Black Swan

Swan Lake is by far one of the most well known and most beloved ballet performances to have ever hit the stage. Even in our own Arts class we have seen a few clips of ballerinas mastering the art of ballet, specifically that of Swan Lake. A new movie is in the works, called Black Swan, featuring Natalie Portman as the lead role of Nina, which is a psychological thriller based on the ballet Swan Lake. Ms. Portman discusses the incredible amounts of work that she was required to put in even before the movie began filming. Almost a year in advance, Portman began training with Mary Helen Bowers, a former dancer with City Ballet. Even after strenuous workouts and months of formal ballet training, a body double was required to do difficult point work and turns. Portman, who took ballet until she was thirteen years old when she began acting, says that, “I really thought I was better than I was. It was a rude awakening to get there, and to be, like, I don’t know what I’m doing. If I had known how not close to ready I

was, I never would have tried it. I’m glad I was a little ignorant slash arrogant.” Mila Kunis, who is Portman’s rival in the movie, says that for her it was also quite close to impossible to be able to master the art of ballet is such sort time, as opposed to balletrinas who begin at a very young age and never stop training until the end of their careers. She referred to her experience as “ballet on crack.” Ballerinas must look graceful and weightless and make ballet appear effortless, when in reality, ballerinas strain every muscle in their body to look that way. Portman said, “The contrast between what you see onstage and what is underneath is part of the resonance of this film. That it’s supposed to look easy and painless and carefree and light and delicate and just pretty, and underneath it’s, like, really gruesome.” Actress Emily Blunt, who will also star in a movie about ballet as a member of a real troupe, the Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, says that it’s extremely hard as an actress to pull off the task of pretending to transform into a ballerina because you don’t want to misrepresent the brilliance of what these dancers do. Portman trained with some of the best dancers in the ballet world including Kurt Froman, Jock Soto and Marina Stavitskaya, the ballet mistress Olga Kostritzky and the beloved coach Georgina Parkinson, who recently passed away. Portman also watched various YouTube clips of Swan Lake Queens such as Alicia Alonso and Natalia Makarova. At the end of the article Ms. Portman makes a beautiful analogy to describe the physical and mental sacrifices she was required to put in in order to complete her role. She said, “It was very religious in my mind. The ritual of, like, breaking in your point shoes and getting them soft, all of that, it’s almost like tefillin wrapping in Judaism, this thing you do every day, this ritual.”

I think this will be an extremely interesting movie to see in terms of whether or not the actresses were able to pull off the ability to appear like prima ballerinas in only a few short months. Ballet requires talent and loads of hard work and I think that is why this movie is already creating Oscar-buzz.