Injecting new life into one of the greatest classical solos of all time.

Over one hundred years ago in Russia, choreographer Mikhail Fokine created a two minute solo for Prima Ballerina Anna Pavlova called 'The Dying Swan' (originally 'The Swan') which depicted the exquisite but tragic final moments of a Swan as danced to composer Camille Saint-Saëns's beautiful cello solo Le Cygne. Whilst in it's day quite groundbreaking and unprecedented (ballets of the time focused more on technical precision and little on the emotional performance of the dancer, whereas Fokine's piece was technically quite simple, but highly emotive - he believed that the whole body should be used to express emotion, not just the hands - and Fokine's choreography favoured softer, flowing movements that highlighted the grace and elegance of his dancers, whereas the preference at that time was to use sharp strong motion and choreography that showed off the lines and technical accuracy of the dancer), today it has become one of the most famous classical solo's of all time, and an embodiment of the beauty of classical traditional ballet. It is regarded by many as the ultimate honour for any female ballet dancer to perform. However, some creative individuals have found their own unique ways to put a modern or humourous twist on The Dying Swan, once more breathing innovation and experimental intention into a work that did once, through example advocate the unconventional ...so in their own creative way, we're sure these dancers are doing Fokine proud!
See for yourself:

The Dying Swan Street Dance-style! :) 

Our favourite pointe shoe-donning male ballet company The Trocks, with their rendition of the Dying Swan, teehee!

The (classic) Dying Swan, as performed by Maya Plisetskaya - who was fifty years old at the time - incredible!