In March and April you can go to the ‘ballet of ballets’; Swan Lake… who doesn’t know it?

On Wednesday 22 March, the full-length ballet classic Swan Lake will premiere again at Dutch National Ballet. In addition to successful international productions that the company has released over the past sixty years, it has also made its own interpretations. One of the most important milestones was Rudi van Dantzig’s Swan Lake from 1988, which is still internationally regarded as one of the most beautiful versions of this ‘ballet of ballets’. The production can be seen a total of seventeen times in the period from March 22, 2023 to April 18, 2023.

Love and deception
Those are the keywords in Swan Lake. Siegfried, a young prince with the soul of a poet, meets a white swan, Odette, by a lake at night, and he promises to remain faithful to her – and with it his ideals. But once back in his palace, Siegfried is seduced by the wizard’s daughter Odile, who has disguised herself as a black swan. Siegfried realizes his mistake too late.

For his adaptation of the famous classic, the former artistic director was mainly inspired by Tchaikovsky; through his music, but also through his letters and diaries. Van Dantzig respected the surviving parts of the ‘standard version’ by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov from 1895, but otherwise opted for a less superficial, more human interpretation, which distinguishes his production in terms of emotional eloquence.

Swan Lake, March 22 through April 18 2023, Choreography Rudi van Dantzig, after Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, i.c.w. Toer van Schayk, Dutch National Opera & Ballet, Amstel 3