Black Swan: Part 1

With the new movie coming out featuring a ballet theme, I thought it would be appropriate to have a few Black Swan themed posts.

For those who don't know, the Black Swan is a character from the ballet, Swan Lake, written by Tchaikovsky. It is one of the most popular ballets, and pretty much every little girl dreams of playing a part in this ballet. The Black Swan is the evil sorcerer's daughter, Odile (o-DEEL). The sorcerer disguises Odile as Odette so Prince Siegfried will vow his love to Odile, thinking it's really his true love, Odette. By dedicating his love to the wrong woman, Odette will be condemned to live as a swan forever. Odile is often portrayed in ballet as a seducer, evil, coy, yet extremely talented dancer. She wears black in place of Odette's white, and both characters are usually played by the same ballerina.

See some of these videos for clips of Odile's role:
Black Swan Competition (only 14 years old! See why being 20 is a little old? lol)
Pas de deux
von Rothbart and Odile's Entrance
Another entrance clip (7:30 is when they enter)
Another variation
I absolutely love the music for the very first video. I'm actually not quite sure what the title is called for that particular bit (I only know the popular ones like the coda. See above embedded video for that music piece).

FUN FACT TIME!
Odile is a name of German origins that means "wealthy child." Odette is a French name that also means "wealthy child." Both names are a form of the name, Odilia. Looks like they couldn't have picked a better name for these two!

I've already been to see the Black Swan movie. All that's left is to write a review on it. Also paired with the Black Swan theme is going to be a review on the book, The Black Swan, by Mercedes Lackey. Once those are all finished, I have a couple more ballet-themed exercise videos to review.