The Swan Curse

The Swan Curse

Laijon Liu 20190917

I have a white tutu

I put on a pair of toe dance shoes

I know my choices

to be a maiden or a swan

I know that curse

my forever transformation

my soul and body in separate places

my identity crisis in the lake of tears

I know the spell to undo

if love comes and takes a vow

if that love is unyielding and true

if then, then all ought to be through

Why I love Swan Lake?

The music is great, that leaves to the musicians to explain; the choreography is stunning that for dancers to show us; I like the themes and story reflect the poetry of that folktales that the legend has it Tchaikovsky picked a German folktale for the base of the story. the 3rd Act of the Swan Lake could be the Cinderella narrative of the Prince' Ball scene, you see all the big names and the dolls, the dames come to the banquet each family last name announced, all they dress like xmas trees glowing in their laced gowns, and they glide around like a super sized carousel, accompanied by dancing music that played by the best musicians in town, and the prince Siegfrield feels numb of the usual cliche of the floating world, that he never has to work for anything, never feels lacking anything, no sense of longing or hunger or thirst... blowing of the horns, this exotic and never-heard dazzling seductive woman pops up on the center stage, and her move he has never seen in his high class etiquette guided society, she's hot like Rita Hayworth, and romped like it's her last dance, so the Prince who has just sworn his heart to the pure-beauty of the swan-woman he met previous night, thru a quick reflection, he breaks his vow.

I don't like the happy ending, it's not original story how the creator has planned. the swan queen is just another farmer girl lives in a village. like Giselle, the prince falls head over heels for her, it's not because her original form and identity, it's the swan form, an abstract metamorphosis form, swan resembles pure beauty, if the prince killed the 'evil' owl magician, broke the curse and freed the girl from the swan form, they are not gonna end up together forever, in Tchaikovsky's society, the EU social environment, the high class and bottom class don't mix, that reflected from most 18th and 19th century novels, read Tolstoy, that's how Giselle speaks a loud voice at the time their time than today, so the ending only a wish of vision that the prince sacrificed his life trying to save the swan girl, that they happily live together in the heaven. The prince as most of us are doomed to fail, we always pick things and people for the wrong reason, that's the real curse. the swan, the magician more like having a bet, a bet on humanity, or the magician making an experiment, picking a prince who has seen all the women, the worldly, the high class, the country girls, the all the folk dancers from the wide land of the Europe he has seen all, so he is not easily moved or enticed like we the commoners dirty rag missing teeth filthy low class or no class men, any women walk by we blow a long drawn wolf-whistle, and praise our life is beautiful. no the prince has high standard, just as he falls for something purely beauty that no women on Earth can represent, or say that's the best perfect form of beautiful woman resembles, yet, he cannot even keep his vow for another 24 hours, when the totally opposite concept of beauty that Odile expresses thru her dance. We have seen so many princes Siegfrield fall on the stage when they are offered two choices of power, pure beauty(always victimized and useless for the material world), or, the world-dominating presence. it's kind of curse how the owl-look magician turns the village girls to swans, to set the bar of pure beauty, with his great power; it's curse how commoners can see how the high class lords ball and banquet on the stage, everything so beautiful so grandeur and glamorous; it's a curse that the prince just moment ago still feels sad and lost and comes around bends his knee in front of a totally opposite person that he swears again; it's curse we for a hundred years still make it happy ending because we cannot live with it, we can only live in the swan lake where everything suppose to be beautiful, serene, lovers must be together, otherwise we just can't take it for a tragic ending, so before we go to see the swan lake show, or buy a dvd, we have to know that's the good ending version. but how about Romeo & Juliet, or Hamlet. do they come out without a scratch on their pretty faces? that shows a dance, that ballet show is more powerful than drama, the music, staged scene, the acting, the dancers' movement to tell a story gives more experience than theater play can deliver. So people must change the original ending to the happy ending, that settles it.

 

There's another curse too, well, some call it blessing. An art form we pick to transform ourselves, to transcend our body and movement that for a moment we are free of this material world, when a body dances, it defies its original function, which evolves for purely for survival, that does not move for the purpose of hunting, fighting, consuming, copulating, breeding, swindling to gain something, posing as a threat, dawdling on a minimum wage, or necking, fooling around, shaking hand, backslapping, rubbing elbows… none of that, it's purely for the purpose of out of world spiritual expression. Just that moment. Yet, that glimpse of moment top on a lifetime struggling, starving, rigorous hardworking of the body. It is the temple we take care and purify it. And when that body grows old, loses it prime-time figure and movement, the eye of that body looks into its memory to somehow recall a few past pictures of some tens years ago, and the question is no one can tell the true form should be that past dancing moment or the present old clunker. I go with the prime time, because I don't care how many times we fall, or we grow old and rotten, I don't even care if the principal ballerina fall flat in spotlight, it's the dancing part that counts, that defying moment.

I'm just moving from point A to point B, feeding;
I'm just moving from point B to point C, fighting;
I'm just moving from point C to point A, balling;
I'm just moving into the realm, within the realm;
I'm just moving, like a cloud of particles or dust;
I'm moving, alright~

I wish I sometime feel like dancing, hysterically, like the lottery commercial showing on tv, the winner(s) all dance like crazy, no melody or beats can match their movement, there's no other way to express that feeling of their soul being freed, suddenly the human forms just burst out of normality... yet I also wish on the cut-check day, let's say Friday, I feel my body lighten a little bit, I may just feel gliding a few steps or got a phone call Hired! for a dream career job, like go attend some social dance lthat my friend tells me to do it someday, even that form of dance is not art, yet I could feel blooming and ballooning... I wish I do not hold my body still, all the time, afraid of it will break out any moment, and it will shake like taking a cold shower, like a dying body trembling to fight to prolong for a little while... O, the loony tune echoes in my brain. I wish I dance because I'm happy, because I'm doing art, not because I'm sad, trying to shake off fear, or just do self-resuscitation, pump the juice, pump up the air, rub myself so I feel warm, 'pas de duex' every stride, leap, every step of the way into the night til sunrise. I wish my body and limbs can move like my lips, instant magic in the present existence. I wish I will feel dancing, and I dance.