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SHULGOLD: 'Swan' revisits 'Lake' on farm

By Marc Shulgold, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published October 17, 2008 at 3 p.m.

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Swan Lake Minnesota, which aired nationally on PBS, recast the familiar love story as the tale of a farmer (actor Bill Shoppert) who falls for a mysterious swan maiden (dancer Naomi Sorkin).

Photo by Minnesota Dance Theatre

Swan Lake Minnesota, which aired nationally on PBS, recast the familiar love story as the tale of a farmer (actor Bill Shoppert) who falls for a mysterious swan maiden (dancer Naomi Sorkin).

A photo from Swan Lake Minnesota features Andrea Labsan, fourth from the left, former Colorado Ballet dancer and interim artistic director.

Photo by Minnesota Dance Theatre

A photo from Swan Lake Minnesota features Andrea Labsan, fourth from the left, former Colorado Ballet dancer and interim artistic director.

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It's old news that artists must sometimes suffer for their art - ballet dancers are no exception.

Still, it seems over the top to place a quintet of ballerinas, garbed in classic white tutus, atop bales of hay and have them ride up a conveyer into a barn.

Or to plop them onto rubber inner-tubes and send them floating onto a mosquito-infested lake. Or to sit them atop smelly nests in a cramped, stuffy chicken coop - with only a sheet of plastic wrap separating them from, well, the things that chickens often leave behind.

Jocelyn Labsan couldn't help but laugh as she watched herself engage in all those unpleasant activities in a 25-year-old video in which she and her husband, Andrew Thompson, appeared when they were members of Minnesota Dance Theatre.

"It was in August, and it was soooo hot!" she recalled of the location-shooting for Loyce Houlton's made-for-TV Swan Lake Minnesota. "The worst part was we had to use the farm's outhouse, wearing our tutus and toe shoes. Flies everywhere."

Labsan, a former dancer and interim artistic director for Colorado Ballet, called this week after she saw a photo from that production in last Saturday's Spotlight, as part of an article focusing on Colorado Ballet's staging of Swan Lake.

"That's me in that picture - the fourth one from the left," she happily reported.

The Minnesota version, produced by Joseph Papp, ran nationally on PBS but is unavailable as a video release. It recasts the familiar swan-prince love story as a tale of a farmer (actor Bill Shoppert) who falls for a mysterious swan maiden (dancer Naomi Sorkin). Tchaikovsky's score is transformed into a country-tinged soundtrack, and the production features some quirky scenes that drip with European-style artsy excess - ending with Odette/Odile (renamed Odette O. Deal) shot by hunters and strapped to the top of their Chevy sedan.

A scene filmed inside a funky country bar features Thompson (also a former Colorado Ballet dancer) dressed in flannel shirt and overalls, performing in a duet, as the band cranks out a ballad sung to one of Tchaikovsky's memorable melodies.

"That was a fully choreographed pas de deux," he said. "But most of it was left on the cutting-room floor."

There were clever moments, notably a carnival scene featuring a shooting gallery in which the targets were - you guessed it - the tutu-clad swans.

"We spent hours there, hopping around on hard cement," Labsan said. "But it was good money back then. The swans got $6,000."

Along with uncounted mosquito bites and hay-bale rashes.

REMEMBERING NAT: Opera Colorado will honor its founder and longtime general director, Nathaniel Merrill, at a program, open to the public, held in the Ellie Caulkins Opera House at 5 p.m. Nov. 12.

Featured speakers include past and present company officials and Director Francesca Zambello. Naturally, opera will be on the agenda. Thus far, enlisted singers include Marcia Ragonetti and Stephen West. A reception will follow. Merrill died Sept. 9.

GET FESTIVE: Master classes, workshops and concerts are featured at two festivals this weekend.

Boulder will host the 16th annual Fall Festival of Early Music, presented by Early Music Colorado. Today's events at the Boulder Public Library include workshops on the recorder and Medieval tuning, and a concert by members of the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado tonight at St. John's Episcopal Church. Information: earlymusiccolorado.org.

The Kenneth King Center on the Auraria campus will be the site today of Metro State's Guitar Celebration. Renowned classical guitarist David Tanenbaum will host a master class this morning, followed by a duo recital by Metro State faculty players Alex Komodore and Jeff LaQuatra. The day concludes with a 5 p.m. participants' concert. Information: 303-556-2296.

RARE SETTING: Colorado Symphony music director Jeffrey Kahane departs from his usual place on the CSO podium to play chamber music with the Colorado Chamber Players this week. Monday in Broomfield Auditorium and Tuesday at the Lakewood Cultural Center, he'll serve as pianist/conductor in a program of works by Philip Glass, Shostakovich, Maria Newman and Hindemith. Information: 866-464-2626 (Broomfield) or 303-987-7845 (Lakewood).

Swan Lake

* When and where: continues through Oct. 26, Ellie Caulkins Opera House, 14th and Curtis streets

* Cost: $19 to $145

* Information: 303-837-8888