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Ballet / Romania Travel / Bucharest / → All Tags

Great Ballet Rip-offs: Swan Lake with Fewer Swans

Funny, we were just considering buying tickets to an upcoming performance of Swan Lake--it's an attempt to be cultured--but then we read about a Romanian version that's being investigated by the Consumer Protection Office.

In case, like us, you didn't know, there should be 24 swans on stage in the famous Tchaikovsky show. But recently at the Romanian National Opera House in Bucharest there were just 16, and one member of the audience made an official complaint.

As far as our rusty Romanian can translate, the Swan Lake show is still running, under the less romantic sounding Romanian translation of Lacul Lebedelor. If you go, you'll have to be prepared to make do with fewer swans than Tchaikovsky prescribed.

Related Stories:
· Swan Lake's Swan Shortage [Ananova]
· Romanian National Opera House [Official Site]
· Romania Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: rayparnova]

Dance / Dancing / Ballet / Spring Travel / → All Tags

Ballet Travel: A Big Premiere

Ballet=boring, right? What if the dances were set to Big Boi tracks instead of snoozy classical music? You'll find it at the Atlanta Ballet, starting tonight.

The show's called "Big," and it's a seriously limited engagement. The dancing is all professional ballet, but Big Boi, the hip hop group Konkrete and others will provide the tunes live.

It's a little cheeky, sure, but there's nothing wrong with appealing to a younger audience. As choreographer Lauri Stallings says:

If Mozart was here, I think he'd really dig this.

Related Stories:
· Big [Official Site]
· Big Boi Gives Ballet an Edge in Atlanta [NPR]
· Dance coverage [Jaunted]