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Magic Swan

The Ballet Russe Collection

One-act ballet choreographed by Alexandra Fedorova after Petipa.
Music by Tchaikovsky.
Decor by Eugene B. Dunkel.
Premiere: New York, October 13, 1941, by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.

Magic Swan was, in fact, Alexandra Fedorova's reconstruction of Petipa's third act of Swan Lake. The second act had, of course, been in the Ballet Russe's repertoire for years, and this was an attempt to utilize the divertissements aspect of Petipa's choreography to form a piece by itself. Strangely enough the work was not very well received. For that reason perhaps there was never an attempt to present both Magic Swan and the second act of Swan Lake on the same bill.

"Many balletgoers, unfamiliar with Petipa's episodic structure, belittled those divertissements. Even the knowledgeable Walter Terry called the choreography 'not worthy of a dancing school's annual recital'."

Jack Anderson, The One and Only: The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo

There are only two sets of legs in our collection for this ballet: the portal legs pictured above, and one set, marked "portal legs" as pictured below.