I guess you can call me a girlie girl. I like pretty n’ frilly things, am a sucker for romance, and think a night out at the ballet comes pretty close to Friday night girlie girl perfection.
So it might go without added proclamation that the girlie girl inside is busting out of her tutu (yes, I own a couple…might have even twirled in ‘em once or twice) at Moscow Ballet’s production of Swan Lake.
The Massachusetts-based (and Russian-run) company comes to Calgary next week, with all the pomp and circumstance you’d expect from one of the greatest of all classical ballets.Originally premiering in 1877 in Moscow at the famed Bolshoi Theatre, the elegant swans continue to sweep us off our feet.
And not just because of the sweeping sets (designed in St. Petersburg), or the instantly recognizable score by Tchaikovsky. These ballerinas are now fashionistas, no longer content in just some run of the mill crinoline. Wearing more than 200 costumes designed by award-winning Russian couturiere Olga Dumova, you could say, these ducklings are, well, haute couture swans.
Impeccable fashion pedigree aside, the pure magic of the ballet still comes from something that hasn’t changed much over the years: grace, elegance, and undeniable power of femininity, passion, and love.
But that’s just the girlie girl talking.
Moscow Ballet’s Great Russian Swan Lake runs November 22 & 23 at the Jack Singer Concert Hall. For tickets, visit www.epcorcentre.org