The Dying Swan

The Dying Swan
Anna Pavlova in costume for The Dying Swan, Buenos Aires, Argentina, c. 1928
Choreographer	Mikhail Fokine
Music	Camille Saint-Saëns, (Le cygne from Le Carnaval des animaux)
Premiere	1907 St. Petersburg, Russia
Created for	Anna Pavlova
Genre	Romantic
Type	Classical ballet

The Dying Swan (originally The Swan) is a solo dance choreographed by Mikhail Fokine to Camille Saint-Saëns's Le Cygne from Le Carnaval des animaux as a pièce d'occasion for the ballerina Anna Pavlova, who performed it about 4,000 times. The short ballet (four minutes) follows the last moments in the life of a swan, and was first presented in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1905. The ballet has since influenced modern interpretations of Odette in Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake and has inspired non-traditional interpretations as well as various adaptations.

Some ballerinas, including Ashley Bouder of New York City Ballet and Nina Ananiashvili, formerly of American Ballet Theatre and The Bolshoi Ballet, have used Dying Swan arms in Swan Lake when making Odette's exit at the end of Act II (the first lakeside scene).^[1]

In response to impact of the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic on the performing arts, Carlos Acosta, artistic director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, adapted Fokine's choreography with the ballerina raising her head at the end instead, and with Céline Gittens, principal dancer of the company, and the musicians performing in their respective homes.^[2] Misty Copeland, principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre, invited 31 other dancers to dance The Swan to raise fund for the relief fund of the participating dancers' companies and other related funds.^[3]

• Alicia Markova "The Dying Swan" (painting)

Notes

References

• Aloff, Mindy (2006). Dance Anecdotes: Stories from the World of Ballet, Broadway, the Ballroom, and Modern Dance. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-505411-8.
• Balanchine, George; Mason, Francis (1975). 101 Stories of the Great Ballets. New York: Anchor Books. ISBN 978-0-385-03398-5.
• Carter, Alexandra (2004). Rethinking Dance History: A Reader. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-28746-3.
• Garafola, Lynn (2005). Legacies of Twentieth-Century Dance. New York: Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 978-0-8195-6674-4.
• Gerskovic, Robert (2005) [1998]. Ballet 101: A Complete Guide to Learning and Loving the Ballet. Pompton Plains, NJ: Limelight Editions. ISBN 978-0-87910-325-5.
• McCauley, Martin (1997). Who's Who in Russia since 1900. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-13897-0.
• Youngblood, Denise Jeanne (1999). The Magic Mirror: Moviemaking in Russia, 1908–1918. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0-299-16230-6.

Further reading

• "The Dying Swan". Oxford Dictionary of Dance. Oxford University Press. Retrieved August 10, 2012.
• "Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo". glbtq, Inc. 2002. Archived from the original on July 1, 2012. Retrieved August 10, 2012.
• "Judith Lanigan". Judith Lanigan. 2009. Retrieved August 10, 2012.
• "Sonja Henie Does the Swan Thing". SkateWeb's Historical Skating Pictures. SkateWeb. 1994–2009. Retrieved August 10, 2012.
• Smodyrev, Mikhail; Translated by Anna Korisch. "Nina Ananiashvili's Biography and Repertory". Retrieved August 10, 2012.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Le Cygne.

• "Pas de bourrée". Merriam-Webster Online. Merriam-Webster. 2009. Retrieved August 10, 2012.
• "The Dying Swan" by Tennyson (complete text)