Scottish Ballet Orchestra Archives

David Dawson, who has created this new interpretation for Scottish Ballet, sees Swan Lake as the dance equivalent of the Mona Lisa’. This statement from the souvenir programme is one that stood out to me – it speaks to the monument of ballet that Swan Lake is. But unlike the Mona Lisa, it presents the advantage of being a form of art that is live, constantly in motion, with endless possibilities of reinterpretation. With the aim of creating a show for a modern audience, Dawson stripped back the layers of the story to reach its essence: passion and betrayed trust. There are no elaborate palace and lakeside decors, or costumes adorned with tutus. The costumes, designed by Yumiko Takeshima, are for simplicity, elegancy, and showing off the physicality of the dance. No Baron von Rothbart ei...

Think of postmodernism and you won’t think of actor and dancer Gene Kelly, though his life and his work exists simultaneously to the peak years of the movement. In 1960, during the movement’s height, Kelly was lured to Paris to bring his trademark moves of the Hollywood movie scene to the world of ballet. The result was his pioneering work, ‘Pas Die Dieux.’ 61 years later, Scottish Ballet and Kelly’s widow Patricia Ward Kelly have brought this stellar piece of work back to the stage for it’s UK debut with a beguiling new twist. It’s simultaneously lavish, entrancing, and as the kids would say, ‘pretty meta’. Kelly’s original ballet, ‘Pas Die Dieux’ focused on the classical tale of Aphrodite and Zeus and the trials and tribulations that they face on Mount Olympus. In the ballet’s n...

Tag: Scottish Ballet Orchestra

Swan Lake – Festival Theatre

Starstruck – Edinburgh Festival Theatre