All Men Are Lying Bastards: Julia's Danish Analysis of Swan Lake

I just got back from here (Opera House):

where I saw Svanesøen (Swan Lake) performed by the Royal Danish Ballet.

The production I saw was choreographed by Peter Martins, after Marius Petipa, Lev Ivanov, and George Balanchine. Now with my History of European Ballet class I want to go into the whole long explanation on Romantic Russian Ballet's and the Tchaikovsky controversy (whose name is spelled Tjajkovskij here), but I will save you that and get down to the basics and my opinion. This production only has 2 acts, instead of the original 4. Which means that instead of reality, fantasy, reality, fantasy; it is all a bit mixed together.

Now to my opinion: I loved it. Never again will I be able to see Swan Lake like I saw it just now. The only other time I have seen Swan Lake live I was blissfully happy in a relationship, completely ignorant to the realities of heartbreak. I thought that the story was about how true love will help you forgive no matter what. Tonight, I saw Svanesøen with my newly developed lack of faith in all relationships. My compassion for Odette filled my soul, my hatred for Odile was real, and I saw Siegfried for the jerk he really was. Something about my mindset tonight really allowed me to see it as a story about a guy who cheats on his girlfriend with a manipulative slut in a moment of lust, then tries to go back to his girlfriend expecting everything to be okay. What I liked in particular about this choreography, is that you do not see Odette die. You see the sorcerer get destroyed, and you see Siegfried suffering without Odette, but Odette seems to float off stage. I like this ending because it seems almost like she is in control of the situation. I know that there is SO much more to the story, but that is what I love about ballet. Not only is it a universal language within itself (which is nice in a foreign country), but what you are watching has a different impact on each person each time you see it. Odette seemed strong in this version. If ballet was a more relaxed form of expression, you may have caught me shouting "you go girl! you don't need him" at the final curtain. I cried like a baby during the pas de deux with Odile and Siegfried thinking about how he could hurt Odette like that, even if he was confused. I obviously have way too much personal baggage right now to see Swan Lake in an objective light, but I would rather feel passion directly related to my life then critique technique and costumes (which were both fabulous, btw).