Bourne-Kylián-Walsh: A Masterful Mixed Repertoire

The swans in Swan Lake are anatomically incorrect

Comments (0) By D.L. Groover Thursday, Feb 12 2009

Since this weekend includes Saint Valentine’s Day, how would you like to fall in love with a swan? Not a sweet cygnet, mind you, all frilly and pink, but a big, powerful trumpeter cob full of power, strength and loads of animal magnetism? That’s what happens to the hapless Prince in Matthew Bourne’s celebrated all-male-swan version of the Tchaikovsky/Petipa classic ballet Swan Lake — an international smash hit since its London premiere in 1995, which was followed by a triple Tony Award-winning run on Broadway. You can see the homoerotic Act II pas de deux between the Prince and his Swan in Dominic Walsh Dance Theater’s production Bourne-Kylián-Walsh: A Masterful Mixed Repertoire. As if the Bourne dance excerpt weren’t intriguing enough, Walsh fills up the show with master Czech choreographer Jirí Kylián’s provocative male duet Double You, created for his beloved Nederlands Dans Theater; a revival of his own For the Two of You, a danceable wedding gift for two friends from his alma mater, the Houston Ballet, set to music by Baroque composer Giovanni Bononcini; and another revival, of his dreamy Bello, set to some sublime Handel opera arias for countertenor. Honk if you fall in love. 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday. Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, 800 Bagby. For information, call 713-315-2525 or visit www.dwdt.org. $23.85 to $81.25.