Swan Lake Takes the Stage

Published March 13, 2026

Swan Lake Takes the Stage

A.V.A. Ballet Theatre is the only ballet company in the state of Nevada that has a full symphony at every single classical ballet. We are proud of this fact and pleased we can offer the best ballet productions in Nevada. On April 11 and 12, 2026, Swan Lake will be performed with the Reno Phil at the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts. A.V.A. Ballet Theatre is the resident ballet company of the Pioneer. Tara Simoncic will be guest conducting the orchestra.

Filer image element — **Swan Lake, on April 11 and 12, 2026 at the Pioneer Center**

While The Nutcracker may be the most popular ballet in the world, Swan Lake is the most famous. For those, like me, who are ballet challenged, here is a little information on Swan Lake.

The music was created by renowned composer Peter Tchaikovsky. Tchaikovsky also wrote the music for The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty ballets. There is some dispute over the origins of the Swan Lake story but most believe it is based on Russian folk tales. The choreography for the original ballet—first performed by the Bolshoi Ballet in 1877 — was created by Julius Reisinger. The ballet was a failure.

Most ballet companies in the world now use the staging—both musically and choreographically—from a Swan Lake revival by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. The revival was a tremendous hit and has become a beloved production.

Alexander Van Alstyne, the artistic director of A.V.A Ballet Theatre, has restaged his version of Swan Lake based on the Petipa/Ivanov choreography with his own variations. The ballet was originally performed in four acts. Van Alstyne uses acts two and three as they convey the story he wants told and allows him to showcase the best of his dancers’ abilities.

The ballet begins while Prince Siegfried and his friends are hunting in a forest. Prince Siegfried sees a flock of swans flying overhead. He aims his crossbow at the swans, but when one comes closer to view — he stops. Before him is a creature more human than swan. As they dance together, the prince learns that the swan maiden is Odette, a princess who was turned into a swan by the evil sorcerer, Von Rothbart. Under Von Rothbart’s spell, she is a swan by day and a woman by night. Prince Siegfried falls madly in love with her and promises to rescue her.

The prince will be performed by Marko Micov and Odette will be danced by Marize Fumero. Both dancers are from Milwaukee Ballet. Von Rothbart will be performed by Pieter Gunning, from Ballet West II.

Micov was born in Skopje, Macedonia and began his ballet training under the direction of Sonja Zdravkova-Dzeparovska, Ph.D. at the school of the Macedonian Opera and Ballet where he was a member of the corps de ballet. Marko received a full scholarship from the Academy of Mystic Ballet in Connecticut and moved to the United States to continue his training and career.

In 2012 he received an invitation from the legendary Gelsey Kirkland to join her company in New York City. In 64 years of Macedonian ballet history, he is the first dancer from his country to begin a professional career in the United States of America. The spring of 2016, he joined the Ballet San Antonio where he made his debut with the company in Ballet Alive and Micov was named by artistic director, Willy Shives, to perform the lead male in Ballet San Antonio’s premier of Frederic Franklin’s Tribute. Micov joined Milwaukee Ballet Company for the 2019/20 Season and continues to dance with the company.

Fumero was born in Havana and trained at the National Ballet School of Cuba. Upon graduation in 2009, she entered Ballet Nacional de Cuba where she performed many roles. In 2012, Fumero joined the English National Ballet where she danced as Aurora’s Friends and Jewel’s variation in Kenneth MacMillan’s The Sleeping Beauty. She also appeared in Jiří Kylián’s Petite Mort, George Williamson’s Firebird as well as Derek Deane’s Swan Lake and Romeo & Juliet at the Royal Albert Hall. Fumero joined Milwaukee Ballet in 2014 and was promoted to leading artist in 2015. Fumero received a Miami Life Award nomination as Best Female Classical Dancer in 2017.

Gunning is from Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At age fourteen, he started his training at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. After three years of study in The Netherlands, he continued his dance education in Germany. He was accepted into the upper levels of the Hamburg Ballet School under the artistic direction of John Neumeier.

While studying in Hamburg, Gunning was given the opportunity to choreograph and present his creations on stage. From that, he was selected to represent the Hamburg Ballet School in the Young Creation Award 2021 at Prix de Lausanne in Switzerland. After his graduation, he was offered a contract with Orlando Ballet II in Florida. After completing two years in Orlando, he joined Ballet West as a Trainee. He has since been promoted to be a member of Ballet West II.

Joining the guest professional dancers will be a large cast of A.V.A. Ballet Theatre dancers as the elegant swans. These dancers have been working for months and it is impressive to see how these talented local dancers move so gracefully across the Pioneer stage. The Pioneer stage will be filled with beautiful dancers, and Tara Simoncic will conduct the brilliant Reno Phil and fill the theater with the dramatic score. In anticipation, I can’t stop humming the music.

Steve Trounday is a board member at A.V.A. Ballet Theatre, the resident ballet company of the Pioneer Center. A.V.A. Ballet Theatre will be performing Swan Lake April 11 and 12, 2026 at the Pioneer with the Reno Phil.