Milwaukee Ballet's Perfect Rendering of Michael Pink’s Swan Lake

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Photo by Nathaniel Davauer

Milwaukee Ballet Company 'Swan Lake'

Milwaukee Ballet Company's 'Swan Lake'

When I last reviewed Michael Pink’s adaptation of Swan Lake a few years back, I wrote that it was “as beautiful as anything could be.” I found the revival last weekend at the Marcus Center even better. Pink’s process when restaging a major work of his own making is to study videotapes of his earlier productions, then work to improve it. He’ll add, cut and clarify. He’ll find the best ways to join his new cast to the characters, adjusting things as needed so that every dancer can do their best work.

Add to that Tchaikovsky’s incomparable score performed by a full orchestra deeply connected to dancers and story; beautifully painted old-style scenery; the lovely and, in the case of the swan women, radical costumes; and the sorrowful purples and blues in David Grill’s moonlight lighting at the foggy lake.

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Photo by Rachel Malehorn

Alana Griffith in Milwauke Ballet Company's 'Swan Lake'

Alana Griffith in Milwauke Ballet Company's 'Swan Lake'

In Pink’s unique telling, the villainous sorcerer Count Von Rothbart drives the fairytale. His goal is to rule the land, and Pink gives him plenty to do. He’s the first character we see. Glowing in the darkness under the projection of a royal crown, he conjures Odile, the so-called Black Swan, a fabricated woman who’ll help him seize power. Pink’s is the only adaption that casts separate dancers as the tragic heroine Odette and her evil twin. Both dancers get major stage time.

Pink centers the story on Prince Siegfried, the focus of Von Rothbart’s efforts. He’s rearranged Tchaikovsky’s score to add a splendid prologue, giving us the teenaged sweethearts Siegfried and Odette at play with friends beside the lake. Von Rothbart lurks in forest shadows until Siegfried leaves, then casts the spell that turns the women into swans each day from sunrise till nightfall. Poor Siegfried never knows what made his girlfriend leave him. She knows, though.

Part Animal, Part Human

That’s the first half of Pink’s dramatic two-act abridgement. In the second half, Von Rothbart magically makes Siegfried mistake Odile for Odette and vow to marry her. Next, Von Rothbart kills the Queen mother so that his henchwoman is next in line. All he has to do now is dispense with Siegfried.

That happens at the lake where he stabs Odette before the Prince’s eyes. Siegfried drowns himself by carrying his loved one’s body into the water. But such great love awakens the lake. With the aid of the swan-maidens, it engulfs Von Rothbart and Odile, extinguishing them utterly. We see a glowing vision of Siegfried and Odette eternally united. Love is the stronger power.

Pink makes it all make sense. Ironically, and I think intentionally, the most “balletic” pas de deux, with all the crowd-pleasing leaps and turns, is danced by Siegfried and Odile when he mistakes the empty copy for the real Odette. It’s fun to watch, and contrasts strongly with Pink’s otherwise more complex choreography in which virtuosity serves the truth of a moment and we see real people. The only time Pink draws attention to the swan-women’s point shoes is when they tap the floor like frightened birds twittering.

The dancers are masters of Pink’s style. Randy Crespo as Siegfried, Alana Griffith as Odette, Davit Hovhannisyan as Von Rothbart, and Marize Fumero as Odile were simply great. Josiah Cook and Itzel Hernandez did outstanding solo work. In mostly unison movements, the 16 swan-women were a deeply bonded community, single-minded and powerful.

This is Pink’s 20th season as Milwaukee Ballet artistic director. Swan Lake is the first of four of his hugely entertaining story ballets that will be presented this season on the Marcus Center’s mainstage. The Nutcracker, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Peter Pan are ahead. The quality of artistry so moving in Swan Lake is as present in them all. Each is a treasure.