Artistic Director Aurélien Scannella’s aim in producing the West Australian Ballet’s first full-length Swan Lake was to reimagine it as succinctly pertinent to Western Australia. The idea blossomed when Noongar Artist, Leader and Guide, Barry McGuire, told him there was a traditional Noongar dance relating to his family’s totem (and the West Australian icon) the Black Swan.

Christian Luck and the dancers of Gya Ngoop Keeninyarra with Oscar Valdés, Swan Lake, West Australian Ballet. Photo © Bradbury Photography

Faced with this alluring revelation, Scannella set up a collaboration with McGuire, Gya Ngoop Keeninyarra (One Blood Dancers) and Noongar teacher, actor and director Kyle Morrison, who became Creative Associate. Polish choreographer Krzysztof Pastor, (choreographer of the company’s successful Dracula) and assistant choreographer Simonetta Lysy, were then entrusted to bring Swan Lake’s moving narrative to life in its new form. One of these “new forms” was to spread out the divertissements usually seen in Act 111; so, for instance, Russian and Hungarian immigrants perform national folk dances at the Port of Fremantle in Act 1. At the busy port is Sebastian (aka traditional hero Prince Siegfried) with his particular...