BBC Four Dance Season - The Dying Swan

Zenaida Yanowsky graced the Covent Garden stage for upwards of 20 years, most of them as a Principal. A tall willowy dancer, possessed of exceptional intelligence and strong acting ability, she brought new life to some of ballet's best loved characters and created new ones too, all unforgettable.

The Dying Swan is one of the staples of the Romantic repertoire. Choreographed by Mikhail Fokine for the great Anna Pavlova on Saint-Saens’ plangent four minute score, it’s a solo for a ballerina who interprets the last moments in the life of a swan.

Bring the two together and you have a marriage made in heaven, as this particular half-hour documentary eloquently shows.

Yanowsky did not choose the piece herself, but as she told Culture Whisper, when was she preparing to retire from the Royal Ballet, ‘I had an idea in my head of a programme that would have Dying Swan, because of the symbolism (...) so I guess it was meant to be.’

This half-hour documentary follows 42-year-old Zenaida Yanowsky as she recovers from knee surgery and prepares to dance her own swan song, in the process exploring how a dancer fights age, the deterioration of the body over time and the fear of retirement.

A must watch!