Impossibly refined in every particular, Smirnova is pure poetry as Odette

A huge merit of the Grigorovich production is its performance in two, rather than three parts: the black swan scene flows straight into the final "lake" scene with a satisfying sense of hurtling towards an inevitable doom.

It seems to me that the Petipa's ballets and his Swan Lake, in particular, have proved a wonderful resource for lesser choreographers. Ivanov's white acts have generally suffered less "improvement" over the years than the sections created by Petipa but in this production everything is up for grabs as far as altering the choreographic text is concerned. It is interesting to see Siegfried's role expanded by giving him every dance opportunity that can be provided by the score but it has the effect of reducing Odette to a supporting role and Odile into a sort of cabaret turn in act 3.An abstract or near abstract distillation of Swan Lake is interesting as a one off but it is not something that I would want to see on a regular basis as, in this production, it results in the audience being shown little more than a display of technical expertise.

Here is a ballet that was created by two major nineteenth century choreographers to tell a story using the ballet techniques of mime, classical dance and character dance reduced to a one dimensional display of a single style of dance. It gives the audience plenty of time to observe the technical skills of the dancers on stage; it provides opportunities to identify the occasional familiar gestures and sections of choreography that belong to more traditional versions of the work but the problem is that everything about it is cool,distant and un-engaging.

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