If you’ve ever wanted to check out the ballet, or “Swan Lake” in particular, do it now. I can’t be clearer than that.
Orlando Ballet’s production of the timeless classic, which opens the company’s 2025-26 season, captures the thrills of ballet in all the right ways, starting with the magnificent sound of the Orlando Philharmonic Orchesta.
Gorgeous costumes, grand scenery and a cast of 85 — yes 85 — dancers from children to the company pros make this a spectacle, as well.
There’s additional excitement for those of us who have followed Orlando Ballet for years. It wasn’t that long ago that guest artists were needed to fill out the roster for large-cast shows. Now, there’s an embarrassment of riches with enough talent to spread the roles around. Four years after Jorden Morris was named artistic director, it’s both gratifying and thrilling to see how he has built on the organization’s foundations to up its game.
Perhaps the genre’s most beloved work after “The Nutcracker,” “Swan Lake” tells the story of young Prince Siegfried, who falls for Odette, a young woman under a curse that makes her a swan during the day. Siegfried can break the curse but the evil Odile, known as the “black swan,” sets out with all her wiles to make sure that doesn’t happen.
Hitomi Nakamura and John Abenanty star as Odette and Prince Siegfried in Orlando Ballet’s production of “Swan Lake” in Steinmetz Hall at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. (Courtesy Israel Zavaleta Escobedo via Orlando Ballet)
Much is always made of the swan corps, and as seen at the final dress rehearsal, the 18 ballerinas don’t disappoint here. With Christopher Stowell’s choreography, they seem to expand in number as they gracefully fill the Steinmetz Hall stage at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts creating graceful patterns with their motion and beautiful tableaux when they are used as a feathery frame.
The famed “Dance of the Little Swans,” with the dancers linking arms as their legs move in perfect synchronization, gets a delightfully precise outing from Maya Fazzari, Kate Gardinier, Renee Shubov and Aria Smith.
But this production’s non-swan scenes are equally as eye-popping.
Orlando’s Voctave celebrates 10 years of making music for the world
The Orlando Ballet II corps shines in the first act’s brightly executed peasant dancing — that’s more promise for the future of the main company — as does a particularly sprightly pas de trois segment with Fazzari and Shubov joined by Thomas Gerhardt.
And the third act, featuring the prince’s engagement ball, is the strongest of the show, beginning with the fantastical costume parade from designers Sandra Woodall and Mark Zappone — just look at the various headdresses.
Peter Farmer’s set delights, too, especially as it’s a dramatic change from the already spectacular scenes viewed on the stage — the mysterious lake, the bucolic village square, the formal throne room. The backdrops become their own characters.
Renee Shubov, Thomas Gerhardt and Maya Fazzari charm in a pas de trois in Orlando Ballet’s production of “Swan Lake” in Steinmetz Hall at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. (Courtesy Israel Zavaleta Escobedo via Orlando Ballet)
But, of course, that would all be for naught if the dancing didn’t measure up. Oh, it does.
Ellie Iannotti, Aria Smith and Alberto Peñalver get things started with an energetic pas de trois. A lovely princess sextet charms. A group of Spanish-influenced dancers end with an impressive quick-step footwork finale. Tambourine-playing duo Charlie Mellor and Fazzari achieve the most thrilling lift of the show, and listen for the clack of the red-booted heels as fur-lined hats bob.
In the lead roles, Hitomi Nakamura and John Abenanty do their best work in this act. She’s beguiling as the treacherous Odile. Even her impressive spins have a malevolence about them. Abenanty, meanwhile, projects an innocence in demeanor and movement that makes him as tragic a figure as poor Odette. (Note: You may see different dancers in any of the roles at matinee performances.)
I can’t overemphasize how much the Orlando Philharmonic adds to the occasion. Under the direction of Gabriel Gordon, the 50+ musicians create beautiful emotional shifts through phrasing and dynamics. What a pleasure to hear Colleen Blagov’s flute, Haley Rhodeside’s harp and Jamie Strefeler’s oboe clearly in key passages.
This is a production in which everything works together brilliantly to tell a familiar story with new panache.
Follow me at facebook.com/matthew.j.palm or email me at mpalm@orlandosentinel.com. Find more entertainment news and reviews at orlandosentinel.com/entertainment or sign up to receive our weekly emailed Entertainment newsletter.
‘Swan Lake’
Length: 2:30, including intermission
Where: Steinmetz Hall at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, 445 S. Magnolia Ave. in Orlando
When: Through Oct. 19
Cost: $43.66 and up
Info: drphillipscenter.org
Originally Published: October 16, 2025 at 10:50 AM EDT