The Origins of Odile
The image of the Black Swan is one of ballet’s most powerful symbols: mysterious, seductive, and dangerously compelling. Yet, in the original Swan Lake, there was no Black Swan at all. It wasn't until 1920 at the Bolshoi, and 1941 in the West, that Odile appeared as the Black Swan. Until then, she was Rothbart’s daughter, as is the Black Swan, but she was portrayed as an enchantress, a femme fatale, who lured Siegfried into betrayal.
So it made sense that the first libretto required two ballerinas to portray Odette and Odile. As Brian Collins writes in Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture, “The tradition of one ballerina dancing the roles of Odette and Odile, which is such an important plot point in Black Swan, was not in the original ballet but began with Pierina Legnani in St. Petersburg in 1895.”
From Colourful Enchantress to Black Swan
Even her costume was different: multi-coloured, adorned with dazzling embellishments, completely devoid of feathers. It wasn’t until the 20th century that Odile’s costume turned black, cementing her as Odette’s dark reflection.
This transformation is more than aesthetic. The Black Swan as we know her today represents the shadow self, the parts of us that society often deems unacceptable. In Jungian psychology, the shadow holds our repressed desires, hidden emotions, and unexpressed qualities. Through the lens of Internal Family Systems (IFS), the therapy form I am trained in, Odile could be seen as a part of us that we have cast out or exiled, yet still seeking recognition, thus creating internal conflicts.
Because there is no pure good or evil, Odile has many facets, she is complex, confident, wild, and sensual, therefore a threat to social norms.
When a ballerina dances Odile, she embodies an alluring, powerful, and unapologetic force, qualities some may hesitate to claim in their daily lives. Perhaps this is why ballerinas, who are trained to be disciplined and demure, love dancing it. As Matthew Paluch points out in one of his greatly written ballet reviews on gramilano.com: "The very nature of the genre being about silent subservience." It might be much easier to allow themselves to experience these qualities as a role than in real life.
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