Karen Kain, then the outgoing artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada, set herself a tall order when she determined to re-stage the Erik Bruhn 1966 production of Swan Lake. Premiering in 2022, this new edition of the Tchaikovsky classic, directed by Kain, with new choreographic invention from her, Christopher Stowell and Robert Binet, brings the 1895 story ballet by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, into the 21^st century.

And if it is wall-to-wall bravura dancing you’re looking for, this is the crowd-pleasing-est ballet you are ever likely to see, performed with precision by 50 dancers of the NBoC.  That is exactly what any ballet company needs and what Kain and her team have delivered. The Swan Lake run was entirely sold out before it opened.

Gabriela Týlešová’s lavish set, props and costumes and Bonnie Beecher’s inventive lighting design ensure that this Swan Lake enchants as it should. (Check out the 1966 film of the Bruhn Swan Lake on YouTube if you want to see what a museum piece looks like.)

Any Swan Lake demands a flawless technique and plenty of stamina and this one, with its relentless pace, perhaps more others. Just ask Heather Ogden, who will dance her seasoned Odette/Odile for the last time March 15, 18 and 21.

Among the human touches brought to this production is a brief, ghostly prologue showing the young women dancing in a forest glade before stumbling into the clutches of the bewitching Baron Rothbart, who turns them all into swans. The giant, feathery, scene-stealing wings symbolize his power over human happiness. Second soloist Peng Fei Jiang makes a haunting Rothbart who moves with beautiful cunning to envelope all who approach him in his spell. Odette is his chief prize and it is she who reverts to human at night, when Prince Siegfried encounters her, setting aside his crossbow to learn of the curse of Rothbart. Only Siegfried’s vow of undying love can release Odette from swanhood.

Genevieve Penn Nabity, a sparkling Odette, captivates both Ben Rudisin’s noble Siegfried and the audience, agog at Swan Lake’s famous feats, such as her 32-fouettées in Odette’s dance or the Act II pas de deux with Siegfried.  Ben Rudisin, understandably a little jittery in an opening night performance he wasn’t originally scheduled for, has the grace, the stature and the physical talent for the part of a prince under pressure from his mother to marry. Nuances indicating thoughts and feelings will come later. Veteran character dancer Stephanie Hutchison makes an appropriately stately yet fiery presence, insisting on her gloomy son’s need to find a wife.

First soloist Donald Thom, in the powerful supporting role of Siegfried’s close friend Benno, gave the most animated and expressive showing of the evening. Kain told her principal dancers to put something of themselves into the characters and once they’ve mastered the steps most ballerinas and male dancers do just that.

The big set pieces of Swan Lake, such as the linked-armed dance of the little swans put this viewer in mind of ballet competitions past, and tend to dispel any thoughts of romance, character development or the arc of tragedy that is Swan Lake. In the end, drama is subsumed by the Tchaikovsky score and finesse of Russian classical ballet.

Not to worry, as this production develops, the dancers will grow with it. In the meantime, better catch experienced tragedians Heather Ogden and Harrison James before this show closes on March 22.

Swan Lake

Directed and staged by Karen Kain; choreographed by Kain, Christopher Stowell and Robert Binet after Erik Bruhn, Lev Ivanov and Marius Petipa

At the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto until March 22, 2025

Photo of Genevieve Penn Nabity and Ben Rudisin with artists of the Ballet in Swan Lake by Karolina Kuras.