Ballet Preljocaj - Queensland Broadcast: Swan Lake

Founded in 1985 by maverick French choreographer Angelin Preljocaj, the Aix-en-Provence-based Ballet Preljocaj last wowed audiences in Queensland in 2016 with the sell-out season of Snow White at QPAC and is world renowned for warping the experience of ballet.

The contemporary ballet company is fueled by Preljocaj’s propensity for collaboration, with a roll call of artistic partnerships boasting the likes of costumes by Jean Paul Gaultier and Azzedine Alaïa to scores by Thomas Bangalter (Daft Punk) and Nicolas Godin (Air).

Famed for his iconoclastic deconstruction of great story ballets, Preljocaj’s Swan Lake is a dystopian juxtaposition of corporate greed – in which Siegfried is the son of a wealthy property developer – and the pristine environment of the swans, which sees Odette and the Prince as eco-warriors battling the fossil-fueled industrialist Rothbart.

While he has leaned on some elements of Marius Pepita and Lev Ivanov’s original choreography, this is Swan Lake reimagined by Preljocaj with ‘audacity and respect' and challenges ballet norms with a run time of less than two hours with no interval.