"I always thought ballet would be a music box come to life. A dainty princess twirls in a stiff tutu while a prince solemnly assists, and the whole performance would serve up a tax-free inheritance in pointe shoes - polished, rarefied, and untouched by mortal concerns like gravity or sweat. In reality, one heroine fumbles every life decision and ends up in a swamp. Others create an existential dread music video about AI that's directed by Daft Punk. And somewhere, an army of ghostly women have formed a Kill Bill squad to dance their ex-lovers to death."
"Then comes Raymonda, a 19th-century prima ballerina in a world of men, but now she's holding all the cards: She can marry Harry, mess around with Ike, and be Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. At least, that's Creative Director Tamara Rojo's take for San Francisco Ballet. Our OG heroine is a noblewoman from 1898 and has perfect posture, but minimal personal agency; She twirls for the affection of two men, one a war hero, the other a bad boy. One lives, the other dies - and in between, Raymondadecorates the conflict with flawless footwork."
"Structurally speaking, Raymonda hasn't strayed too far in Rojo's recent update, which puts a feminist perspective on choreographer Marius Petipa's original work. The love triangle remains, but no one dies now, and our protagonist swaps her noble title for some overlap to Florence Nightingale - who history remembers for turning war hospitals from death traps to functional clinics."
Expectations of ballet as an elegant, otherworldly spectacle contrast with contemporary productions that reconceive narratives in surreal or subversive ways. Modern stagings introduce grotesque, comedic, or violent reinterpretations, from swamp-bound heroines to AI-themed music-video sequences and vengeful ghost ensembles. Raymonda centers a 19th-century prima whose traditional role as a passive noblewoman is updated to grant her agency and professional ambition. The revised plot retains romantic entanglements but removes fatal outcomes and adds a Florence Nightingale–inflected nursing element, producing a protagonist balancing heart, career, and public purpose onstage.
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