Philadelphia Ballet’s ‘Swan Lake’ is a beautiful and soothing balm for our times

With the war in Ukraine, COVID-19, and so much other bleakness, it’s a relief to slip into the Academy of Music and sink into the beauty that is Swan Lake.

Philadelphia Ballet artistic director Angel Corella based his version after the original Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov choreography and premiered it here in 2019 — which by now seems like a lifetime ago.

When it returned Thursday night at the Academy the same dancers were in the leading roles they performed in the world premiere: Dayesi Torriente as the dual role of Odette/Odile, and Arian Molina Soca as Prince Siegfried.

Both are strong, beautiful dancers. And the large, lush corps de ballet of swans really made the magic.

The acting, however, needs work. Torriente is lovely as Odette, commonly referred to as “the white swan.” Her Odile, or “the black swan,” seems to be entirely a puppet of the evil Von Rothbart (Sterling Baca on Thursday). She continually runs to him for advice and cues but doesn’t produce many emotional responses until the final “gotcha” moment.

Molina Soca’s prince seems more naive than tricked, blindly walking into his fate. His role would benefit by upping the moment of realization that he — well — married the wrong swan.

The tragedy is similarly de-emphasized near the end when the prince and Odile decide the only way to break Von Rothbart’s curse and allow them to be together is through suicide. They jump off a cliff that is nearly hidden behind rows of swans. Perhaps that was intentional; some companies opt to soften the tragedy. But it could be confusing to people less familiar with the story.

» READ MORE: One is Russian, the other Ukrainian. They dance together in Philadelphia Ballet.

While Swan Lake — not strictly a Russian ballet, although it has Russian roots — is a balm to many in the audience in Philadelphia, there have also been reports this week by Huffington Post, the New York Times, and others that the ballet was used as a distraction on Russian TV. NPR reported that some Russian people are put on edge when they hear the music, because in the past it was used to deflect from other tragedies as well.

But Swan Lake also offers beauty and escapism, and this Swan Lake scores in those areas.

Like many of the older classical ballets, Swan Lake includes many divertissements, or dance that interrupt the narrative and have little or nothing to do with the story. But again, welcome distractions.

Among the best divertissements on Thursday were the trio of Benno (Ashton Roxander) and his friends (Thays Golz and So Jung Shin), performing some of the more famous sections of the ballet.

The four princesses hoping to match with Prince Siegfried were also charming: Mayara Pinero as the Spanish princess, Nayara Lopes as the Italian princess, Yuka Iseda as the Hungarian princess, and Oksana Maslova (who is from Ukraine) as the Polish princess.

Peter Weil and Nicholas Patterson were fun as the Neapolitans, competing to fly high and perform more impressive tricks.

The Cygnets, or little swans, are generally one of the most charming part of this ballet, and this quartet (Alexandra Heier, Kathryn Manger, Golz, and Lucia Erickson), were indeed delightful.

» READ MORE: Does one black ballet superstar mean real change?

Swan Lake is one of the classical works often referred to as a “white ballet,” because of the masses of dancers in white tutus. (Others include Giselle and La Bayadère.) These have been the topic of much discussion in recent years, because dancers of color have often been excluded from these roles and told their look would “break the line.”

It was wonderful to see that Corella included Black dancers among the mass of swans, something not every choreographer or director has done. The corps dancers wore pink tights and shoes, rather than matching their skin color, but it was the right mix of individualism and blending in.

This ballet was scheduled months if not years ago, but it is the right choice for our times.

Philadelphia Ballet in ‘Swan Lake’

March 3-13. Academy of Music. $25-$199. philadelphiaballet.org, 215-893-1999.