Columbia Classical Ballet's Swan Lake back on stage | Arts & Culture

Last season the Columbia Classical Ballet Company mounted the first full staging of Swan Lake that had graced Columbia stages in two decades.  The production was a critical and commercial hit, breaking attendance records for the Classical Ballet.  On March 1 at 7:30 p.m. the company will once again present this amazing and magical masterpiece of ballet at the Koger Center for the Arts.

“This is such an important work – such a masterpiece – that one shouldn’t tackle it until all the correct pieces are in place,” Classical Ballet Artistic Director Radenko Pavlovich said.

The romantic ballet tells the story of Princess Odette, who has been transformed into a swan by an evil magician.  During a temporary transformation back into human form, Odette and Prince Siegfried fall in love.  Such a true, lasting and faithful love is the only way Odette can be freed from the spell, but the magician has other plans.  He sends his daughter Odile (the “Black Swan”) to a masked ball where she tricks the prince into declaring his love for her thus condemning Odette.

In this production the roles of the white swan and the black swan will be performed by two dancers. Principal dancer Lauren Frere, in her fifth season with the company, will take the role of Odette, with new company member Nana Yamatani dancing Odile.

Lauren Frere has danced lead roles with the Classical Ballet and the Sarasota Ballet. Nana Yamatani began her training at the age of 3 in her native Japan and then at the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington D.C.  She won the First Place Award at the Youth America Grand Prix in Japan and the bronze medal at the World Ballet Competition in Orlando, Fl.

For tickets go to capitoltickets.com or call 803-251-2222.