A Swan's Song

Collaborating to help ballet survive the corona pandemic, Misty Copeland and Joseph Phillips launch a fundraising campaign anchored on the masterpiece, The Dying Swan

- Chit L Lijauco

When the Russian choreographer Michel Fokine created the 1905 solo ballet dance The Dying Swan for prima ballerina Anna Pavlova, he meant for it to be a symbol of everlasting struggle. Danced to “Le Cygne”, the 13th and penultimate movement of The Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saens (c1886), the ballet interprets the fight against death of a badly injured swan. Little did Fokine know that 115 years later, his iconic work will play an important role in the struggle of ballet itself against a real threat to its existence.

The Covid-19 pandemic has closed the stage for an uncertain period, and ballet companies dependent on revenue from performances to pay their dancers and fund their operations are fighting to survive. As financial aid to their colleagues in the industry, international renowned ballet dancers Misty Copeland and Joseph Phillips put together the fundraising initiative they called Swans for Relief.