“Swan Lake Reloaded” a modern make-over of Tchaikovsky “Swan Lake”

A courageous adaptation from Sweden with colourful costumes, stunning deco, best lightning and up-beat dancing

In front of a full auditorium the Première of “Swan Lake Reloaded” started on Wednesday night at the Zurich Maag Halle. The Swiss crowd welcomed the “Swan Lake” new adaptation of director Fredrick Rydman with a standing ovation.

While most people outside Sweden may not know Fredrick Rydman, he is known in his country as a celebrity. The forty year old man, who studied at the ballet academy in Stockholm, has been seen in many TV shows like “X Factor” and “So you think you can dance.” He founded the dance company the Bounce Street Dance Company” with other dancers in 1997 and toured around Europe with much success for thirteen years.

Many politicians, atheltes, singers, directors and authors had come to the first performance. For instance the ex-miss Switzerland, Anita Buri, the choreograph, Heinz Spoerli, the caberetist Marco Rima, the Swiss film director and screen writer Rolf Lyssy, the singer Suzanne Lee and the director of the Zurich ballet at the Opera House, Christian Spuck were there. Of course Fredrick Rydman was at the show and at the private aperitif.

When you think of “Swan Lake” words like Tchaikovsky, ballet, opera, ballerina, swans, romance, tragedy, pas de deux and tutus may come to mind.

The music of the ballet “Swan Lake” was composed by Russian composer Peter Tchaikovsky in 1876. It took him only one year to finish it after the director of the Moscow Imperial Theatres, Vladimir Begichev, commissioned him. While all performances shown from 1877 to 1883 didn’t have much success, the revival by ballet’s directors Petipa and Ivanov had more positive reviews. Unfortunately Tchaikovsky did not see it as he died in 1893, two years before the Première in 1895.

What Fredrick Rydman presented in Switzerland is “Swan Lake Reloaded”. What did he mean by reloaded?

Rydman wanted to give a fresher look to the classical story, something people from today would connect with better, portraying the 21st century’s world. He kept the old characters of Odette, Odile, Prince Siegfried, Rothbart and the other swans and friends of Siegfried. However the bad Rothbart is not a wicked wizard anymore but a heroin dealer. The four ballerinas dancing like swans in Tchaikovsky’s original ballet are gone. In the new story the ladies are prostitutes and heroin addicts, going back to Rothbart at night for more drugs. You see them in the red light district selling their bodies and dancing behind large windows. Siegfried falls in love with Odette as in the old story but the finale is different.

But how did the director come up with such a idea? It came to him in 2009 during a trip to London while looking at dolls and fur coats in an antique shop windows. What he saw made him think of swans and gave him the idea for this courageous interpretation of a dealer and his female heroin addicts.

For two years he thought non stop about his idea and worked at it until the first rehearsal in October 2011. Two months later the team of “Swan Lake Reloaded” celebrated its Première in Stockholm.

For Rydman the music had to change as well. He explained why during an interview with SWR2 “I find the music of Tchaikovsky really good – I love it – but sometimes it is not capable to say all emotions. It is important for me, that the story becomes clear. It is about people of today, who are really at the worst possible position. This does not let being told with classical music like with hip-hop.”

He kept half of Tchaikowsky’s music. It starts with the Swan Lake Opus 20 and ends with it. The rest of the music are songs and musical pieces composed for “Swan Lake Reloaded” from Sken Ak Fajur, Money Brother, Mario Perez Amigo, Linnea Martinsson and Carl Michael Herlöfsson and Simsoak. It is street dance music like hip-hop, rap, breakdance and techno sounds.

It is quite interesting to see how everything is combined together hip-moves, hectic pirouettes and head spins with some Tchaikovsky music or a mixed of modern sounds with some original music, just one being louder than the other! You have to experience it for yourself as it is hard to imagine it. You like it or you hate it, it is a matter of taste.

In this version there are absolutely no tutus, no swans. The ladies are dressed in white from white wigs, lacy dresses to fur coats. They dance either barefoot, with ankle boots or tall black boots. Prince Siegfried wears sneakers!

When at the beginning Rothbart appears, it feels like an electric schock with a modern sound giving the beat. From the start you are brought into the modern world, a world of computer and emails.

The décors are stunning darker and gloomy for night time with in the back the windows of the prostitute rooms all lit up and much brighter during the birthday party of Prince Siegfried for instance. The costumes just like the decors are from Lehna Edwall, a well-known artist in Sweden. Edwall worked for book, TV, fashion and magazine advertisement. She has her own fashion label, Lehna, and has done campaigns for IKEA & H&M. Her costumes for “Swan Lake Reloaded” are creative and beautiful no matter if it is the dark leather outfit of Rothbart, the white outfits of the prostitutes or the colourful outfits of the party guests. Some ladies wear yellow lamp shades on their head, look through picture frames and have candle sticks attached to their breasts.

The dancers are brilliant and amazing, jumping so high with so much energy. Many of them already worked for Rydman before during his time with “Bounce”: Maria Andersson (Odette), Lisa Arnold, Daniel Koivunen (Rotbart), Robert Malmborg (Siegfried) and the replacement for Odette, Gabriella Kaiser. The public applauded the terrific head spins of dancer and music producer, Fredrik Wentzel, a famous B-Boy.

For Maria Andersson and Daniel Koivunen playing their roles as Odette and Rotbart is an honor just as much as working with Fredrick Rydman.

The tragic denouement of “Swan Lake Reloaded” in the finale scene with the fall of white feathers all over the podium and Peter Tchaikovsky opus 20 is spectacular!

Are you interested to go see it? It will playing at the Maag Halle until May 12th. Then it will go back to Sweden to Goteborg (June 5th-16th), to France to Paris (October 1st-27th) to end the tour in Tchaikovsky’s home country, Russia to Moscow (Nov 5th-Dec1st).

• ballet
• Fredrick Rydman
• Odette
• Prince Siegfried
• Street dance
• Swan Lake
• Swan Lake Reloaded
• Sweden
• Tchaikovsky