From up in the circle, the V formation of perfectly aligned swans, luminescent in costumes by Mara Blumenfeld, is as exquisite as in nature, where each migratory bird flies slightly above the one in front to conserve energy through reduced wind resistance and takes turns in the various positions. This ingenious sky choreography ensures they can glide for longer, and keep an eye on one another, which is not unlike the long-distance migration, orientation and communication on the stage. In the rehearsal period, “the dancers make constant adjustments to their head, neck and arms to create vital symmetry,” and now, having been transfigured into swans by the commanding Jarryd Madden as von Rothbart, the corps de ballet put into practice the hours spent “cultivating the art of special awareness,”[1] as former Australian Ballet corphée, Lisa Craig explains. The dancers’ eyes “scan marks on the floor to set formations consistently, and spaces between each swan are measured and memorised.” Stage markers like celestial cues to navigate ensure a “complex, unique map forms in the mind of each dancer,” and with Lead Swans Valerie Tereshchenko and Rina Nemoto, this drift of swans is fiercely, beautifully, immutably protected; none more so than the light-footed, interlaced Cygnets, Yuumi Yamada, Jill Ogai, Jade Wood, and Aya Watanabe.[2] From where I sit, it is as if, like swans, they can ‘see’ Earth’s magnetic field lines.