Dance Critique

For the dance critique I decided to attend a ballet presentation. The Russian Grand ballet
presented Swan Lake at the Fox Theater in Salinas, Ca. on October 17, 2016. The Russian Grand
Ballet was created by graduates from the Great Russian choreographic schools of Moscow, St.
Petersburg and Kiev. Today it consists of over 50 dancers under the direction of Vladimir
Troshchenko, an honored artist of Russia. The theater where the ballet took place is located in the
heart of Old Town Salinas, it accommodates over 300 people, it features both floor seats as well
as balcony seating. The night of the performance the theater was completely full, it was
announced that there was over 300 people present that night. It was total chaos getting through
the doors and being seated. The show was supposed to have started at 7:30pm, however due to
the delay in seating the lights did not start to dim until 8:00pm when the ballet finally started.
The atmosphere inside the theater was very busy, my seat was located at the top of the
balcony to the very top. As the ballet was staring people were still standing up walking to their
seats making it very difficult to watch. At one point I started yelling for everyone to please find
their seats and let the rest of us watch the show. It was very noisy while watching the
performance, there was a couple and their child being very talkative to my right, not to mention
that I had to lean to my right to be able to see what was happening on stage. As for the row
behind me there was a group of maybe 15 girls that kept talking and standing up making it very
hard to fully be consumed in the ballet. However, after the first intermission I managed to move
two rows down, making the view much easier. As mentioned before it was hard to see the stage
because I was so far away, but there were two screens on each side of the stage projecting the
presentation.
The actual ballet piece, Swan Lake, is a full length ballet composed three acts, a total of
four scenes and two intermissions. Swan Lake is about a prince, Prince Siegfried, who is coming

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of age, and at his ball he must choose a bride. Later that night, Siegfried is out hunting by the
lake when he sees a flock of swans. The swans turn out to be girls who have been put under a
spell by Rothbart (a sorcerer), the swan princess, Odette, tells the prince that the only way to
break the spell is she is promised eternal fidelity and get married. At Prince Siegfried ball he
shows no interest in any of the prospective brides. Later Rothbart, shows up with his daughter,
Odille, who resembles the swan princess. The prince swears his love and fidelity to Odille,
Rothbart celebrates that he has tricked the prince. At the lake Odette tells the rest of the swans
what has happened. Shortly after the prince arrives and begs for the swan princess forgiveness,
and confesses his love for her. The sorcerer appears with his black swans and they battle until the
light of dawn breaks and the forces of evil are vanished. The sun gives birth to new life,
happiness and love.
As for the actual dancing, the dancers had solos as well as dancing in groups. The dancers
made very good use of the space on the stage. The majority of the dancing occurred in the middle
level of the stage. This was mostly when the dancers had their solos. However, when the whole
group danced, about eight couples or more then the dancers occupied the whole stages. Some
were at the low level, closer to the audience, middle level, being in the middle of stage usually in
the middle of the dance circle. Dancers were also located at the high level of the stage, the
farthest away from the audience. When the prince had his solo he had a lot of negative space
around him, since it was only him on stage the rest was just empty space. The prince occupied
the positive space when he was dancing.While dancing the shapes created by the dancers were
mostly circles. Being ballet there was a lot of jumping straight up and turning/spinning a lot of
times. While dancing there were moments where the dancers would stretch their arms out, to
make themselves look bigger. For example, when the sorcerer danced he tried to look

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intimidating by stretching his arms out which had wings on them to make himself look larger.
The timing of the dance was mostly fast, with a mix of some slow. Going back to the sorcerer
dancing when he danced with the prince the timing was fast, they moved in quick movements.
When the swan princess danced with her swans it was mostly slow, especially when she was
telling the other swans what had happened at the princes ball. Overall the choreography was
divine! I would definitely attend another ballet production in the future.