THEOREM - Swan Lake

An attitude towards beauty has been one of the main subjects of Russian culture. It has been dealt with in different ways – from Dostoyevsky’s active and redemptive beauty to Sorokin’s texts where one is distanced from beauty by means of indecency.

For over one hundred years already Tchaikovsky’s The Swan Lake has been the measure of beauty.
The harmony and finality of this beauty that is meant to die gives this Russian masterpiece global meaning. At the same time The Swan Lake has been often used for ideological purposes. The culmination of this was the non-stop broadcast of this ballet on all Russian TV channels during the August putsch in 1991, when the missing information about the political coup d’etat was mysteriously reflected in the melancholy Tchaikovsky’s music, the absolute humbleness of corps de ballet, the symmetric choreography by Petipa-Ivanov, linearity and balance.

For this performance the mixture of aesthetic absolute and social context has a decisive meaning.

It is impossible to calculate how many different versions of The Swan Lake exist. There are classical, ideological, parodical, old-fashioned, modern, etc.

Our performance is not another interpretation of a known story and in that sense it has nothing in common with The Swan Lake. The performance is like a collage – a reflection of The Swan Lake’s characters and social, artistic and aesthetic motifs.

We are interested in The Swan Lake as a symbol, as a final, closed system, questioning the possibility and necessity for it to change or to be changed. We have given up the story, the distribution of roles and canonical solutions to the scenes. We have used lots of opposites (black and white, man and woman, fire and water, individual and group, up and down, fiction and documentary, etc) and parallels (dancing, flying, swimming, decoration of oneself and others, sport, documentary scenes, etc.).

Tchaikovsky’s music that has been especially arranged for this performance (author Sergei Zagny) creates the atmosphere where the daydreams and disappointments from the fairytale are associated as a matter of course with dream situations, odd occurrences, locomotives, steam boats and everyday life where Prince Siegfried, who sets free Odette, is reminiscent of the classics of revolution. Maybe he is not a prince after all, but the evil wizard Rotbart. And maybe setting free does not mean freedom.

Sasha Pepelyaev
Peeter Jalakas

Swan Lake (Luikede Järv) Staged by Peeter Jalakas (Estonia) and directed by Sasha Pepelayev (Russia)
Conception-direction Peeter Jalakas (Estonia) Concept-choreography Sasha Pepelyaev (Moscow) Assistant choreographers Tatiana Gordeeva (Moscow); Daria Buzovkina (Moscow) Music Sergei Zagny (Moscow) and P. I. Tchaikovsky Music performed and recorded by NYYD Ensemble (artistic director – Olari Elts; conductor – Toomas Vavilov) Costumes Reet Ulfsak with: Actors: Liina Vahtrik; Tiina Tauraite; Erki Laur; Juhan Ulfsak; Taavi Eelmaa Dancers: Triin Lilleorg; Kärt Tõnisson; Anna-Liisa Lepasepp; Tatiana Gordeeva (Moscow); Daria Buzovkina (Moscow); Olga Tsvetkova (Jekaterinburg) Premiere January 30, 2003 in Kanuti Gildi Saal in Tallinn, Estonia Co-production Von Krahl Theatre (Tallinn), Kanuti Gildi Saal (Tallinn), TSEH Festival (Moscow), Hebbel-Theater (Berlin) and Theorem (association supported by the Culture 2000 programme of the European Union). Supported by Ford Foundation Moscow, Estonian Ministry of Culture, Estonian Cultural Endowment, City of Tallinn
An attitude towards beauty has been one of the main subjects of Russian culture. It has been dealt with in different ways – from Dostoyevsky’s active and redemptive beauty to Sorokin’s texts where one is distanced from beauty by means of indecency. For over one hundred years already Tchaikovsky’s The Swan Lake has been the measure of beauty. The harmony and finality of this beauty that is meant to die gives this Russian masterpiece global meaning. At the same time The Swan Lake has been often used for ideological purposes. The culmination of this was the non-stop broadcast of this ballet on all Russian TV channels during the August putsch in 1991, when the missing information about the political coup d’etat was mysteriously reflected in the melancholy Tchaikovsky’s music, the absolute humbleness of corps de ballet, the symmetric choreography by Petipa-Ivanov, linearity and balance. For this performance the mixture of aesthetic absolute and social context has a decisive meaning. It is impossible to calculate how many different versions of The Swan Lake exist. There are classical, ideological, parodical, old-fashioned, modern, etc. Our performance is not another interpretation of a known story and in that sense it has nothing in common with The Swan Lake. The performance is like a collage – a reflection of The Swan Lake’s characters and social, artistic and aesthetic motifs. We are interested in The Swan Lake as a symbol, as a final, closed system, questioning the possibility and necessity for it to change or to be changed. We have given up the story, the distribution of roles and canonical solutions to the scenes. We have used lots of opposites (black and white, man and woman, fire and water, individual and group, up and down, fiction and documentary, etc) and parallels (dancing, flying, swimming, decoration of oneself and others, sport, documentary scenes, etc.). Tchaikovsky’s music that has been especially arranged for this performance (author Sergei Zagny) creates the atmosphere where the daydreams and disappointments from the fairytale are associated as a matter of course with dream situations, odd occurrences, locomotives, steam boats and everyday life where Prince Siegfried, who sets free Odette, is reminiscent of the classics of revolution. Maybe he is not a prince after all, but the evil wizard Rotbart. And maybe setting free does not mean freedom. Sasha Pepelyaev Peeter Jalakas

Swan Lake (Luikede Järv)

Swan Lake
(Luikede Järv)