Why Ballet RI’s Swan Lake is “More Relevant Than Ever” This Year
GoLocalProv News Editor Kate Nagle
Why Ballet RI’s Swan Lake is “More Relevant Than Ever” This Year
Breen Combes, who had an illustrious career as a Principal Dancer with Boston Ballet, spoke with GoLocal about the company’s newest iteration of the classic, which will be performed at The Vets Auditorium in Providence on May 3 and 4.
“So I think, as an artistic director of an art form that's from the 18th century, my constant question is, how do we keep art relevant?” said Breen Combes. “How do we keep this art form relevant so that we're connected?”
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTIn a wide-ranging interview, Breen Combes talked about the production, the company, and why this year’s production is especially meaningful.
Bringing a Classic to Life
Breen Combes, a native of New York, received her early training from the Fort Lauderdale Ballet Classique, the HARID Conservatory, and The Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet before joining the Washington Ballet in 2000.
She joined Boston Ballet in 2003 and rose to the rank of principal dancer in 2009, originating numerous roles by prominent choreographers, as well as performing title roles in a large variety of classical and neo-classical works.
“With our audiences today, they're not coming and watching something antiquated,” said Breen Combes. “While I want to maintain the tradition of our art form, the question is, how do we continue to evolve it and make it relevant for today? So looking at Swan Lake, it is something that people resonate with, it connects with them.”
Swan Lake, which was composed by Russian Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, is one of the most widely known, and popular ballets, of all time.
“The audience, they know the music, they know the story; it was in a film. People are interested to come and see it,” said Breen Combes. “So what we've decided to do with this particular version is, we're really taking it out of an actual dance, so it's going to have a very almost stark contemporary modern feel to it, but with some of the traditional choreography, and then mixing that with our resident choreographer [who] is mixing up a lot of the sections as well."
Ballet RI’s Yury Yanowsky is the Artistic Curator, an internationally-known dancer and award-winning choreographer who was formerly a Principal Dancer with the Boston Ballet for over two decades and an international guest artist, most notably with The Royal Ballet, National Ballet of Prague, National Ballet of China, and Pennsylvania Ballet.
“It's really an updated version of this timeless tale that people connect with. And the hope is that they come and they see this beauty on stage and that they are connecting with it in a way that's not like watching something opulent from courts of the 18th century, but something like, oh, this could fit into today,” said Breen Combes.
“This production is streamlined and modern costumes, but still with the beauty of the story,” she said
“Our main company, we have 18 dancers and then we have a second company of 12 dancers,” said Breen Combes. “And then we have a training program where people from all over the world come and train with us, and we call them our trainees, and we have 15 of them.”
And what that means, according to Breen Combes, is a deep cadre of talented dancers.
“So we're able to have a really impressive corps de ballet of 16 swans, which, you know, this is by far the hardest ballet in the classical repertoire,” said Breen Combes. “I mean, it's so taxing on our dancers. They're here five hours a day working on this and trying to perfect it to get it on stage. It's a big production for us.”
According to Breen Combes, the dancers, who have been in rehearsal daily from 9 in the morning until after 5 at night, learning four acts of choreography en pointe, are consummate multi-taskers.
When they started rehearsals, she said, they were in the midst of another arduous performance schedule.
“They were performing something else at night during the day, while we were staging Swan Lake,” she said. “They were having to go back and forth.”
And Swan Lake, especially, is not just any ballet.
“It’s its own language. For a lot of these dancers, it's the first time they're ever doing this production,” Breen Combes said. “There's something that you have to understand about how to use your arms in a way that's very bird-like, and telling a tale. So it's very new for a lot of our dancers. So there's been a lot of time in this studio just talking about like where your finger is, where your eyes are looking, you know, which way the heads are. It’s almost like a drill team.”
“But then they have to do it with smiles,” she laughed.
Sharing a Common Experience
“What we're focusing on with this as well, is how our art form brings people together, how it's a shared connecting experience, to sit in an audience and watch something,” said Breen Combes. “The audience, they're not behind a screen, they’re not by themselves; it’s showing humanity on stage, which I think is more important than ever. The love and passion and forgiveness and all of these emotions on stage."
“So we're really going back to an ending that's rooted in humanity and hope. And, you know, we took that very strongly into where our public is at this moment and what they need to walk away with,” she said.