Will Black Swan help attendance?

[EvilNinjaX]

I've been reading a few online discussions regarding BLACK SWAN and found a few people to start discussing the ballet itself slightly beyond just the mere context of the movie. It's led me to wonder if the film might help attendance to the ballet in general and Swan Lake in particular. Perhaps one of the daunting elements of ballet to the general public is that it seems so insular and difficult to understand. Could the film be a primer into the story of Swan Lake, explaining the nuances couched into a thriller's tale that might lead people to actively think about the wonderful story in Swan Lake.

And have any ballet companies scheduled Swan Lake in early 2011 to take advantage of this?

I'm curious and i'm hopeful (and trying to do my part in encouraging and educating people to seek out the "real thing")

thx

-goro-

(Is this the correct forum for this or should it be moved elsewhere?)

[Quiggin]

It's a good question - but Hollywood may be off by a cycle. This seems to be the year of Coppelia - at San Francisco and in Seattle, or Midsummer Night's Dream. Maybe Neumeier's Little Mermaid would appeal to Black Swan fans.

[abatt]

It's always the year of Swan Lake over at ABT. I think they have run it every year in New York for at least 12 years.

[vipa]

It's all in the PR. Maybe ABT could cash in on Lane & Riccetto being the dance doubles in the movie somehow. Or have an ad campaign for their Swan Lake in the spring that alludes to the movie. Maybe emulate the movie make-up for Black Swan (just kidding)!

[bart]

It would be nice to think that "Black Swan" might lead people to an actual performance and that they would find something to move them and make them want to return. On the other hand, the publicists for the film seem to be thinking of another target market. For example, this ad from yesterday's NY Times, consisting of the title, 4 stars (for 4 positive reviews), and an unattractive profile view of Portman doing a backward cambre with impossibly stiff neck and jutting jaw. The headline is a quote from the Variety Review:

"A WICKED

PSYCHOSEXUAL

THRILLER."

This seems aimed at an audience which might actually enjoy the recent appearances of Noord Nederlanse Dans at the Baryshnikov Center. The work is entitled "Tidal." Here's part of Roslyin Sulcas review from today's NYTimes:

It's clear soon enough that some lethal combination of Matthew Bourne's

and the Natalie Portman-Mila Kunis rivalry in "Black Swan" is going on. Later, the two men confront each other again to the sounds of rhythmic electronic percussion, and the ensemble members, dressed in black, pair off, snapping viciously at one another as they squat low in deep pliés, frantically circling their upper bodies, jumping violently at their partners and screaming silently the whole time.

[ ... ]

[Later on, t]here is more mad-swan movement from the dancers (in white again), bending over one another, pecking at bodies, elbows up and shoulder blades pushed out, and then finally (finally!) the black-pants and white-pants men find wholeness by accepting the otherness of the other. Or something.

For some reason, Sulcas did not like this piece.

http://www.nytimes.c....html?ref=dance