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Answers to Ballet Alert! Quiz Number 9
Another Swan Lake Quiz
October 21, 1998

1. The pas de deux in the third act of Swan Lake is often called "The Black Swan" pas de deux, because Odile usually wears a black tutu.  But Swan Lake has not always been so, shall we say, black and white.  Name one other color that an Odile has worn in the "Black Swan" pas de deux.

    Danilova wore purple; other ballerinas have worn red, gold, green, and dark blue.

2.  Name the four nationalities of the character dances in Act III.

    Polish, Hungarian, Italian (Neapolitan), and Spanish.

3.  What was the name of the Prince's friend in the original libretto of Swan Lake?  (His role has been reduced in this century, although he still has a vestigial presence in some productions.)    

    Benno.  Mel Johnson wrote that on the original poster, he was given a last name:  von Sommerstern.

4.  Who was American Ballet Theatre's first great "homegrown" Odette/Odile?  (She was trained in San Francisco, but danced most of her career with ABT.)

    Cynthia Gregory.

5.  Since the 1960s, Swan Lake has been revised many times, with new producers giving it psychological twists, turns, underpinnings, and overlays.  What Danish star restaged the ballet as a Freudian drama, with a White Queen as Siegfried's mother and a Black Queen in place of Von Rothbart?

    Erik Bruhn (for the National Ballet of Canada).

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Answers to Ballet Alert! Quiz Number 8
A Swan Lake Quiz
October 14, 1998

1.  What choreographer and his assistant, working in St. Petersburg's Maryinsky Theatre in 1895, gave the world the traditional Swan Lake on which subsequent productions have been based, and which man is credited with which act(s)?

   In the "traditional" version in four acts that's most often staged today, Marius Petipa is credited wiith Acts I and III, his assistant, Lev Ivanov, with Acts II and IV.   Several people correctly pointed out that as the ballet was originally configured, Petipa is usually credited for Act I, Scene 1 and Act II, Ivanov for Act I, Scene 2 and Act III. 

    To further confuse things, there's a chance that Ivanov didn't do much at all, but was credited with parts of Swan Lake as part of Soviet revisionism (it being more politically correct in the 1930s for Russia's greatest choreographer to be a Russian than to be French.  See George Jackson's The Swan Lake Mystery, which will be in the DanceView Sampler by the end of the week.

2.  Who danced the roles of Odette/Odile and Prince Siegfried in this production?

    Pierina Legnani and Pavel Gerdt.

3.  Into what creature does Baron Von Rothbart transform himself when keeping watch over the swans?

    An owl.   Not, as two Quizzers pointed out, a bat, which is the way the role is sometimes performed these days.

4.  One of the most famous Odette/Odiles of the 20th century, this ballerina is recorded on commercial video dancing in productions of Swan Lake by both American Ballet Theatre and the Royal Ballet.  Who is she?

    Natalia Makarova.

5.  Who was the first ballerina to dance George Balanchine's one-act production of Swan Lake for New York City Ballet?

    Maria Tallchief.

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Answers to Quiz Number 7
A Royal Ballet Quiz
October 7, 1998

1.  What was the Royal Ballet's original name?

    We would have been happy with Vic-Wells, but Mel Johnson's answer was the most complete:  "The Vic-Wells Opera Ballet, which then became the Sadler's Wells Ballet and the Sadler's Wells Opera Ballet, which then became the Royal Ballet and the Royal Ballet (Touring Section), respectively.

2.  Ninette De Valois, who founded the Royal Ballet, was also a choreographer. Name one ballet she choreographed.

    Job, The Rake's Progress, The Prospect Before Us, The Bar at the Folies-Bergere, Checkmate.

3.  When the Royal first came to New York in 1949, it opened with a full-evening ballet originally choreographed in the 19th century by Marius Petipa. The company became indeliably associated with this ballet. Name the ballet.

The Sleeping Beauty.

4.  Sir Frederick Ashton choreographed three three-act ballets for the company, the first being Cinderella in 1948. What were the other two ballets?

    Sylvia and Ondine.   Romeo and Juliet, also in three acts, was choreographed for the Royal Danish Ballet. Several people mentioned La Fille Mal Gardee and The Two Pigeons, but these are two-act ballets.

5.  This ballerina from the 1960s and '70s was especially known for her dramatic roles. Sir Kenneth Macmillan created several ballets for her, including The Invitation and Anastasia. Who is she?
        Lynn Seymour.