Birgitta Festival. Black and White

Black and White

Contemporary version of the ballet Swan Lake

Brno National Ballet (Czech)

White Swan Emilia Vuorio

Black Swan Ivona Jeličová

Prince Arthur Abram

Rothbart  Martin Svobodnik 

Choreographer Mário Radačovský, Artistic Director of the Brno National Ballet

Composer Pjotr Tchaikovsky (from a phonogram)

Set Designer Marek Hollý

Costume Designer Patricia Barker

Projection Artist Michael Auer

Even people as far removed from ballet as possible know Swan Lake. For many people, Tchaikovsky’s work is the epitome of ballet. Due to a long tradition of presentation, the interpretation of Swan Lake is an especially complicated and risky task for stage directors and dancers.

Mário Radačovský is part of the school of the Czech choreographer Jiří Kylián and has worked with him as a dancer at the Nederlands Dans Theatre in The Hague. Over the years as a dancer, Radačovský has come into contact with the top names in the world like Mats Ek or William Forsythe. This was followed by independent works. After heading the Slovak National Ballet in Bratislava, he has served as the artistic director of the Brno National Ballet since 2013.

Radačovský boldly goes beyond the ordinary interpretation and brings a man to the stage as the main character of Swan Lake instead of the usual female dancer. A serious illness strikes Prince Siegfried. The difficult treatment of his illness saps all of Siegfried’s vital strength. Even in the image of the swan, so pure and perfect, he seeks a reflection of himself and his uncertain condition. Black is usually considered the colour of mourning and tragedy, yet it is white instead that emerges for Siegfried as the symbol of death and suffering. Radačovský’s stage production focuses on expressing the paradoxical nature of life and death by way of two base colours.