Swan Lakes

Swan Lake is one of my favorite ballets, and good ballet-related media aimed at preschoolers is surprisingly hard to find. (The closest we've found previously is the astonishingly good Nursery Tap series, which covers a wide range of dance styles.) We recently received two different versions of Swan Lake aimed at preschoolers and I was excited to introduce them to Z. At nearly 4, she has quite an imagination and she's really intrigued by fairy tales and fanciful stories.

Maestro Classics recently released Swan Lake as the seventh in its series of classical music/story combinations. The CD's retelling of the story is about thirty minutes long and features a brief explanation of the events of the story followed by the excerpts from the music. The CD also features a track about Tchaikovky's life and something called "Speed Metal Swan" - we haven't listened to either of those tracks yet because Z has been too obsessed with listening to the musical story over and over again. We have a great traxck record with Maestro Classics (formerly Magic Maestro) and loved their Peter and the Wolf CD as well as their original scored version of Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel (we reviewed them together here).

Prima Princessa's DVD Prima Princessa Presents Swan Lake successfully merges two different segment types for each abbreviated act of the ballet - a viewing of the Paris Opera Ballet performance of Swan Lake with a voice-over telling the story, followed by a segment which is a combination of preschoolers dancing and of ballet students at the American Ballet Theater school practicing simple ballet steps. The whole thing is emceed by a fairly crude animated ballerina fairy, but it works really well - there's nothing that gets kids moving while watching a video than seeing other kids moving, and combining that with the inspired dancing of the Paris Opera performers is really inspiring to Z. Halfway through the video, she is almost guaranteed to be up and doing grand jetes with the other kids.

The two formats each have their strengths. Prima Princessa spends most of its time telling the story over the music while we see the Paris Opera Ballet perform the ballet, and explores basic ballet moves for kids to engage with the dancing. It also neatly dispenses with the story's tragic ending and has Odette and the Prince living happily ever after (in the original version they both drown and then, happily, ascend to heaven). The CD provides a more succinct telling of the story, doesn't tweak the ending, and often lapses into narrative silence while allowing listeners to imagine events for themselves.

I'm not sure if it's something about the story of Swan Lake, or about having access to two different versions of the same story and music, but Z is quite intrigued and engaged with this story. We're happy because it is "princessy" without being about, well, The Little Mermaid. This video and CD are about the only thing Z has wanted to listen to or watch for the last few days and she can often be found playing with her play dough and "singing" the notes of Swan Lake. The Schleich swan at the top of this post was yet another concession to her obsession with this story - we picked it up at Target and she quickly dubbed it Odette.

You can buy Maestro Classics' Swan Lake CD on the Magic Maestro website for $17, or download it in MP3 format from Amazon.com for nine bucks. You can buy Prima Princessa's DVD version, which Z also very much enjoys, for $20 on Amazon.com.

Related posts:

• Nursery Tap Hip to Toe DVD Review
• Music Maestro: Mike Mulligan and Peter and the Wolf CD review
• HBO Classical Baby's The Dance Show DVD
• How To Make Your Toddler Dance #1: Breakdancing