非裔女舞者大都會主演《天鵝湖》

When Misty Copeland made her New York debut in the double role of Odette/Odile in “Swan Lake,” the Most epic role in world ballet, two aspects of the performance on Wednesday afternoon proved marvelous. One: that it all happened successfully. Two: the curtain calls.

上週三下午，米絲蒂·科普蘭(Misty Copeland)首次在紐約表演芭蕾舞劇中最經典的角色——《天鵝湖》(Swan Lake)中的奧傑塔(Odette)/奧傑莉亞(Odile)。有兩點能證明她的表演十分精彩。一是一切都很成功；二是觀衆多次要求演員謝幕。

Let everyone know henceforth that an African-American ballerina has danced this exalted role with American Ballet Theater at the prestigious Metropolitan Opera House. Let everyone know that other African-American dancers, Raven Wilkinson (who danced with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in 1955-61) and Lauren Anderson (who, with the Houston Ballet, was the first African-American ballerina to became a principal of an American ballet company), brought her bouquets onstage. And let everyone know that her fellow dancers shared her applause with pride. (The enthusiasm and affection shown by James Whiteside, who partnered her as Prince Siegfried, was especially engaging.)

從此以後，所有人都知道美國芭蕾舞劇團(American Ballet)的一位非裔美國芭蕾舞女演員在著名的大都會歌劇院(Metropolitan Opera House)演繹了這個崇高的角色；所有人都知道其他非裔美國舞蹈家雷文·威爾金森（Raven Wilkinson，1955年至1961年是蒙特卡洛俄羅斯芭蕾舞團[Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo]的演員）和勞倫·安德森（Lauren Anderson，曾是休斯敦芭蕾舞團[Houston Ballet]的演員，是第一位成爲美國一家芭蕾舞劇團首席演員的非裔美國芭蕾舞演員）上臺給她獻花；所有人都知道和她共舞的演員們爲能和她一起贏得掌聲而感到驕傲（她的搭檔、飾演齊格弗裏德王子[Prince Siegfried]的詹姆斯·懷特賽德[James Whiteside]對她表現出的熱情和喜愛尤爲真摯）。

As Odette, the Swan Queen, Ms. Copeland has moments of courage and grandeur when you feel the heroic scale of Tchaikovsky’s celebrated drama. She runs boldly around the stage like a creature accustomed to vast space; she raises her arms with the epic sweep of mighty wings. In other respects, she’s admirable but without striking individuality. The substance of “Swan Lake” is there, but in potential. I hope she dances it again and reveals more in it.

科普蘭飾演的天鵝王后奧傑塔有時勇敢高貴，在這些時刻，你能感覺到柴可夫斯基(Tchaikovsky)這部著名戲劇的英雄氣勢。她無拘無束地繞着舞臺奔跑，像一個習慣於廣闊空間的動物。她舉起雙臂，像展開強壯的翅膀，堪稱經典。她在其他方面的表現也值得讚揚，但是沒有明顯的個性。《天鵝湖》的主旨得以體現，但仍有改進空間。我希望她能再次表演，在其中展現得更多。

For her sake and everyone else’s, I wish that Ballet Theater’s “Swan Lake” was a good one. Odette is dully good in the first lakeside act, Odile is vampily bad in the ballroom act, and then we go back to the lakeside act to watch Odette being dully good again — more dully this time because she has no choreography worth looking at.

爲了她以及其他所有人，我希望美國芭蕾舞劇團的《天鵝湖》是上佳之作。在湖邊的第一幕中，奧傑塔善良而乏味，在舞會那一幕中，奧傑莉亞邪惡妖豔，然後我們又回到湖邊觀看善良而乏味的奧傑塔——後面這一段更無趣，因爲沒有值得觀看的舞蹈技藝。

As Odile, Ms. Copeland follows in the misguided Russian tradition of tucking her head down and repeatedly looking hard at the audience under her brows (as if at the mirror) to let us know she is a scheming villainess. The result makes her look unclassical and makes Siegfried, by falling for her, look even more of a ninny than usual.

科普蘭飾演奧傑莉亞時，遵循被誤導的俄羅斯傳統，把頭壓低，不時擡起雙目緊盯觀衆（就像在看鏡中的自己），以表現出自己是個詭計多端的壞女人。這讓她看起來不太優美，讓受騙的齊格弗裏德看起來比平常更傻。

The only obvious technical feature in which Ms. Copeland can improve is the notorious — and overrated — fouetté turns. She did the first half of the usual quota, though wandering across the stage; then she did a series of quick single turns — a smart alternative since they had more musical dynamics than most accounts of the fouettés.

科普蘭唯一能夠明顯改進的技術特點是著名的——聲譽過高的——單足趾尖旋轉。她先是轉了通常轉數的一半——不是原地旋轉，而是橫跨舞臺旋轉——然後她做了一系列快速單轉。這個改變很聰明，因爲與大部分單足趾尖旋轉相比，快速單轉更具音樂活力。

Still, it’s the flashes of bravery in Ms. Copeland’s dancing, especially as Odette, that begin to illumine this ballet. As yet they’re only intermittent; but since they’re part of Ms. Copeland’s story as well as Odette’s, they’re more than welcome.

不過，點亮這部芭蕾舞劇的是科普蘭舞蹈的無畏光彩，特別是飾演奧傑塔時。儘管這些光彩時斷時續，但由於它們是奧傑塔和科普蘭故事的一部分，所以很受歡迎。