Ruth Leon recommends… English National Ballet – Swan Lake arms

English National Ballet – Swan Lake arms
 This film from the English National Ballet will be catnip for any balletomanes who would love to know how the dancers create that other-worldly  appearance of floating across the stage. Ballet dancers often seem to have no joints or bones and the floating effect seems to be produced organically.

How do they do it? What are the nuts and bolts of the technique that makes it possible? Every dancer has to learn it. And it’s harder still to create that effect when you are trying to do it in perfect syncronisation with thirty other dancers. Hardest of all is the syncronisation of the corps de ballet in Swan Lake and, as this lovely little film demonstrates, it’s all in the arms.

The arm movement in Swan Lake is unlike any other ballet. Dancers Precious Adams, Claire Barrett, Emilia Cadorin and Eireen Evrard discuss being a swan, how they work together to achieve this ethereal look and how the arms really convey the emotions in this iconic ballet.
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