A. Ekman's A Swan lake at Den Norske Opera & Ballett

Swan Lake is our best known ballet. But why is it so famous? Why are we so fascinated to see people performing as birds on stage, and why exactly swans? These are some of the questions choreographer Alexander Ekman has asked himself in A Swan Lake.

Swan Lake premiered at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow in 1877, to the music of Tchaikovsky. What many people do not know is that the original version was a major fiasco and was quickly forgotten. Not until Petipa/Ivanov's new production eight years later did the ballet achieve recognition. This interested Alexander Ekman – the forgotten Swan Lake, a work about which we know nothing. Now he has chosen to recreate and freely poeticise over this first Swan Lake, the fiasco.

Alexander Ekman is permanent choreographer with the Nederlands Dans Theater and has enjoyed tremendous success with us with the ballet Resin as part of our September Dance programme in 2012. He is known for his distinctive style, which combines the humorous and playful with reflection on ballet as an art form. A Swan Lake is his first full-length narrative ballet. Together with top designer Henrik Vibskov and with new music by composer Mikael Karlsson, he has created A Swan Lake with the whole company on stage, a full orchestra in the pit and a real lake on the Main House stage!