26:18'at English National Ballet.'
0:26:18 > 0:26:20Too close!
0:26:20 > 0:26:22So there, when there are moments when he's really close...
0:26:22 > 0:26:23SHE GASPS
0:26:23 > 0:26:25- ..it's too close.- Yes, so react?
0:26:25 > 0:26:27Yes, exactly.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30So, can we do the second one and then we...?
0:26:30 > 0:26:32PIANO PLAYS
0:26:35 > 0:26:37OK, OK, OK. Yeah.
0:26:37 > 0:26:39- Now it's a new phrase.- Yes.
0:26:39 > 0:26:42- You cannot carry that emotion into the new phrase.- Oh!
0:26:42 > 0:26:44So, you look at him again,
0:26:44 > 0:26:47there is some moving away, but there is a falling in love.
0:26:47 > 0:26:50- OK. It's so complicated.- Exactly!
0:26:50 > 0:26:53It's this roller-coaster of feelings constantly.
0:26:53 > 0:26:55So you close, you move away,
0:26:55 > 0:26:58but once again, you've made that connection,
0:26:58 > 0:27:03that really important connection with his eyes, so you, you go away
0:27:03 > 0:27:06but less intense...and then, when you turn around,
0:27:06 > 0:27:09it's just an excuse to again look at him.
0:27:09 > 0:27:12And then, what you do next is actually quite telling,
0:27:12 > 0:27:15because you open up completely.
0:27:15 > 0:27:16You see what I mean?
0:27:16 > 0:27:18You kind of let go, and trust him,
0:27:18 > 0:27:20and he catches you as you fall.
0:27:32 > 0:27:33The way with ballet,
0:27:33 > 0:27:35especially Swan Lake,
0:27:35 > 0:27:36is a way to express yourself
0:27:36 > 0:27:39that you cannot any other way.
0:27:39 > 0:27:40You have to do it with your body.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45The music going through every single muscle -
0:27:45 > 0:27:47there's no way you can't naturally do
0:27:47 > 0:27:49what it tells you to do.
0:27:56 > 0:27:58It's like air -
0:27:58 > 0:28:00without that, you couldn't breathe.
0:28:07 > 0:28:09I like being very broad
0:28:09 > 0:28:10with the arms,
0:28:10 > 0:28:12being as big as possible,
0:28:12 > 0:28:15but then also having, underneath the eyes,
0:28:15 > 0:28:19that you are really vulnerable when you've been really hurt.
0:28:28 > 0:28:30Every new generation of dancers
0:28:30 > 0:28:33brings a fresh approach to the role,
0:28:33 > 0:28:36even though the actual steps for this pas de deux
0:28:36 > 0:28:38have remained largely unchanged
0:28:38 > 0:28:42since Tchaikovsky's memorial concert 120 years ago.
0:28:44 > 0:28:47Watching past masters offers us a great chance to see
0:28:47 > 0:28:50how interpretation has evolved over the years.
0:28:56 > 0:29:00Alina Cojocaru is a dancer I admire hugely,
0:29:00 > 0:29:03and we looked together at two legendary swans
0:29:03 > 0:29:04from the last 60 years,
0:29:04 > 0:29:08starting with Galina Ulanova, in 1956.
0:29:16 > 0:29:20Ulanova was the great prima ballerina of the Bolshoi,
0:29:20 > 0:29:24famous for her powerful acting and demonstrative gestures.
0:29:26 > 0:29:30- You can see the desperation in her feelings...- Yeah.
0:29:30 > 0:29:32- Like a trapped bird.- Yes.
0:29:34 > 0:29:38- It's almost like she feels it with her...- With her hands, yes.
0:29:41 > 0:29:44- And also it's quite nice to see a small swan.- Yes.
0:29:44 > 0:29:48Somehow now with time, it's developed so much into a swan
0:29:48 > 0:29:51- having to be a tall dancer.- Yeah.
0:29:54 > 0:29:56Even the angles that she chooses
0:29:56 > 0:29:59to do the steps,
0:29:59 > 0:30:02- those small pulls here and there... - Yes.- ..gives her her unique way
0:30:02 > 0:30:03of doing this role.
0:30:14 > 0:30:17I think the key importance is for us
0:30:17 > 0:30:20to see this as an inspiration.
0:30:20 > 0:30:23- Not to imitate.- Exactly.
0:30:24 > 0:30:27'Both Alina and I have been lucky enough to be coached'
0:30:27 > 0:30:29by Natalia Makarova.
0:30:29 > 0:30:31She transformed the body language
0:30:31 > 0:30:33of the role with her fluid style,
0:30:33 > 0:30:36one more akin to real swans.
0:30:45 > 0:30:47For the first time,
0:30:47 > 0:30:50- those arms were really wings.- Yes.
0:30:50 > 0:30:53They were flying as a swan.
0:30:56 > 0:30:59Every move you see it's a journey
0:30:59 > 0:31:01from one position to another,
0:31:01 > 0:31:03through such depth
0:31:03 > 0:31:05of physical movement.
0:31:08 > 0:31:10The pull away from him
0:31:10 > 0:31:13and the melting back into him.
0:31:13 > 0:31:15The back and it just keeps on moving
0:31:15 > 0:31:19and developing in such a curvy way.
0:31:19 > 0:31:21- Yes.- It's like a constant opposition
0:31:21 > 0:31:24within her whole body moving.
0:31:26 > 0:31:29Somehow, even when she looks front,
0:31:29 > 0:31:31she feels him.
0:31:32 > 0:31:34It's like we have 3D now,
0:31:34 > 0:31:36everything has wonderful
0:31:36 > 0:31:38shapes always.
0:31:51 > 0:31:54We've just seen two completely different artists.
0:31:54 > 0:31:57- And they haven't changed a step. - Exactly.- The steps are the same.
0:31:57 > 0:32:00I think Swan Lake it's the clearest of ballets
0:32:00 > 0:32:01that one can only grow in,
0:32:01 > 0:32:05to be able to find your unique voice and development
0:32:05 > 0:32:06in a role like this.
0:32:12 > 0:32:14With the culmination of the pas de deux,
0:32:14 > 0:32:18the Prince swears undying love to Odette.
0:32:18 > 0:32:21But with the approach of dawn, they are too late to break
0:32:21 > 0:32:22the sorcerer's spell,
0:32:22 > 0:32:25who returns to reclaim his captive.
0:32:38 > 0:32:42The swan maiden remains in his power
0:32:42 > 0:32:43and the Prince is driven away.
0:33:07 > 0:33:11After the success of Ivanov's lakeside scene at Tchaikovsky's
0:33:11 > 0:33:14memorial concert, it was the revival of the full ballet
0:33:14 > 0:33:20in St Petersburg in 1895 that really fixed the legacy of Swan Lake.
0:33:24 > 0:33:28While Ivanov's Russian soul empathised with the poetry of nature,
0:33:28 > 0:33:32it was his collaboration with the more formal Marius Petipa
0:33:32 > 0:33:34that made the new production so radical.
0:33:37 > 0:33:39Unashamedly a Frenchman,
0:33:39 > 0:33:43Petipa was part of a vogue in St Petersburg for all things French.
0:33:43 > 0:33:45The city itself had been partly inspired
0:33:45 > 0:33:48by the palace of Versailles, in France.
0:33:51 > 0:33:54And it was there, at the court of Louis XIV,
0:33:54 > 0:33:56that we find the roots of classical ballet,
0:33:56 > 0:33:59developed from a strict code of etiquette for aristocrats.
0:34:01 > 0:34:03Ballet started as an etiquette before it was an art,
0:34:03 > 0:34:07a way of acting in society that has to do
0:34:07 > 0:34:12with showing yourself physically to be ordered and organised.
0:34:12 > 0:34:16So that if you are passing someone on the street and you need to go by,
0:34:16 > 0:34:20you don't just walk past them and say, "Oh, excuse me," you know,
0:34:20 > 0:34:22the way we would, you were meant to turn your shoulders.
0:34:22 > 0:34:24Etiquette books told you this.
0:34:24 > 0:34:27This is part of the vocabulary of ballet -
0:34:27 > 0:34:31people moved in society as they moved on stage and the two fed each other.
0:34:36 > 0:34:40It was Petipa's grounding in the French classical tradition
0:34:40 > 0:34:43that enabled him to portray the formality of life at court
0:34:43 > 0:34:47that weighs so heavily on the Prince.
0:34:47 > 0:34:50For classical ballet, there is no choreographer more important
0:34:50 > 0:34:52than Marius Petipa.
0:34:52 > 0:34:57He created the stone blocks of classical repertoire -
0:34:57 > 0:35:02Swan Lake, Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty.
0:35:02 > 0:35:06He is the equivalent of, I guess, Mozart for classical music.
0:35:18 > 0:35:22Petipa understands the intrinsic ballet vocabulary.
0:35:24 > 0:35:27It's like being aware of the natural
0:35:27 > 0:35:29accent or the flow of a word.
0:35:29 > 0:35:32In the same way he understands that
0:35:32 > 0:35:35some steps have a staccato nature,
0:35:35 > 0:35:37and some steps have an adagio nature
0:35:37 > 0:35:42and he uses them to match the music perfectly.
0:35:47 > 0:35:49So if you do Petipa
0:35:49 > 0:35:51as it's meant to be done,
0:35:51 > 0:35:55you are a musical ballerina,
0:35:55 > 0:35:58because you have to be, there's no other way around it.
0:36:04 > 0:36:06Back from the forest, the Prince
0:36:06 > 0:36:08is now called to the attention
0:36:08 > 0:36:09of the Princesses gathered
0:36:09 > 0:36:10as possible brides.
0:36:10 > 0:36:13Everything about him has changed.
0:36:13 > 0:36:15He must break free.
0:36:17 > 0:36:19But even as he is decided,
0:36:19 > 0:36:22a demonic bombshell is on its way -
0:36:22 > 0:36:25the temptress Odile, sent by the evil sorcerer.
0:36:35 > 0:36:37Odile is the black swan -
0:36:37 > 0:36:39a creature of the night.
0:36:42 > 0:36:46She's Rothbart's daughter, the evil wizard.
0:36:46 > 0:36:51She's dark, feisty, manipulative,
0:36:51 > 0:36:54sexy and she's going to win at any cost.
0:36:58 > 0:37:01She's going to get her man whatever it takes.
0:37:13 > 0:37:15Throughout the whole of the 19th century,
0:37:15 > 0:37:19there was a real obsession with the doppelganger -
0:37:19 > 0:37:22whiteness, light, darkness, night.
0:37:22 > 0:37:25This idea that lurking within one was the dangerous double,
0:37:25 > 0:37:31who would behave in a capricious and malignant fashion.
0:37:31 > 0:37:35So the Prince sees Odile, the black swan, the idea of mature sexuality
0:37:35 > 0:37:39and lust, as a shadow side of Odette herself - radiant beauty,
0:37:39 > 0:37:44youth, virginity, many of the things we see at play in the white swan.
0:37:44 > 0:37:48It's all part of that sort of psychosis of the 19th century,
0:37:48 > 0:37:51and you know Freud, I think, is right when he intuited
0:37:51 > 0:37:56that this was a fear of the dark within.
0:38:05 > 0:38:08Gate-crashing the ball with Rothbart,
0:38:08 > 0:38:09Odile's first move on the Prince
0:38:09 > 0:38:12is to pick up where the white swan left off -
0:38:12 > 0:38:14with another pas de deux,
0:38:14 > 0:38:17but this time with her own dark twist.
0:38:17 > 0:38:19I am an evil seductress
0:38:19 > 0:38:22impersonating the one he really loves
0:38:22 > 0:38:24and doing it well enough
0:38:24 > 0:38:25to fool the Prince.
0:38:31 > 0:38:34So the choreography seems to follow
0:38:34 > 0:38:35a circular pattern
0:38:35 > 0:38:37around the Prince.
0:38:37 > 0:38:41It's almost like a boa constrictor, she surrounds him
0:38:41 > 0:38:43until he forgets Odette completely
0:38:43 > 0:38:45and thinks that Odile
0:38:45 > 0:38:46was his swan all along.
0:38:48 > 0:38:49She's just getting to know him
0:38:49 > 0:38:53and to see how much she can pull and push him.
0:38:53 > 0:38:55She becomes more daring
0:38:55 > 0:38:58and more rude, and teases him.
0:39:05 > 0:39:08First, she makes him embrace her.
0:39:12 > 0:39:16You open it up, and here it is,
0:39:16 > 0:39:19he closes your arms and you go,
0:39:19 > 0:39:22"Not so soon," but you linger
0:39:22 > 0:39:25and then, "Not so soon,
0:39:25 > 0:39:26"I say when."
0:39:27 > 0:39:30He's not looking any more,
0:39:30 > 0:39:31so she calls, "Now!"
0:39:33 > 0:39:36And then, it's like a cat!
0:39:37 > 0:39:40I have you, and I don't want you.
0:39:41 > 0:39:43Bye-bye.
0:39:43 > 0:39:45Bad woman.
0:39:46 > 0:39:48So, as you see,
0:39:48 > 0:39:50she's getting harder and harder.
0:39:51 > 0:39:54The interesting thing is that,
0:39:54 > 0:39:57like everyone when you start being successful at something,
0:39:57 > 0:39:59you start enjoying it.
0:39:59 > 0:40:02So as she sees he's falling for her,
0:40:02 > 0:40:06she starts to actually take quite a lot of pleasure in torturing him.
0:40:09 > 0:40:11So, I come back to Rothbart,
0:40:11 > 0:40:14and I'm checking that I'm doing the right thing.
0:40:19 > 0:40:21And I offer it to him.
0:40:24 > 0:40:26And now I just let him take over.
0:40:28 > 0:40:30And when he thinks he has me,
0:40:30 > 0:40:32I reject him,
0:40:32 > 0:40:34and go back to Daddy.
0:40:52 > 0:40:55And now I'm just going to take a bit more liberties.
0:41:00 > 0:41:02And reject him again,
0:41:02 > 0:41:06but now I'm just going to leave a hand, see what happens.
0:41:06 > 0:41:08And I take it away.
0:41:10 > 0:41:15He's quite offended, so I have to make up and I call him.
0:41:15 > 0:41:19And with this step I make him really dizzy.
0:41:31 > 0:41:33But then a vision of the White Swan
0:41:33 > 0:41:37appears at the castle window to warn him.
0:41:37 > 0:41:39As I'm busy playing the Black Swan,
0:41:39 > 0:41:41this is a stage with smoke and mirrors.
0:41:41 > 0:41:43Odette is at the back.
0:41:44 > 0:41:48Rothbart is there making sure the Prince can't see her,
0:41:48 > 0:41:52and then tells me, "Make him think you are Odette".
0:41:53 > 0:41:57And this is, for me, the most complicated part of this ballet
0:41:57 > 0:42:03because I am an evil woman imitating a saint swan.
0:42:05 > 0:42:07Now...
0:42:07 > 0:42:09I invite him in.
0:42:09 > 0:42:11I reject him.
0:42:11 > 0:42:13I turn around innocently.
0:42:13 > 0:42:15I got him back.
0:42:16 > 0:42:20And now I try and do a balance to let him admire me.
0:42:26 > 0:42:28It can take a while!
0:42:33 > 0:42:35This is the last time he's going to try it.
0:42:37 > 0:42:39And, no.
0:42:40 > 0:42:43I check for the last time with Rothbart.
0:42:43 > 0:42:47and he tells me, "Go on, finish it off."
0:42:48 > 0:42:50And I go in for the kill.
0:43:10 > 0:43:11Got him!
0:43:14 > 0:43:16I do love Odile.
0:43:16 > 0:43:20I'm not sure why, she's clearly not a very nice person.
0:43:20 > 0:43:22Uh, I like her strength.
0:43:25 > 0:43:30I like that she doesn't apologise for being good at what she does.
0:43:30 > 0:43:32You know, she's going into someone else's kingdom,
0:43:32 > 0:43:37and, somehow, she finds the courage within herself to go into
0:43:37 > 0:43:40enemy territory and teach them a lesson.
0:43:40 > 0:43:44She's a powerful lady. I like that.
0:43:45 > 0:43:50Intoxicated by Odile, the Prince mounts his own bravura display
0:43:50 > 0:43:52in front of the whole court.
0:43:52 > 0:43:55But she trumps him with the flashiest moment of all -
0:43:55 > 0:43:58a dazzling succession of turns, or fouettes.
0:44:02 > 0:44:05This is an Italian party trick thrown into the mix
0:44:05 > 0:44:09by the first Petersburg swan, Pierina Legnani.
0:44:12 > 0:44:14Legnani was the first ballerina
0:44:14 > 0:44:18to perform the unbelievable feat of 32 fouettes.
0:44:18 > 0:44:21This is the most challenging step in the whole of Swan Lake.
0:44:21 > 0:44:24Apparently to demonstrate her impeccable technique,
0:44:24 > 0:44:26she took a rouble,
0:44:26 > 0:44:28drew around it with a piece of chalk,
0:44:28 > 0:44:32and promised that her feet would never leave that mark during
0:44:32 > 0:44:34the 32 fouettes.
0:44:34 > 0:44:36I wouldn't want to be challenged to that.
0:44:54 > 0:45:00I absolutely love dancing Black Swan - she's just so much fun!
0:45:00 > 0:45:04There's so much enjoyment - the pirouettes, the balances,
0:45:04 > 0:45:08the travelling. And getting him and throwing him away.
0:45:08 > 0:45:12The whole thing is fabulous and strong and beautiful.
0:45:12 > 0:45:17And she wins. So, everyone likes a winner.
0:45:19 > 0:45:23And it's in the music that Odile's triumph is depicted,
0:45:23 > 0:45:26even stealing the White Swan's theme
0:45:26 > 0:45:30at the moment the Prince pledges himself to the seductress.
0:45:38 > 0:45:43The music is screaming at him. "Listen to the music, cloth ears!
0:45:43 > 0:45:46"The music's telling you!"
0:45:46 > 0:45:49But, of course, it doesn't work like that,
0:45:49 > 0:45:53because Tchaikovsky's music works hand in hand with the dramatic plot.
0:45:55 > 0:45:59There's such tension in the air. He drives the rhythm forward,
0:45:59 > 0:46:03the melody forward, and it sounds happy, but isn't.
0:46:03 > 0:46:08It's in the major key, which means the bitter sweet climax
0:46:08 > 0:46:12to this act is that he has to take us...
0:46:13 > 0:46:15..through bitterness...
0:46:18 > 0:46:20..back to a resolution and a major key.
0:46:22 > 0:46:25You wouldn't get that in ballet 50 years before.
0:46:28 > 0:46:32The Sorcerer's coup de grace is to confront the Prince
0:46:32 > 0:46:36with another vision of the White Swan tortured by his betrayal.
0:46:36 > 0:46:40With this realisation, the Prince's whole world collapses.
0:46:40 > 0:46:43Everything he sought is lost.
0:46:53 > 0:46:56Ballet had achieved its epiphany.
0:46:57 > 0:47:00Here was real psycho-sexual drama.
0:47:01 > 0:47:05Petipa's courtly grace had fused with Ivanov's naturalism
0:47:05 > 0:47:07to create a new dramatic language.
0:47:08 > 0:47:11Set to Tchaikovsky's radical score,
0:47:11 > 0:47:14the potential of dance leapt to new heights.
0:47:33 > 0:47:37But how did this Imperial jewel of Tsarist Russia survive
0:47:37 > 0:47:39the Soviet winter?
0:47:42 > 0:47:45With the revolution, the bourgeois barriers were ripped down
0:47:45 > 0:47:47and theatres opened to the masses.
0:47:48 > 0:47:52Lenin's culture minister declaring that aristocratic arts
0:47:52 > 0:47:55were the rightful inheritance of the workers.
0:47:55 > 0:47:58Ballet, the military and sport
0:47:58 > 0:48:01disciplined ranks of speechless citizens,
0:48:01 > 0:48:03demonstrated collectivism at its finest.
0:48:05 > 0:48:08For the soviet elite, an ignorance of ballet was an embarrassment,
0:48:08 > 0:48:12Stalin declaring artists to be "engineers of the soul."
0:48:13 > 0:48:16Swan Lake was Stalin's favourite ballet.
0:48:16 > 0:48:21He saw it some 30 times, even the day before he died in 1953.
0:48:21 > 0:48:25His successor, Khrushchev, complained that he'd seen
0:48:25 > 0:48:28so many productions of Swan Lake that his dreams were haunted
0:48:28 > 0:48:31by white tutus and tanks all mixed up together.
0:48:33 > 0:48:37However, when the Bolshoi Ballet made their first ever visit
0:48:37 > 0:48:39to Britain in 1956,
0:48:39 > 0:48:43Khrushchev came, too, to show off Swan Lake as the Soviet ideal
0:48:43 > 0:48:45What's more,
0:48:45 > 0:48:49even when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991,
0:48:49 > 0:48:52the main television channel showed Swan Lake on a nonstop loop.
0:48:54 > 0:48:56Swan Lake had become indestructible.
0:49:00 > 0:49:05All classics survive because they have something to say
0:49:05 > 0:49:07that is...
0:49:07 > 0:49:09timeless.
0:49:09 > 0:49:13And they also survive because they give actors, or dancers,
0:49:13 > 0:49:19or musicians a challenge that keeps inspiring new talent to try
0:49:19 > 0:49:22generation after generation, to bring something new
0:49:22 > 0:49:23a new perspective,
0:49:23 > 0:49:26something that no-one had seen before.
0:49:26 > 0:49:29And Swan Lake really fits into that.
0:49:30 > 0:49:34A point brilliantly proved in 1995 when one brave new production
0:49:34 > 0:49:36did the unthinkable.
0:49:49 > 0:49:52The idea really was to wipe away the image people had in their head
0:49:52 > 0:49:55by casting the swans with male dancers.
0:49:55 > 0:49:58It gave us great licence to create something new
0:49:58 > 0:50:03I saw it much more as a psychological story through the Prince's eyes
0:50:03 > 0:50:07and how his mind worked, rather than a literal fairy-tale.
0:50:13 > 0:50:15If you're going to approach something like this
0:50:15 > 0:50:19and do it in a different way, it's got to come from the source material
0:50:19 > 0:50:20which is Tchaikovsky.
0:50:22 > 0:50:24Like we reinterpret Shakespeare,
0:50:24 > 0:50:28in many ways, the source material is so brilliant, i.e. the music,
0:50:28 > 0:50:31that it can take many interpretations.
0:50:37 > 0:50:41And, above all, it's the music, when switching between the extremes
0:50:41 > 0:50:44of White and Black Swan, that helps me find the character.
0:50:47 > 0:50:52As an actor, I guess you have to do one act of Juliet,
0:50:52 > 0:50:56the first act of Juliet, the most innocent act of Juliet.
0:50:56 > 0:50:58And then the Act II of Macbeth.
0:50:59 > 0:51:04The real dark, dark side of Macbeth.
0:51:04 > 0:51:06Um, those two things in one evening.
0:51:06 > 0:51:09And then get back to Juliet for the end.
0:51:24 > 0:51:28It's a story that we've heard so many times - the good and true girl
0:51:28 > 0:51:33whose love is shattered by her boyfriend's disloyalty.
0:51:34 > 0:51:37But for Odette, everything is lost.
0:51:39 > 0:51:42I think that, by now, she has decided to die.
0:51:42 > 0:51:44There is no future.
0:51:44 > 0:51:47She doesn't want to continue to live this way.
0:51:49 > 0:51:53And when the Prince realises that his act of betrayal
0:51:53 > 0:51:55has locked her in a swan's body forever,
0:51:55 > 0:51:58he runs back to plead forgiveness.
0:52:02 > 0:52:04Of course, you feel for her.
0:52:04 > 0:52:09I just don't ever want to be self-indulgent in it.
0:52:09 > 0:52:11However much of a victim you are,
0:52:11 > 0:52:14my nature is to fight.
0:52:14 > 0:52:18So, for me, that's the hard part, that she doesn't fight,
0:52:18 > 0:52:20that she takes it.
0:52:20 > 0:52:24It doesn't mean I don't feel for her. I just want to shake her up
0:52:24 > 0:52:26and say, "Do something!"
0:52:29 > 0:52:33That said, what follows is one of the most beautiful scenes
0:52:33 > 0:52:37in the ballet, where the heartbroken lovers are reunited
0:52:37 > 0:52:40in a final pas de deux that echoes their first meeting.
0:52:43 > 0:52:47When he first comes, you can hardly look at him.
0:52:47 > 0:52:50You actually don't even want to look at him.
0:52:50 > 0:52:51What he's doing
0:52:51 > 0:52:56is the same step that you did in the pas de deux when you gave in.
0:53:15 > 0:53:17It is like it would happen
0:53:17 > 0:53:19- if you found your boyfriend cheating on you.- Mm.
0:53:19 > 0:53:21There is these two emotions -
0:53:21 > 0:53:24you don't stop loving someone instantly,
0:53:24 > 0:53:26even if they betray you.
0:53:26 > 0:53:28You hate them and love them at the same time.
0:53:28 > 0:53:32You want to leave them and the last thing you want is for them
0:53:32 > 0:53:34to turn up at your house to say, "Sorry."
0:53:34 > 0:53:37That's the last thing you want, right?
0:53:37 > 0:53:39Once they're there, it's really hard.
0:53:39 > 0:53:43It's better on the phone, or by text, thank you!
0:53:43 > 0:53:44So, this is that moment.
0:54:13 > 0:54:15You have to say to his face that you can't forgive him,
0:54:15 > 0:54:17but, actually, you want to.
0:54:20 > 0:54:22He's going to manipulate you,
0:54:22 > 0:54:24he's going to remind you of the best moments.
0:54:34 > 0:54:37Once again, we find ourselves at the beginning of everything.
0:54:37 > 0:54:40How did the pas de deux start? Like that.
0:54:40 > 0:54:42But this time you're not giving in.
0:54:42 > 0:54:44You're closing yourself again.
0:54:44 > 0:54:46So he walks around trying from another angle.
0:54:50 > 0:54:52You still don't do it.
0:54:54 > 0:54:58So, the third one, when you do do it, it means something.
0:55:12 > 0:55:16It brings us back to the very first time you talk,
0:55:16 > 0:55:18to the part where you met,
0:55:18 > 0:55:21and that prepares for the last embrace.
0:55:26 > 0:55:27Good.
0:55:30 > 0:55:33Towards the end of the ballet, there's this very
0:55:33 > 0:55:35unsettled accompaniment in the strings.
0:55:35 > 0:55:39PLAYS NO. 28 SCENE
0:55:39 > 0:55:42So there's nothing on the strong beat of the bar,
0:55:42 > 0:55:43so it really unsettles you.
0:55:43 > 0:55:45And, then, after one bar,
0:55:45 > 0:55:48in comes the one thing you wouldn't expect to go
0:55:48 > 0:55:50with a tormented accompaniment like that.
0:56:04 > 0:56:06With Odette's forgiveness,
0:56:06 > 0:56:09the lovers fight the Sorcerer to break the spell.
0:56:15 > 0:56:20So, how on earth did we get from...
0:56:20 > 0:56:23PLAYS SWAN THEME
0:56:23 > 0:56:28..to this writhing mass of drama and tension?
0:56:28 > 0:56:33Well, two hours ago, the world was a different place.
0:56:33 > 0:56:36This is the final showdown, is the curse going to be released?
0:56:36 > 0:56:38And Tchaikovsky's music
0:56:38 > 0:56:44has encapsulated that sometimes by just using eight notes developed
0:56:44 > 0:56:47with different accompaniments, different colours...
0:56:48 > 0:56:53..but always without losing sight of the reason
0:56:53 > 0:56:58two and a half hours ago our attention was grabbed.
0:56:58 > 0:57:01MUSIC: Swan Lake, 29 Scene Finale by Tchaikovsky
0:57:16 > 0:57:19Most people know Swan Lake as a tragedy where the lovers
0:57:19 > 0:57:21can only find union in death.
0:57:24 > 0:57:27Some productions see them live happily ever after.
0:57:29 > 0:57:32Tragic or Hollywood, it always ends with
0:57:32 > 0:57:35the destruction of Rothbart, the Sorcerer.
0:57:37 > 0:57:40But the heart of the story remains unresolved.
0:57:41 > 0:57:47So, beware. For every white swan out there, there remains a black swan
0:57:47 > 0:57:52lurking in the shadows, tormenting the psyche of every honest prince.
0:57:57 > 0:58:00So, what is it about Swan Lake?
0:58:00 > 0:58:04Why are we still dancing it more than 100 years later?
0:58:10 > 0:58:15It gives every generation a chance to bring into it
0:58:15 > 0:58:17everything they have accumulated,
0:58:17 > 0:58:20through the teaching of the masters,
0:58:20 > 0:58:23but also through their new way of looking at the world.
0:58:34 > 0:58:36There is a mystery about a swan-woman.
0:58:36 > 0:58:41She's unobtainable, she's strange, she's precious,
0:58:41 > 0:58:43we want to save her.
0:58:43 > 0:58:46We want to be the prince that has the happy ending,
0:58:46 > 0:58:49or the swan that finds the prince.