How Charlotte Ballet and a new dancer tackle the demanding ‘Swan Lake’ for the first time

Under a façade of elegance and grace, it’s hard work being a swan.

That duality is something first-year Charlotte Ballet dancer Evelyn Robinson is working to perfect. She’s doing it through rigorous training, a focus on her diet, high emotion and dozens of pairs of pointe shoes as she prepares for the principal role of Odette/Odile in “Swan Lake.”

Composed by Ptoyr Ilyich Tchaikovsky nearly 150 years ago, “Swan Lake” shares the romantic tragedy of two lovers, Siegfried and Odette, who are kept apart by evil forces.

Charlotte Ballet will perform the iconic work for the first time this May. It might seem strange to think that a company with over a half-century of history has never performed “Swan Lake,” but the ballet originally was created for much larger companies.

Ib Andersen, who danced with New York City Ballet under George Balanchine in the 1980s, choreographed this version for a company closer in size to Charlotte’s, which has just under 30 professional dancers. In all, the ballet comprises 93 roles and 52 total dancers, 25 of them swans.

‘Not a prodigy’: A dancer emerges

When it comes to dance, the 22-year-old Robinson is used to hard work.

She was born in Tyler, Texas, about 100 miles east of Dallas. “I had a bit of a harder upbringing,” she said. “My parents were divorced and I was an only child, so I grew up not really having someone to talk to.”

Since she was always dancing around the house to music, her mom enrolled her in dance classes. “I fell in love with it, and it became my outlet and escape,” Robinson said. “It took out the nervous, chaotic energy I had as a child.”

At age 7, Robinson began studying with a dance instructor. “I was really bad,” she said. “I never was what you call a child prodigy. I didn’t have the feet or the legs. But I loved the challenge of it, so I worked really hard when I was young.”

She left Texas at age 15. “There were not a lot of mixed(-race) people or Asians,” said Robinson, whose father is white and mother is Chinese. “So I felt ashamed and different, like an outcast.”

Robinson chose to continue her dance instruction at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem.

In 2020, she graduated, just as COVID shuttered performing arts spaces along with the rest of the country. Eventually she landed a job with the Atlanta Ballet.

After three years there, Robinson reached out to Alejandro Cerrudo, who had just taken the role of artistic director at Charlotte Ballet. “I did an audition process with him and then was hired.”

Now in her debut season with the company, she’s leaning into the hard work of a notoriously tough leading role.

Grueling preparation for a swan

If you’re ever downtown working out at One Athletics, formerly the Charlotte Athletic Club, and you see a young woman holding 1-pound weights while working on her flap technique, it’s most likely Robinson.

“People are probably looking at me like I’m crazy,” she said. “A lot of the training I do is all about the small muscles in my arms, back and fingers, and really trying to elongate and use every single muscle and bone in my arm to create this wave, like that of wings.”

Robinson refines that blend of grace and power during daily, eight-hour studio rehearsals, plus two or three nights a week of additional workouts.

“I find it much harder to only work in the studio,” she said. “I do a lot of cardio and endurance workouts, and I focus on leg power and strength all around.” She also loves to be outside, and often hits trails to hike and rock climb.

Charlotte Ballet performs a mixed repertoire, which includes another iconic Tchaikovsky work, “The Nutcracker,” and other classical ballets. “We also do a lot of contemporary works, so conditioning (for) that pointe work after doing a pretty intense contemporary series requires a lot of work,” Robinson said

For a week in November, the company learned “Swan Lake.” And in early April, they revisited the choreography.

“ ‘Swan Lake’ is one of the hardest ballets, if not the hardest ballet, for a female dancer,” Robinson said. “It requires an insane amount of endurance, because you’re dancing the whole ballet.”

Getting into character

This production comprises two acts, each with two scenes, with a run time of just over two hours.

Robinson estimates that she’ll be on stage for about an hour and a half, since the role comprises two swan personas, that of innocent white swan Odette and Odile, the black swan antagonist.

“They are two very different characters that you have to embrace artistically as well as with your movement. But the biggest thing is the expression — the change in white and black swan, and the arms that are required for both,” she said.

To build endurance, she speed-walks at an incline and does high-intensity interval training workouts that incorporate Pilates.

“I don’t like running, because it’s pretty hard on the joints after a full day of dance,” Robinson said.

“After the second act, which is fully Odette, and takes incredible endurance, we get an intermission, thank goodness,” she added. “I’m going to switch my shoes because my pointe shoes will die fully and will be completely soft and non-wearable.”

For the third act, she will also change costumes, add darker makeup, change her headpiece and wear hard shoes for what the New York Times once called “the most notorious step in ballet repertory: the 32 fouetté turns... that whiplash motion of the raised leg that gives the turn its brilliance.”

Then, Robinson will rush backstage for a quick change of tutus and shoes again, and transform back into the white swan.

In all, she estimates needing three pairs of pointe shoes for the role.

“I don’t like to break in new shoes. I like my shoes very soft and dead and comfortable,” Robinson said. “I usually go through like a pair or two a month. But right now for “Swan Lake,” I’m going through a pair a day.”

Watching what she eats

Robinson also adheres to a strict diet ensuring she’s eating well-balanced, healthy foods and regularly taking her vitamins.

“I’m burning a lot more energy so I’m having to supplement by eating more. I make sure I have enough protein and carbs, veggies, and fruit.”

She packs eggs and toast and eats breakfast at the studio, and brings snacks to eat throughout the day — “apples and cheese or a beef stick and nuts, or some carrots and hummus, so I’m getting small amounts of protein consistently” Robinson said. At home, she cooks stir fry, and dishes like rice and salmon.

Tackling the emotions of a dream role

The emotions it takes to play two distinct roles is another part of the process, including drumming up romance.

Odette, the white swan, falls in love with Siegfried, and that takes time. “Finding that artistic connection with him... that’s a whole process,” she said. “It’s not just a solo; you’re dancing together.”

Though she doesn’t study actual swans in motion, she has studied other stage swans, searching YouTube for performance videos of Marianela Núñez, an Argentine principal dancer with The Royal Ballet in London.

But all the technical preparation doesn’t address the dramatic emotional aspect of dancing the dual role of Odette and Odile, two completely different characters. “I become fully the character and let go,” she said. “That is where I channel the past and deep emotion and enjoy the process.

“I’m very excited. This is one of my dreams, to perform this role.

“There’s a certain level of expectation that I hold for myself and that I hold for this specific role,” Robinson said, “I’m nervous, but I am very excited and grateful to have this opportunity.”

Swan Lake

Charlotte Ballet performs “Swan Lake” May 3-12 at Knight Theater. Tickets start at $30. The score will be performed by the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra. For more information: charlotteballet.org.

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