En pointe: A pop culture guide to ballet music

Editor’s note: Classical music of any kind often feels boring and inaccessible. That’s why we asked Harini Calamur to do her series on Hindustani music. Many of you asked for a similar pop culture guide to Western classical music—which has shaped movie soundtracks and top 40 hits alike. From your lips to our ears—here’s the fourth instalment penned by veteran music writer Narendra Kusnur. As always, we’ve put all the music referenced in the article in a YouTube playlist for you to enjoy.

Written by: Narendra Kusnur has been a music journalist for over 40 years—including a decade-long stint covering the beat at the Mid-Day newspaper. He currently writes for The Hindu, Free Press Journal, Hindustan Times, and Rolling Stone India—besides the in-house magazines of prestigious institutions—such as NCPA and Shanmukhananda Hall.

At the 2011 Oscars, Natalie Portman bagged the ‘Best Actress’ award for her iconic role in the psychological horror film ‘Black Swan’. She played the role of Nina Sayers, a ballerina who was cast as the innocent and petite White Swan, named Odette, in a New York company’s production of Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s famous ballet ‘Swan Lake’.

The film had music by Clint Mansell, who created contemporary versions of Tchaikovsky’s music—using the basic themes and melodies, but adding fresh arrangements. As the film’s score was ‘inspired’, it was ineligible for a nomination in the Best Original Score category. You can listen to Tchaikovsky’s original piece below. 

‘Black Swan’ was probably the most popular film adaptation of ‘Swan Lake’. Originally premiered in 1877, Tchaikovsky’s ballet has been used often in film, television, theatre, pop music, and video games, thus gaining the description of being a ‘pop culture darling’. Other examples will be mentioned at the end of the column, but before that, below is a clip of the final dance from ‘Black Swan’—with Portman in an outstanding performance, and a rendition of the original music by the Metamorphose String Orchestra.

A brief history of ballet music

In last month’s column, we talked of various European dance music styles, from the bouree and polka to the pavane and waltz. This month, we shall focus on music for ballet, which is a theatrical production involving dance performance by stylishly-costumed artistes set to classical compositions. Because of famous creations by composers Tchaikovsky, Sergei Prokofiev, and Igor Stravinsky, the style has often been associated with Russia. However, it actually originated in the Italian Renaissance courts in the 15th century, before spreading to France.

After 1830, it continued to develop in Italy, Denmark, and Russia, gaining further prominence after Russian promoter Sergei Diaghilev formed the company Ballets Russes in Paris in 1909. Interestingly, because of the Russian Revolution, the company never performed in that region, though it toured Europe, North and South America for 20 years. Here’s a short clip that gives an idea of the role played by the Ballets Russes.

The Nutcracker charm 

Though ballet was a popular form in the late 19th and early 20th century, only a few composers are instantly associated with the genre. Tchaikovsky, of course, leads the list. Besides ‘Swan Lake’, he created music for ‘The Nutcracker’ and ‘The Sleeping Beauty’.

Set on Christmas eve and involving a child’s imagination, ‘The Nutcracker’ is an adaptation of German writer ETA Hoffman’s 1816 short story ‘The Nutcracker And The Mouse King’. After a tentative opening, it became famous among dance companies, mainly in North America. It was used often in animated films, from the Disney production ‘Fantasia’ in 1940 to ‘Barbie In The Nutcracker’ in 2001 to ‘Tom And Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale’ in 2007. Here’s a clip from ‘The Mushroom Dance’ in ‘Fantasia’.

Jazz and pop music also used ‘The Nutcracker’, and there are some interesting examples. 

In 1960, American jazz legend Duke Ellington released the album ‘The Nutcracker Suite’, based on Tchaikovsky’s ballet. Four years later, pianist Ramsey Lewis used the tune ‘Coffee (Arabian Dance)’ to create a jazz adaptation ‘Dance Mystique’ in the album ‘Bach To The Blues’. 

What’s surprising is that even Madonna sampled ‘The Nutcracker’ in her hit ‘Dark Ballet’ from her 2019 album ‘Madame X’, though that portion can be detected only by those who know their Tchaikovsky thoroughly. The question is how many Madonna fans also dig western classical music. Meanwhile, let’s check out the original ‘Overture’ of ‘The Nutcracker’.

And here’s Ellington’s jazz interpretation.

Tchaikovsky’s other ballet ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ is best known for its waltz, which by itself is a classical favourite. The ballet was based on a fairy tale by French author Charles Perrault, and its music was adapted by George Bruns in the 1959 Disney film ‘Sleeping Beauty’. Of course, there’s nothing like a live performance of the original waltz, performed in this video featuring Slovenian conductor Nerc Becan.

More from Russia with love

Two other Russian composers, Sergei Prokofiev and Igor Stravinsky, were known for their ballet music. While Prokofiev wrote plenty of ballet music, his two most famous ones were ‘Romeo And Juliet’, based on William Shakespeare’s play, and Cinderella, inspired by the famous folk tale. 

While the basic Shakespearean theme has inspired many pop songs like Taylor Swift’s ‘Love Story’ and Dire Straits’ ‘Romeo And Juliet’, Prokofiev’s ballet version has not spawned known hits. However, the rendition of ‘Dance Of The Knights’, taken from his ‘Romeo And Juliet’, is a regular feature at classical concerts. It was also used as the theme music for the British reality TV series ‘The Apprentice’. Here’s the performance by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Valery Gergiev.

For his part, Stravinsky wrote some remarkable ballets like ‘The Firebird’, ‘Petrushka’, ‘The Rite Of Spring’ and ‘Pulcinella’. Though his path-breaking ideas were rejected initially by purist audiences, his style hugely influenced other musicians like Aaron Copland, Bela Bartok, Pierre Boulez, and John Tavener. Here’s an extract from the famous ‘Russian Dance’ used in ‘Petrushka’, and played by Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili.

The other hits

There was, of course, no rule that ballet composers had to be Russian. Obviously, others have created some memorable works in the genre. Some of them are American composer Aaron Copland (who wrote ‘Appalachian Spring’), Ludwig Minkus of Austria (‘Don Quixote’), French musician Adolphe Adam (‘Giselle’) and Aram Khachaturian from Armenia (‘Gayane and Spartacus’). 

Interestingly, an extract from ‘Gayane’ was used by Stanley Kubrick in the movie ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’. The scene, set during a mission to Jupiter, symbolises the loneliness and vastness of space, and for the music, there couldn’t have been a better choice. Here’s the clip.

The above examples are representative of some of the most well-known ballet compositions. However, when it comes to popular culture, Tchaikovsky’s ‘Swan Lake’ singularly beats all other creations. The example of the film ‘Black Swan’, which began this column, was only the proverbial trailer. 

As far back as the 1930s, Universal Pictures used the ‘Swan Lake’ theme for the opening credits of three films—‘Dracula’, ‘The Mummy’ and ‘Murders In The Rue Morgue’. The tune has also been heard in the background of many animation films. 

In 1968, Barbra Streisand spoofed ‘Swan Lake’ in her debut film ‘Funny Girl’. Here’s a look at the hilarious portrayal by Streisand, who plays the role of a comedian based on the real-life story of American artiste Fanny Brice.

In the 2005 stage presentation ‘Billy Elliot: The Musical’, which focused on a boy taking ballet lessons, music director Elton John used the theme in a dance sequence. It wasn’t used in the original film version. 

Finally, since we live in the midst of Taylor-made Swifties, remember her 2014 hit ‘Shake It Off’? The dance moves and costumes are clearly inspired by the ‘Swan Lake’ ballet production, though the music (thankfully?) has no connection with Tchaikovsky’s melodies. It’s another evidence of the impact ballet has had on contemporary culture. Watch the music video for ‘Shake it Off’ below.

That’s the world of ballet, in a nutcracker… oops, nutshell. We have created a handy playlist of all the tracks mentioned on splainer’s YouTube channel.

PS: If you need a list of all the amazing music shared by Naren:

• ‘Swan Lake’ by Tchaikovsky
• Black Swan Final Dance by Clint Mansell 
• Swan Lake theme in ‘The Mushroom Dance’ from ‘Fantasia’
• The Nutcracker Prelude by Tchaikovsky
• The Nutcracker Prelude by Duke Ellington
• ‘Coffee (Arabian Dance)’ by Tchaikovsky
• ‘Dance Mystique’ by Ramsey Lewis
• Sleeping Beauty Waltz by Tchaikovsky
• ‘Dance Of The Knights’ by Prokofiev
• ‘Russian Dance’ by Stravinsky
• Gayane Ballet Theme from ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ by Khachaturian
• ‘Shake It Off’ by Taylor Swift