Carla Körbes and Casey Herd in Swan Lake. Photo © Angela Sterling

Music: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Choreography: Kent Stowell 
Staging: Francia Russell (after Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov) 

Kent Stowell's Swan Lake was made possible by the E.L. Wiegand Foundation.

Revered by audiences and dancers, Swan Lake is widely considered the greatest of all classical ballets. In 1981, Founding Artistic Directors Kent Stowell and Francia Russell judged their young company ready for a major challenge and mounted PNB’s first Swan Lake. In 2003, the production was magnificently re-designed for the grand opening of McCaw Hall. Swan Lake’s tale of young maidens under the spell of an evil sorcerer offers its lead ballerina an exceptional dual role—Odette, trapped in the body of a white swan until the oath of a faithful man sets her free—and Odile, the “Black Swan” temptress, whose deception snares Odette's true love, Siegfried. Ultimately, Swan Lake’s haunting beauty stems from its pure union with Tchaikovsky’s sublime score—most completely realized when twenty-four perfect swans emerge from the mist and move as one through the moonlight.

Swan Lake Details