Swan Lake...

Swan Lake and Black Swan

Today as part of my project i have been looking into birds in particular ducks and swans. Upon looking into swans i found an interesting page in view magazine that reminded me of the way a swan behaves and moves. I continues to think and the idea that birds and humans are similiar in the way they behave and their feathers act as there clothes. We wear clothes as a symbol of our identity, which in turn also distinguishs a swan from any other bird...

I would like to take this idea forward by looking into human behaviour... in ballet in particular swan lake, as i thought this was deemed appropriate.

It is a directinterpretation of humans becoming like swans, and in the story swans becoming human.

Even the clothes that they are modelling remind me of a swan and its feathers....

Swan Lake.

Swan lake is a beautiful story mainly on love, i love romantic stories,although this is a romantic tragedy!

Odette, the swan queen has been put under a curse by Von Rothbart along with her companions to live as a swan by day and at night can return to human. She lives on the lake, created by her mothers grieving tears. (familial love). The only way the curse can be broken is if a man whi has never loved another, promises to love her forever and marry her.

Siegfried is the princesses daughter and tells him he must find someone to settle down with to which he agrees, he goes out hunting with his cadets to stop in amazement to watch the transformation of the swan queen turning into the fair maiden she really is. At first she is scared of him, but he promises not to hurt her. He becomes besotted with her and indeed i feel falls in love with her but seals his feelings as she then turns back into a swan.

Later as he returns to the ball,he dances with 9 other women one of which is Von Rothbarts daughter;Odile- the exact mirror image of Odette. She seduces him, and even with the quick appearance of Odette to warn him, he claims that he loves her thinking it is Odette. With that Rothbart runs with his daughter and shows Siegfried that Odette is now condemned as a swan.

Immediatley he goes to her side by the lake, where she has decided to end her life in order to break the curse. Her companions look after her and whilst Siegfried declares his love for her and she forgives him, it is too late and Rothbart insists hemarries Odile.

Siegfried loves Odette so much that they throw themselves into the lake together to break the curse, later the loved ones souls are reconnected and Rothbart is exiled away.

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I love the story it shows just how much they love each other and that they are prepared to sacrifice their lives for one another...

Here are some images i really like from the story:

Rodarte

Beautiful costumes- layers of tulle and feathers really identify with an actual swan. The heavy embellishment gives it an elegant touch, one characteristic of a swan.

Black Swan.

The film :'Black Swan' was a complex one. In order to understand it you had to understand the story of swan lake, as the dvd is a representation of swan lake but taking it in another direction by focusing on the swan lake in a different light.

Originally in ballet Odette and Odile were played by 2 different people however there scenes never conflicted so it was cheaper and easier for the 2 swans to be played by the same person.

Nina (Natalie Portman) is a dedicated ballet student and when Leroy (dance teacher) drops the lead ballerina, Nina is then picked to play the lead in Swan Lake. Nina is a perfect white swan (Odette) as she is a perfectionsist, every step and every movement she is quite naive and personifies innocence. However she is told she needs to find a deeper and more darker side to play the black swan. The black swan is ideal for Ninas rival Lily (Mila Kunis) as she brings the seduction and sensuality.

As Nina and Lilly become closer in friends, their twisted friendship becomes rivalled in Ninas eyes. Jealousy and spite overtakes Nina and she becomes sedated on that everyone is out to steal her part.

When talking to Leroy he says that what makes a great dancer is when they give everything they have to the part to make it perfect.

The Black swan i feel is a metaphor for Ninas nervous breakdown, in swan lake they are two different swans but due to her playing both parts in different costumes(although helps the audience to identify what swan is performing, it also clashes with the original story that Odette and Odile are mirror images) I believe that the black is to represent her darker side/her mental state. She becomes obsessed with the role - just like Siegfried became obsessed with love for Odette in the original. The black swan therefore represnts love for perfection, love for dance, wheras the original was romantic.

The black swan has interpetated the death scene differently, where Nina kills herself by stabbing herself in the belly, believeing she has murdered Lilly and not herself as she sees her as the black swan, not realising she has become consumed within the story.

As the final scene comes to a close of 'Odette' dying, Nina falls to her death and her final words were 'i'm perfect'.

She has an all consuming love for her part and the curse of her mental state has ended, along with the original of the curse being broken.

The dress is similar to that of the white swan with the heavy embellishment and the layers of tulle.

Can't wait to take some of my own photos of my sisters(kindly volunteered to be my models) in ballet/swan poses for my project, from there i can draw from them and create a comparison.

It also gives me a direction in my chosen colour palette for my final piece for my final project of the first year!

My god it's flew by!

Will update soon with my photos and drawin