Member-only story
Swan Lake
In Oleg Danovski’s choreography
I often dream of dancing in Swan Lake. I stand behind the scenes and have to line up for the entrance, and my anticipation is enormous. I am afraid, and my heart is pounding, but I depend on my courage and count the beat of the music. I will not fail; I will make it.
I got engaged at the Opera House as a ballet dancer when I was only sixteen. My boss, the ballet master Metod Jeras, was a crazy guy, but I liked him a lot. He was very kind to us newcomers. We were not yet a part of the repertoire, but he ordered us to learn all roles for the corps de dance and the soloists in case somebody would have fallen sick.
I had just a short repetition, less than half an hour, to see which dots I had to stand on and which I had to dance on. Suppose you are unfamiliar with Snow Lake and ballet. In that case, I must explain that on stage, the flooring is covered with dots in many different colors so the dancers can align in proper lines and get the appropriate spacing between them.
It was not the dancing steps that made me nervous; it was the colored dots that scared me. Would I find the right ones?
“We will help you!” nodded the older dancers.
And indeed, they did. A few times, they just indicated the positions to me or even pushed me into the right place. I was very thankful to…
