Like no other ballet in the classical repertoire, Swan Lake has enjoyed undisputed popularity for more than a century. Yet the Moscow première of 1877, choreographed by Wenzel Reisinger, was a disappointment. Only in 1895, two years after Tchaikovsky’s death, did Swan Lake’s success story begin, when the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg presented a new version of the hitherto almost forgotten work in honour of the composer. This Swan Lake, by Marius Petipa and Leo Ivanov, established a performance tradition that has lasted to this day, and was the point of departure for innumerable new creations, which although they refer to the two choreographers have become further and further removed from the original version.

Alexei Ratmansky, one of the most important choreographers of our time, has reconstructed this three-act version by Petipa/Ivanov for Ballett Zürich in 2016. The former Ballet Director of Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre is now “Artist in Residence” with the American Ballet Theatre, and works with the world’s most prestigious ballet companies.
With the aid of the Stepanov notation – a system of ballet codification developed in the late 19th century, Ratmansky has resurrected the work in its original form, thus offering an exciting view of a lost ballet tradition.