A little Swan Lake for a Sunday

This gorgeous piece of music has been following me around lately, and I'm not sure why. I've run into Tchaikovsky's theme from the final act of Swan Lake several times in the past three weeks, most recently at this week's Broadway Across Canada production of Billy Elliot. It's an amazing piece of music, and the dancing/flying ballet in the musical was so beautiful, I almost cried.

I've never actually seen the full Swan Lake, but I know the story, a bizarre and tragic fairy tale about a prince who falls in love with a princess who has been transformed into a swan by his mentor, who is actually an evil magician. Tchaikovsky's incredible music manages to evoke feelings of deep longing, and after seeing Billy Elliot the other night, and thinking about the effort and training it takes to dance, I marvel at how effortless these dancers make their movements look... the years of practice and conditioning, not to mention the innate talent required just to be one of the dancers on the periphery boggles my mind.

So here's another beautiful little piece of amazement for your Sunday... enjoy!