You can tell from the advertising that Swan Lake Reloaded was no normally Swan Lake. It was virtually a year to the day since I had seen English National Ballet's Swan Lake and I was back The Coliseum to see Fredrik Rydman's version.
In this version the Swans are prostitues and Rothbart is their pimp. The performance mixed hip-hop and contemporary dance to create a fusion that worked at times but not at others. The contemporary elements wasn't anything spectacular, but the use of isolation was interesting and in true hip-hop style there was some nice tricks. It was interesting to see a headspin replacing the infamous 32 fouettes.
One aspect I throughly enjoyed was the music. There was elements of the traditional Tchaikovsky score and then mixed with electro sounds. The choreography complimented the music throughout and it was interesting to see choreography that really worked with the drama of the music.
Swan Lake reloaded may not be everyone's cup of tea, but for those who are open to seeing performance in its the general sense - go see! Definitely one of the most enjoyable performance I have seen in a while.
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