Swan Lake to be staged April 15-16

Skidmore College's dance and music departments will collaborate in April to fill the stage and orchestra pit of the Helen Filene Ladd Concert Hall at the Arthur Zankel Music Center with the magic and romance of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.

Thirty student dancers and one professional dancer will present the second act of the famous ballet, to music played by the Skidmore College Orchestra under the direction of Anthony Holland, associate professor of music. Presented with support from the Office of the Dean of Special Programs, the gala event will be at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, April 15 and April 16. General admission will be $12 for all adults; $5 for students. Tickets are available online. In addition, the Zankel Music Center box office will sell tickets for this event from noon to 2 p.m. Thursday, April 14, and noon to 3 p.m. Friday, April 15. 

A story ballet, Swan Lake is about the enchanted swan queen, Odette, and the young prince who falls in love with her, Prince Siegfried. Odette and the other swans were once beautiful women, but are under the spell of an evil sorcerer, Baron von Rothbart.

Tchaikovsky composed the music for the ballet in 1875, and while unpopular in its earliest productions, it soon became one of the best-known ballets in history. George Balanchine choreographed his version of Swan Lake in 1952 for the New York City Ballet.

Skidmore Associate Professor of Dance Denise Warner Limoli danced the full-length Swan Lake numerous times herself when she was with American Ballet Theatre. She has presented Lev Ivanov's Act II of the production at Skidmore in the past though never on a stage as large as the new one in Ladd Hall, which features a "sprung" or floating floor, designed specifically for dance.

Also, Limoli has never been able to present grand classical ballet with a full orchestra at Skidmore, because there was no theater suitable for both dancers and for a 65-member symphony orchestra. The Ladd Concert Hall stage was designed to accommodate a traditional orchestra pit about 12 feet below stage level, by removing the first three rows of audience seating.

This event will mark the first major use of the Ladd Hall orchestra pit for a joint production between the dance and music departments at Skidmore. "Working with the orchestra is the most exciting part of this," Limoli stated recently. "Tony (Anthony Holland) and I have been talking about doing a collaborative effort since I came to Skidmore in 1992, but it's this new concert hall, and its sprung floor, that are making this possible."

Limoli ran auditions for the ballet at the end of last semester. Dancing the role of Odette, Queen of the Swans, will be Gaia Waisbrod '11. Jacob Goodhart '12 will dance Prince Siegfried; and David Otto, a former New York City Ballet dancer and director of the Saratoga Ballet Academy, will dance the role of Baron von Rothbart. 

The four Cygnets will be danced by Julia Clancy '14, Hanna Foster '14, Kate Mathews '14, and Katrina Puffer '13; and the four Swan Princesses will be Alison DeFranco '13, Emily Craver '11, Rebecca Greenbaum '11, and Hartley Parish '11. Twelve dancers will comprise the corps de ballet, and there will be a group of eight male students in extra roles, for example, as Huntsmen.

Student violinist Hanna Tonegawa '11 will perform the solo pas de deux music with the orchestra.

Limoli explained that scenery isn't necessary because of the gorgeous windows that soar behind the stage. "We'll just mask the windows a bit, and light the trees outside the windows from behind," she said. "That will afford us every inch of the stage, which is a good size for this number of dancers."

Costumes for the Swan Queen and the Prince are by designer Kim Vanyo. Limoli will assemble costumes for the men and for the corps.