Best Of Tucson®

Best Dance Production

Swan Lake by Ballet Tucson

The finale of this professional ballet troupe's 25th season, Swan Lake was a gorgeous and entertaining rendition of the classic good-girl/bad-girl story. Following Natalie Portman's Oscar-winning role in Black Swan, the company's prima ballerina, Jenna Johnson, beautifully danced the virginal White Swan and the naughty Black. Stuart Lauer made a wonderfully wicked Rothbart, and he accepted his just desserts with good grace: In a surprise ending, the white swans rose up en masse to throw Rothbart over a cliff. The feisty troupe, staying alive in hard times, benefited, as always, from the hands-on attention of its artistic associate, Amanda McKerrow, a top-notch ballerina who danced for years with American Ballet Theatre.