SWAN LAKE BATH BALLET | DANCE
IMAGE Viktorina Kapitonova, principal ballet dancer at Boston Ballet, performing in a bath
Feathers, dyed water and Zoom were just some of the things that went into the making of this modern-day Swan Lake
WORDS JUL I AN M I TCHELL / P I CTURES COREY BAKER DANCE
T he world’s arts culture is hurting dancers who have to keep up their training. Corey Baker Dance is a production company with an international reputation for creating a diverse array of work across film, TV and theatre, using unusual locations and reaching non-traditional theatre audiences. One example is Antarctica: The First Dance , which was filmed on the icy continent and celebrated Antarctica while we still have it. during the coronavirus pandemic, but international artists don’t just stop performing – especially professional
However, Corey Baker Dance’s new short film was shot somewhere a lot closer to home – and a lot warmer! Swan Lake Bath Ballet is part of BBC Arts Culture in Quarantine, Filmed in Lockdown , which brought arts and culture to the homes of the nation during lockdown. SWANNING AROUND Set to the famous ‘Swan’s Theme’ leitmotif from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake , elite ballet dancers from renowned dance companies performed a modern-day, lockdown-
inspired version from their own bathtubs. Award-winning choreographer Corey Baker worked with dancers to choreograph and film Swan Lake Bath Ballet completely remotely during the Covid-19 pandemic. In the short film, 27 professional dancers film themselves in bathtubs around the world, from New Zealand to South Africa, America to Hong Kong, and Australia to the UK. Led by Baker, the quirky choreography was performed by dancers from a long list of distinguished companies, including Birmingham
SEPTEMBER 2020 | DEF I N I T ION 31
Powered by FlippingBook