Swan Lake: A Beautiful Evening of Ballet

By Patrick Tokuyama
Staff Writer

I saw the Swan Lake ballet put on by the San Francisco Ballet last Thursday and it was everything I thought it would be and more.

The costumes, the story, and the performance easily captured the essence of ballet. It makes a big difference sitting up close, as last time I sat in the elevated middle section (Grand Dress Circle I think) and this time I was in the Orchestra. What a difference. There is so much more humanity when you sit up front. You can see the dancers faces and although the dance formations don’t look as cool as they do from above, they still look very cool, especially for this production. You also get a better view of the costumes and the music is in your face as the orchestra is literally 30 feet from you (depending on where you sit).

The story is fairly paced and there weren’t many redundant or slow scenes; everything flowed very nicely. The scene at the actual lake I thought was a bit strange, and looked more like a scene on some planet in outer space than a lake in the woods. Given the long running time of 2 hours and 45 minutes, this ballet will not put you to sleep. I felt more sleepy with the Nutcracker than this, and after it ended I was surprised how fast the time flew!

They send out $25 discounts for other ballets after you go see one, for promotional purposes. This is how they got me to see Swan Lake, except only after I decided I wanted to see it did I realize the discount did not apply! Anyway, it was very worth it, if you see any ballet at all, or like to see stories expressed in dance, go see Swan Lake! www.sfballet.org

Patrick Tokuyama is a third-year pharmacy student.