This is a review of Swan Lake, so expect a gaggle of bird-related puns.  Image: Sasha De Sola in Tomasson’s Swan Lake // © Erik Tomasson

It was over 8 years ago that I first visited the San Francisco Ballet School to interview a young ballerina named Sasha De Sola.  At the time, Sasha was playing a sugar plum fairy in The Nutcracker, and I was playing a fledgling journalist asking ‘humorous’ and ‘evocative’ questions like, “Do your toes ever hurt?”.

Reading that interview today may be a bit embarrassing, and time sure does fly, but I have no egrets.

Sasha has since spread her wings and reached new heights, she no longer plays roles with fruits in the title, she is now a prima ballerina, a principal dancer, and the Swan of Swan Lake.  A role widely held as one of the most challenging in the art swarm.

Who doesn’t love a bevy of snow-white swans, gliding in the pale moonlight?   San Francisco Ballet in Tomasson’s Swan Lake // © Lindsay Thomas

The plot:  A prince is looking for a princess and finds her at Swan Lake, but a sorcerer has cursed his chick to be a swan during the day and a lady only at night.  In stork, the prince only needs to marry the swan to break the curse, but fowl play is afoot, the sorcerer brings in a black swan to trick the prince into falling for her instead.

The roles of black and white swans are played by the same dancer.  As the white swan, the ballerina must dance with the excitement and grace of a freshly freed prisoner, submitting to love.   She then has to switch roles, don black down, and dance as more predator than prey, going owl out to seduce the young prince, to seal his dark fate.

Watching a ballerina interpret the two opposing roles, is what makes Swan Lake a classic, it’s poutlry in motion.

Critics are chirping, “Swan Lake is as addictive as Quack!” ⁠

Sasha De Sola in Tomasson’s Swan Lake // © Erik Tomasson

Tchaikovsky wrote a lot of music but of his ballets, toucan be considered as the most prolific in the world.  His Nutcracker was first introduced to an American audience by the San Francisco Ballet in 1944, and now, that golden goose plays every Christmas season, across the country.  And for good reason, the music is eggquisite.

Swan Lake has remained the world’s most beloved classical ballet for more than a century.  This would have come as a surprise to ol’ Pyotr considering it was his first ballet, and was a bit of a flop when it debuted in Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater in March of 1877.

The score was considered ‘too symphonic’ and complicated to dance to. And audiences didn’t like the tragic ending where the two main characters commit suicide by soaring into a freezing lake (go figure).

Perhaps they should’ve eggspected a tragic ending, after all the story is Russian, and the two love birds meet when the prince tries to shoot her with his crossbow.

The Prince is stork raven mad about his swan as they parrot one another in the night.  Nikisha Fogo and Aaron Robison in Tomasson’s Swan Lake // © Lindsay Thomas

Today the ending can be interpreted as more Disney than Grimm, the two lovers still fly into the lake but end the performance perched on a cliff, free from the evil spell.  So if you’re a fatalistic Russian hawk you can still interpret them as dead and united as spirits, and if you’re a bushy-tailed American optimist, you can nest assured that they lived happily ever after.

Sasha De Sola in Tomasson’s Swan Lake // © Erik Tomasson

What is sure, is that the sets and costume designs by Jonathan Fensom are impeckable, people haven’t stopped raven about the Helgi Tomasson choreography in his final season, and the dancing from Sasha De Sola will have you coming quack for more.

Tickets and Information; Here 

After writing about fine arts in San Francisco for a decade, one has to find fresh ways to approach things.  This is a review of Swan Lake, and this time, expect a gaggle of bird-related puns.  Remember, puns are the en pointe of humor.