lavendera

Those turns of Osipova's are a part of that variation and look good! Maybe other balletomanes find it ok to do these for the coda of Swan Lake. I'm just not a fan of it and I've never seen it for Odile's variation - anybody ever seen this for 3rd Act SL?

I think the prettiest fouettes are from Tamara Rojo - beautiful position and so polished. I agree that it's better to do them cleanly than to try and move a mountain with numbers. However, people have come to expect that this coda contains these turns and most people look forward to this spendid display of technical prowess.

Probably the reason that Copeland will be promoted because people vote with their tickets. I would buy your argument completely if Copeland could actually perform what is expected from a principal dancer and then opted to make a change in the choreography. My guess is that she is unable to do all of them - perhaps ankle strength? I'm sure people will be supportive of her regardless; however, imagine going abroad where the custom is to perform fouettes in this act and the ballerina opts to do single turns from 5th position. It might cause some heads to turn (no pun intended).

And, if she was traveling down the stage doing them is even more egregious!

That's true, but I don't believe that I have ever seen a variation in the 3rd Act of Swan Lake (Odile's) that included single pirouettes from a standing 5th position. I also would say that this change by Copeland wasn't an "interpretative" gesture but rather due to inadequacy of technique. She also has a problem with hopping en pointe. This should have been corrected long ago.

I agree with Amour. There is absolutely no way that Misty Copeland (at this point) can be compared to Uliana Lopatkina. They are simply not in the same league.

I'm not in favor of changing choreography because of inadequacy of technique. Maybe somebody that is really familiar with Misty Copeland can tell me if she is indeed lacking in technical prowess. If this is the case, then I would not think she is principal material, even if she's really a draw at the box office. It's one thing to change the steps, a la Osipova or for the departed Plisetskaya due to interpretation and completely another if it's due to inadequate technique. I'll go out on a limb and say it's perhaps lack of technique.

In response to Josette, it's believed by many people that Plisetskaya was incapable of performing 32 fouettes and opted to do piques instead. This is actually not correct. She could do fouettes and she could do 32. It was a personal choice of hers for this particular coda and interpretation (Swan Lake, Act III). I have to say that I've never seen a principal do a combination of fouette and pique for this, and my guess is that Copeland was "winding down", running out of steam, and was aware that she would not be able to complete them cleanly. This is really unfortunate. She is not Lopatkina nor is she Plisetskaya. I understand that she is a favorite and perhaps a role model. But, my opinion only is that she will need to perfect her technique and stamina and pull at least a nice clean set of single fouettes to continue to perform Swan Lake.