When Misty¹ Copeland made her New York debut² in the double role of Odette/Odile in “Swan Lake,” the most epic³ role in world ballet, two aspects of the performance on Wednesday afternoon proved marvelous. One: that it all happened successfully. Two: the curtain calls.

上周三下午，米丝蒂·科普兰(Misty Copeland)首次在纽约表演芭蕾舞剧中最经典的角色——《天鹅湖》(Swan Lake)中的奥杰塔(Odette)/奥杰莉亚(Odile)。有两点能证明她的表演十分精彩。一是一切都很成功；二是观众多次要求演员谢幕。

Let everyone know henceforth that an African-American ballerina has danced this exalted⁴ role with American Ballet Theater at the prestigious⁵ Metropolitan⁶ Opera House. Let everyone know that other African-American dancers, Raven⁷ 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 bouquets⁸ 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.)

从此以后，所有人都知道美国芭蕾舞剧团(American Ballet)的一位非裔美国芭蕾舞女演员在著名的大都会歌剧院(Metropolitan Opera House)演绎了这个崇高的角色；所有人都知道其他非裔美国舞蹈家雷文·威尔金森（Raven Wilkinson，1955年至1961年是蒙特卡洛俄罗斯芭蕾舞团[Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo]的演员）和劳伦·安德森（Lauren Anderson，曾是休斯敦芭蕾舞团[Houston Ballet]的演员，是第一位成为美国一家芭蕾舞剧团首席演员的非裔美国芭蕾舞演员）上台给她献花；所有人都知道和她共舞的演员们为能和她一起赢得掌声而感到骄傲（她的搭档、饰演齐格弗里德王子[Prince Siegfried]的詹姆斯·怀特赛德[James Whiteside]对她表现出的热情和喜爱尤为真挚）。

As Odette, the Swan Queen, Ms. Copeland has moments of courage and grandeur⁹ when you feel the heroic scale of Tchaikovsky’s celebrated¹⁰ drama. She runs boldly around the stage like a creature accustomed to vast space; she raises her arms with the epic sweep of mighty¹¹ 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.

科普兰饰演的天鹅王后奥杰塔有时勇敢高贵，在这些时刻，你能感觉到柴可夫斯基(Tchaikovsky)这部著名戏剧的英雄气势。她无拘无束地绕着舞台奔跑，像一个习惯于广阔空间的动物。她举起双臂，像展开强壮的翅膀，堪称经典。她在其他方面的表现也值得赞扬，但是没有明显的个性。《天鹅湖》的主旨得以体现，但仍有改进空间。我希望她能再次表演，在其中展现得更多。

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 ballroom¹² 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.

为了她以及其他所有人，我希望美国芭蕾舞剧团的《天鹅湖》是上佳之作。在湖边的第一幕中，奥杰塔善良而乏味，在舞会那一幕中，奥杰莉亚邪恶妖艳，然后我们又回到湖边观看善良而乏味的奥杰塔——后面这一段更无趣，因为没有值得观看的舞蹈技艺。

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.

科普兰饰演奥杰莉亚时，遵循被误导的俄罗斯传统，把头压低，不时抬起双目紧盯观众（就像在看镜中的自己），以表现出自己是个诡计多端的坏女人。这让她看起来不太优美，让受骗的齐格弗里德看起来比平常更傻。

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 quota¹³, though wandering across the stage; then she did a series of quick single turns — a smart alternative since they had more musical dynamics¹⁴ than most accounts of the fouettés.

科普兰唯一能够明显改进的技术特点是著名的——声誉过高的——单足趾尖旋转。她先是转了通常转数的一半——不是原地旋转，而是横跨舞台旋转——然后她做了一系列快速单转。这个改变很聪明，因为与大部分单足趾尖旋转相比，快速单转更具音乐活力。

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 intermittent¹⁵; but since they’re part of Ms. Copeland’s story as well as Odette’s, they’re more than welcome.

不过，点亮这部芭蕾舞剧的是科普兰舞蹈的无畏光彩，特别是饰演奥杰塔时。尽管这些光彩时断时续，但由于它们是奥杰塔和科普兰故事的一部分，所以很受欢迎。