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At the end of the summer
1997, Mark Sadan met with the young Spanish Prima Ballerina Tamara Rojo
to celebrate her recent engagement as a senior soloist with the English
National Ballet (whose patron is Diana, Princess of Wales). The very
next day saw the tragic death of the Princess. On his return to the States,
Sadan conceived of doing a photographic series of images to be based on
the English National Ballert's Swan Lake to be performed late in September
in Oxford and early in October in Manchester. He was able to secure a small
series of grants from collectors of his work and Fuji to help offset his
return to England.
While there, the English National Ballet granted his unprecedented access to their rehersals and performances at the Apollo and Palace Theatres. On the last day of the performance he was able to photograph the exclusive pictures of the young Rojo as she danced an electrifying debut performance of Odette/Odile, the enchanted Swan Queen winning the hearts of all present with innumerable encores and cheers of bravo. From these images the first portfolio will be sold with all the profits going to the Victims of Land Mines Fund at the Children's Hospital and to the English National Ballet. There are plans to produce a series of posters to commemorate this work by Sadan as a memorial to the beloved princess who cared. Unbeknownst to Sadan, Diana posed with the Swan corps of the English National Ballet in the summer of 1997, just before Sadan started his work, and was called the 'Swan Princess'; a truly fitting and remarkable tribute. For further information regarding the Swan Lake, Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Photopgraph Project by Mark Sadan please contact:
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