What is a Swan?
I have been missing (real) swans on stage for some time.
It is not obvious that any dancer can be a swan. And I have been watching so many "imitations" of swans during the last months.
I miss Makarova, Martinelli, Pontois, Plissetskaya, Rosanova, Guillem...
What is it like to be a swan? Think about that...
This dialogue from Molnar's "The Swan" (between Alec Guiness and Grace Kelly) describes it quite clearly. And very precisely!
Prince Albert: Your father used to call you his swan, or at least so I am told. I think that's a good thing to remember. Think what it means to be a swan. To glide like a dream on the smooth surface of the lake, and never go on the shore. On dry land, where ordinary people walk, the swan is awkward, even ridiculous. When she waddles up the bank she painfully resembles a different kind of bird, n'est-ce-pas?
Princess Alexandra: A goose.
Prince Albert: I'm afraid so. And there she must stay, out on the lake; silent, white, majestic. Be a bird, but never fly; know one song but never sing it until the moment of her death. And so it must be for you, Alexandra. And high, cool indifference to the staring crowds along the bank. And the song? Never.
