“Ladies and gentlemen,” says a disembodied voice, “this is your fifteen-minute call. Fifteen minutes, please, to the top of Act 1. The stage is available.” Young women sit before lit mirrors, applying makeup and false eyelashes. A man in a white N95 mask steps into the dressing room and says, “Have fun!” before blowing a kiss. “We’re gonna be really fuckin’ good,” someone tells him. “I have no doubt,” he says unconvincingly. “I am pumped!” A silver-blonde woman in black takes a seat in the theater’s balcony and wrings her hands as the orchestra tunes. In the wings, a brunette in a white feathered tutu grinds the tip of her pointe shoe in a box of rosin. On the balcony, the woman in black closes her eyes as the voice announces, “Thank you for joining us for the world premiere of our new production of Swan Lake.”

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This is the unflinching opening of Swan Song, a verité-driven feature documentary that takes viewers behind the scenes of the National Ballet of Canada’s 2022 production of Swan Lake. The film, written and directed by Chelsea McMullan (known for My Prairie Home and Crystal Pite: Angels’ Atlas) and executive produced by dancer-turned-actress Neve Campbell, premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival and quickly made a name for itself on the film festival circuit (it won the award for Best Canadian Feature Documentary at the 2023 Calgary International Film Festival and was the inaugural winner of the Rogers Best Canadian Documentary award at the Toronto Film Critics Association Awards 2023) and was released in theaters and on streaming late last month.

It all began when McMullen learned that Canadian ballet legend Karen Kain would be directing (for the first time) and staging a new production of the beloved classic Swan Lake (the very ballet responsible for her promotion to Principal Dancer in 1971) before retiring from the National Ballet of Canada, an organization Kain was involved with—first as a dancer and then as Artistic Director—for 50 years. It was February of 2020,........

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