Vladimir Bourmeister

Vladimir Bourmeister
Born(1904-01-22)22 January 1904
Vitebsk, Russian Empire
Died5 March 1971 (1971-03-06) (aged 67)
Moscow, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Soviet Union
OccupationChoreographer
Years active1941–1961
Known forChoreography of Swan Lake

Vladimir Bourmeister (Russian: Влади́мир Па́влович Бурме́йстер; 22 January 1904 – 5 March 1971) was a Soviet choreographer best known for his choreography of Swan Lake, a ballet dance by Peter Tchaikovsky. Made in 1952, his choreography of the dance, unlike other choreographies at the time, was designed to be closely related to the original dance by Tchaikovsky whilst also being modern. The most recognized change in his choreography to the ballet was adding a prologue that showed Odette being turned into a swan by Rothbart. By the end of Bourmeister's choreography, she gets restored to herself. In the Ballroom scene of the dance, Bourmeister made Odile more like an attractive and respectable girl than a seductive vamp to make Siegreid portraying Odette more realistic. Bourmeister's choreography had been played over by the Stanislavsky orchestra. In 1960 the choreography was adopted by the Paris Opera Ballet.[1][2][3] When he was invited to choreograph The Snow Maiden (mus. Tchaikovsky) for London Festival Ballet in 1961, he became the first Soviet choreographer to work with a Western company.

  1. ^ "Biography of Vladimir Pavlovoch Bourmeister (1904-1971)".[dead link]
  2. ^ "Dance: A swan to die for". Independent. Independent. 8 January 2002. Retrieved 20 June 2020.
  3. ^ "Oxford University Press". The Oxford Dictionary of Dance. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 19 March 2016.[dead link]