"Ballet must be accessible," the French choreographer and artistic director of The Ballet of Monte Carlo, Jean-Christophe Maillot, believes — and the upcoming Japan premiere of "LAC," his most ambitious reconfiguration of a classic to date, promises to attract both fans of Tchaikovsky's famed 1876 "Swan Lake" with choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, and also those looking for a narrative with contemporary resonance.
As with much of Maillot's work, though, leave your specialized sense of ballet at the door if you want to fully appreciate "LAC." It opens, for instance, with a dream-like black-and-white film of the hero, Prince Siegfried, as a child enjoying a picnic with his (masked) parents and falling for a girl who's swept away by monstrous flying creatures as the house lights are killed.
In the ballet that follows, with its storyline by Maillot and acclaimed French author Jean Rouaud, the White Swan (Odette) and Black Swan (Odile) roles generally taken by the same person are instead portrayed by two dancers, giving the women a chance to face off on stage.