Black Swan Pas de Deux from Swan Lake

As far as Tchaikovsky knew, there was no such thing as a Black Swan pas de deux in Swan Lake. If he had been able to see Petipa’s 1895 revival of the work at the Maryinsky in St Petersburg, two years after his death, he would have been amazed, and possibly even horrified, to find that a pas de deux he had written for Act 1 had been cut, rewritten and transferred to Act 3. But, whatever the composer’s reaction might have been, experience has shown that Petipa’s relocation of this episode works very well in ballet terms and his example has been followed in most Swan Lake productions of the last hundred years or so. After all, this vigorous waltz, with an expressive violin solo incorporated in it, is wasted on two anonymous “merrymakers” in Act 1 and is more effective as a pas de deux for Odile – the false Odette, the black swan counterpart to her white swan – and the deceived Siegfried in Act 3.