From Houston Ballet Magazine, this feature is about Houston Ballet's June 2018 production of Stanton Welch's SWAN LAKE.

1. BY DAVID CLARKE
LIGHT
& DARK
STANTON
WELCH’S
SWAN LAKE
PUTS THE
NARRATIVE’S
DUALITIES
IN THE
SPOTLIGHT
PrincipalYurikoKajiya,photobyClaireMcAdams
HOUSTON BALLET ✺ 19

2. BY DAVID CLARKE
HEN IT COMES TO EXPOS-
ING THE DARK DEPTHS
nestled within Swan Lake,
one needs only to experi-
ence Stanton Welch’s take
on the classic
ballet. His version, which premiered
on February 13, 2006, explores the
emotional and psychological
riptides present in Pyotr
Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s
unforgettable score for
the ballet. His robust
version, unlike others,
utilizes all 2 hours
and 14 minutes of
Tchaikovsky’s lush
score and packs in
layers of character
complexity with a few
surprises that distin-
guish it from other
versions.
While it is par for the
course that the lead in
Swan Lake must dance
the role of both the beau-
tiful white swan Odette
and the black swan enchant-
ress Odile, the feat of portraying
the animal takes great preparation.
“I have spent a lot of time working on the
physicality of being a creature,” says Prin-
cipal Dancer Yuriko Kajiya. “It is important to try
to capture the essence of the swan, otherwise the
audience doesn’t buy into the fact that you are not
a human at certain points in the ballet.”
In Swan Lake, the villainous Rothbart has
cursed the chaste and innocent Odette to
be a swan by day and a maiden by
night. But, for Welch’s version,
the fiery and sensual Odile—
usually only danced in
swan form—must also
be created in both
forms. “It is very im-
portant to show
the contrast of
each charac-
ter,” shares
Kajiya,
who, in a
way, danc-
es four
characters
within
the show.
YOU CANNOT HAVE
ONE WITHOUT
THE OTHER.”
- Yuriko Kajiya, Houston Ballet Principal
“
W
Light&Dark
PrincipalYurikoKajiya,photobyClaireMcAdams
20 ✺ HOUSTON BALLET

3. “Stanton has created a human element, which
makes dancing this ballet more theatrical and
rewarding.”
Meanwhile, acclaimed New Zealand-based cos-
tume designer Kristian Fredrikson’s sumptuous
costumes also help to visually build upon this con-
trast in the characters. Odette is dressed in white
and inspired by John William Waterhouse’s 1888
painting The Lady of Shalott, while Odile is clad in
black. But switching from the maiden forms (long,
flowing skirts) to the swan forms (elaborately
feathered tutus) and back presents its own chal-
lenges. “Unlike other productions of Swan Lake,
Stanton’s has six quick costume changes between
Odette and Odile,” elaborates Kajiya. “Some
are so fast that you barely have one minute
before you have to reenter the stage.”
Changing both physically and men-
tally from maiden to swan, and
from Odette to Odile, creates a
psychological puzzle for the lead
ballerina in Welch’s Swan Lake, but for the perfor-
mance to be effective, the audience must also un-
derstand these changes on a visceral level them-
selves. To understand these shifts, Welch says
audiences simply need to listen to Tchaikovsky’s
emotion-driven score. “I feel like the music tells
me this is not a subtle story,” says Welch. “This
is not a light story. This is dark and complex.” He
also recognizes that to tell the tale in the way he
wanted to present it, he needed more than tech-
nical dancers on the stage. “Every company has
great classical technique, but not everybody has
the acting talent that we have here,” he explains.
“We pride ourselves on that.”
It is the ability of his dancers to be fantastic
actors that adds the emotional gravitas to his
production of Swan Lake, especially during
ArtistsofHoustonBallet,photobyTimRummelhoff
HOUSTON BALLET ✺ 21

4. make the hunting scene in our first act all men, I
thought it represented the roughness of them,”
explains Welch. “Here is this humanity that is de-
stroying the forest, overtaking the world—a little
bit rough, a little bit brash—and they’re not really
understanding the ramifications that they have
on everything they come across.” This play on the
destruction by man is juxtaposed against Welch’s
keen use of the women in the ballet to represent
all that is pure, natural, and innocent, especially
throughout the beloved swan corps variations.
This thematic choice is again echoed in the third
act as the princesses arrive to Siegfried’s ball with
their battalions of men in tow. “This plays off the
idea that the male world is rough, industrialized,
and taking over the universe, and that the female
world is nature, gentle, and pure,” says Welch.
Swan Lake, especially through the lens of Stan-
ton Welch, is replete with dualities and contrasts.
“When you’re dancing the whole ballet, you have
to get into both characters fully,” says Kajiya. “It is
the duality of these roles that is so rewarding. You
cannot have one without the other.” This senti-
ment is true for the entirety of Welch’s produc-
tion: The good cannot exist without the evil, the
purity without the destruction, the light without
the dark.✺
Light&Dark
KarinaGonzálezinSylvia,photobyClaireMcAdams
the climactic ball scene in Prince Siegfried’s castle,
where the prince will pick his bride. Knowing
Siegfried is in love with Odette, Rothbart has dis-
guised his daughter Odile to look like Odette and
trick the prince, but their secret is soon discov-
ered. “The music at the end of the ballroom scene
is so dramatic, and I really felt that people didn’t
pay enough attention to what the music was
saying,” says Welch. “The idea of having Odette
arrive and look at the prince in the face while
he’s with Odile is such a great knife to use against
her. It was such a great emotional moment.” This
moment stands apart from other versions of the
ballet where Rothbart magically conjures the
visage of Odette or where she appears briefly
in a window to reveal how the prince has been
deceived. Instead, Welch ups the ante. “I wanted
the audience to have that same confusion that
the prince has,” he reveals. “I felt like it made the
prince a little more understandable, and it really
gave Odette this great moment of confronting
him.”
In addition to having his dancers tell the story
through acting, Welsh layers on thematic ele-
ments to convey the richness of the narrative
by examining the light and dark contrasts of the
feminine and masculine worlds. “In choosing to
BY DAVID CLARKE
PrincipalYurikoKajiya,photobyClaireMcAdams
22 ✺ HOUSTON BALLET