In contrast, Siegfried's male lover is giving and compassionate. As the Black Swan, though, he represents what some South Africans, according to Masilo, see as dark forces in society: homosexuality and AIDS. Masilo plays up this dichotomy between the two swans in a pair of pas de deux.
The ballerina's dual role of Odette/Odile, or White Swan/Black Swan, is one of the most iconic in the repertoire, demanding technical mastery and emotional range to morph from vulnerable and pure Odette to audacious and deceptive Odile. Thematically, these polar-opposites symbolize a battle between good and evil.
In the ballet, the swan is a symbol of faithfulness. Odette has been turned into a swan by the evil sorcerer Von Rothbart, and can only be released from the spell if a man pledges to love her for ever. Swans really are faithful: they choose a mate at the age of three or four, and stay together until they die.
A black swan is an unpredictable event that is beyond what is normally expected of a situation and has potentially severe consequences. Black swan events are characterized by their extreme rarity, severe impact, and the widespread insistence they were obvious in hindsight.
What the Black and White swan characters represent in Swan Lake
Why are Odette and Odile played by the same person?
The parts of Odile and Odette were originally danced by two separate dancers, but it has become customary for one ballerina to dance both parts to emphasise their similarities - and to highlight their differences.
Odette is fluid and ethereal with the delicate carriage and rippling swan arms that are a signature of the ballet. Odile is virtuosic, demanding attention with a series of heart-pumping jumps and turns, including the famous 32 fouettes of Act 3.
While the film dramatizes the unveiling of Nina's illness, it presents some reasonably accurate elements of first-break psychosis. Black Swan clearly highlights the first-hand perspective of individuals with psychosis and their interpretation of reality.
There are simply too many psychological issues going on with Nina. She shows elements of an anxiety disorder with obsessive compulsive behaviors. She also manifests self-injurious behavior and some signs of an eating disorder.
It was a lesson of what happens when we strive for perfection instead of showing soul. It can be used as a cautionary tale that those who seek perfection all the time are weak, because making mistakes and admitting them take someone who is strong and sure of oneself.
He finds her and explains that the evil sorcerer tricked him and pleads for forgiveness, but it is too late. She is fated to remain a swan forever and thrusts herself into the lake. He follows her, sacrificing his life.
She also made a plot twist by presenting Odile (the black swan) as a gay male swan rather than a female swan. A Swan Lake, choreographed by Alexander Ekman and composed by Mikael Karlsson, was created for the Norwegian National Ballet.
One of its central antagonists is Baron Von Rothbart, a selfish and cunning sorcerer who casts a spell on Odette and turns her into a swan. His character is cruel and obsessive, proving to be a stark contrast to that of Odette's; the white swan representing kindness and purity.
The implicit meaning here is that real love liberates the authentic self from the trap of a fraudulent persona and allows for integration. Siegfried pledges undying love and fidelity to Odette, but tragically his inflated idealism and pursuit of perfect romantic love, is influenced by the dark hand of fate.
Previously, Baron Von Rothbart transformed Princess Odette into a swan, which is the symbol of beauty and purity. Because she refused his hand in marriage, he bewitched her so that she could not marry another. Von Rothbart's expectation was that in captivity, she would eventually consent to marry him.
The good and evil heroines of Swan Lake. Odette is the innocent Swan Queen, Odile the malevolent temptress who impersonates her in order to deceive Prince Siegfried. In most productions the two contrasting roles are danced by the same ballerina.
Destruction of the body is the basis of all horror, but Black Swan's body horror serves a dual purpose by not only freaking out the viewer but also using symbolism to represent the decline of Nina's mental state. Though it isn't as overt as most other horror films, Black Swan is no less terrifying.
Rachel Loewy, assistant adjunct professor of psychiatry at UC San Francisco, agrees that Nina's troubles could be consistent with a borderline personality disorder (in which a person has difficulty setting proper boundaries between herself and others) rather than a full-blown psychosis.
Personality… childlike, insecure, and psychologically disturbed. The pressure of being the Swan Queen has been affecting Nina's behavior, and her perfectionism is starting to take a noticeable toll on her mental health.
NOT REAL: Therefore, Lilly and Nina did not have actual sex (we know this because after sex, Lilly said something to Nina about being a ‘Good girl’ and then tried to smother her.
It turns out that Nina hallucinated the fight with (and subsequent murder of) Lily, and actually stabbed herself while in the throes of a psychotic episode. But this doesn't stop Nina from performing the role she's worked so hard to attain. Bleeding, she returns to the stage to perform the last act of the show.
But speaking as a psychiatrist, Lamberti said the film did not accurately depict schizophrenia, as has been widely speculated, but "does present a reasonable portrait of psychosis." "People tend to be scared of things they don't understand," he said.
Normally, “Swan Lake” viewers only have to worry about the head to head battle between Odette, the good white swan, and Odile, the evil black swan. Both are usually played by one dancer, and that held true in all these productions.
Odile and Odette. Shonibare's film Odile and Odette is inspired by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's 19th-century ballet Swan Lake, in which the princess Odette is cursed by an evil sorcerer, Rothbart, to live as a swan by day and a woman by night.
Odette is a feminine name of French and German origin, meaning "wealthy." This unique name is derived from its masculine counterpart Otto which itself comes from the Old High German words otho and odo, a version of the French word auda meaning "rich." Fans of Bernadette and other "ette" names will adore this sweet ...
