the_monkeys_raincoat
I saw 'Swan Lake' when I was 18 years old (a million years ago). I thought the music was pretty and the dancers were pretty and I might have wished in passing that I knew how to dance. But I never gave it or dance another thought. Fast forward to a few years ago when I was plopped down on a couch and told to watch this new all male version with a friend who had seen it in person. WOW!!!! It truly grieves me I have never seen it in person. Matthew Bourne is one cool dude and his swans are nothing short of spectacular. Adam Cooper drips a sexual tension you can feel even through the television screen. The band of carousing swans filter throughout the production sometimes in movements of dreamy poetry, sometimes in a furious fluttered heat, sometimes disturbingly aggressive - but always ethereally beautiful. The story has many facets and encompasses a lot of emotion - something I am learning Bourne and his dancers are quite keen at communicating vividly to the audience with just the slightest movement. So if you are ready to try something different...I highly recommend you try this on for size. Let go of your reservations, willingly suspend your preconceptions of what it is you think you are going to see and settle in for the ruffled feather experience of your life. These swans are hot and they really do rock. (Also see 'The Car Man' - another provocative work from the creative genius Matthew Bourne).
mermatt
This is a beautiful variation on Tchaikovsky's ballet with all male swans. The play has a wicked sense of humor about ballet and theater in general, but the homoerotic element is what really sets this version off from all others. These swans are not males doing traditional female ballet movements. The dances are choreographed for males and are powerfully appropriate for the masculine, barechested young men. Adam Cooper is stunning as both the white and black swans.The final scene is so touching as to bring tears. This is a movie for people who don't like ballet as well as for those who do. The mystery and mystique of SWAN LAKE will never be the same again.
webby_tw
I remember seeing this on TV a few years back, and I only thought of it again when I saw Billy Elliot. Billy grows up to be Adam Cooper (the main swan) in swan lake. It was amazing. On the point of the supposedly gay Prince, I thinks Adam's explanation is the best. The swan is not a guy in a swan's outfit, he is a swan. You have to think of him as a creature not a gender. The Prince fell in love with a beautiful swan not a man in swan suit. And Adam Cooper is gorgeous, and absolutely brilliant!
majin_melmo
This is truly a masterpiece. I remember the EXACT day the first and only time (so far) I ever saw this beautiful thing. It was June 4th, 1998....I had just gotten back from summer theater practice and my mother was having a Candlelite party. I'm not an extremely sociable person, so I took to my room, turned on the TV, and started flipping through the channels. Then I heard some familiar music on the PBS channel and so I stopped and watched. It was Swan Lake...and I must say...a very different Swan Lake. I was only 16 when I saw it...and I begged my PBS station to play it again for me--and I NEVER do that. Trust me. You'll like it too.The first second I started watching it, I was mesmerized. I wanted to turn it because it was kinda weird...but I just couldn't. It was Tchaikovsky--the best composer ever...and I'm his #1 fan...so I just had to keep watching. I'm VERY glad I did. The Swan and the Prince...they're not gay, folks...it's something very different that I just can't explain. Boyhood tenderness? An old friend who was loved too much? Call it what you will. The dancing was gorgeous...every song was choreographed with beauty and passion and how I feel Tchaikovsky would have wanted it. THIS version of Swan Lake is what Tchaikovsky wanted but could never make because of the "honorable" status one had to uphold in the 19th century...because Tchaikovsky himself was homosexual--a "bad" thing.If you're into modernized classics, wonderful stories, beautiful dancers/dancing, gorgeous music, and weepy finales, this is for you. To all the guys who hate this mushy stuff: I REALLY think you might like Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake. It's definitely not your typical ballet.
AD
