Some of These Performers Are Really Typecast
This ramshackle barn a couple of hundred miles from Paris had black curtains on the walls and a bucket of food pellets in one corner: an atypical dance studio for an uncommon rehearsal. On the floor a dancer sat between a pair of year-old male swans. As she raised her hands above her head they followed with their beaks, stretching their necks elastically in a mirror image of her arms. Suddenly one of the birds brought his head level with hers and nibbled. “Aïe, Pollux!” she scolded in French. “Not my ear!”
Chances are that Pollux will still be perfecting his stage manners when “Swan” opens at the Théâtre National de Chaillot in Paris on June 6. Presented by the French choreographer Luc Petton and his company Le Guetteur, this is not just another twist on “Swan Lake” but an original dance bringing together humans and swans.
