Ageless audacity, yet Bourne long ago

The 10th anniversary production of Matthew Bourne’s “Swan Lake” -- at the Ahmanson Theatre through March 19 -- obviously offers local audiences a chance to reexperience an initially groundbreaking and still audacious reinterpretation of an imperishable 19th century ballet. Male swans, a gay interspecies romance, comic observations about the royal House of Windsor, choreographic references to everyone from Alfred Hitchcock to Astaire and Rogers: What an amazing, triumphant achievement, then and now.

But it gets better. Back in 1997, when Bourne first arrived in our midst, he may have seemed a dangerous spoiler -- destroying a beloved cultural relic by radically re-imagining it. But today he’s Sir Matthew (knighted by the very Windsors he ridiculed), and Los Angeles has seen more of his dance dramas than any other American city. As a result, the “Swan Lake” return engagement enables audiences familiar with his alternately satiric and soulful creations to take a long view of his career and consider how many facets of this seminal work turn up in later pieces.

For example, Simon Wakefield’s touchingly sweet and vulnerable performance as the Prince on Wednesday (faultlessly danced) could easily have reminded Bourne-again viewers of a whole gallery of endearing, damaged young men in his works. Start with the shellshocked pilot in “Cinderella,” then add the youth framed for murder in “The Car Man” and the victimized toff of “Play Without Words.”

L.A. hasn’t yet seen Bourne’s “Edward Scissorhands” (it’s scheduled to arrive at the Ahmanson in December), but the title character belongs on this list as well, and if you want to conclude that Bourne is making a collective statement about the confusions and perils of masculinity in the modern world, go ahead.

“Swan Lake” will also remind you of his deep, original response to music -- in this case Tchaikovsky’s classic score, strongly conducted by Earl Stafford. And, more than ever, the men of his current New Adventures company heighten Bourne’s musicality by delivering the swan-corps choreography with so much power and expressive detail that they make you hear the sense of threat he finds in passages that go to lyrical ballerinas in conventional stagings.

But there are losses as well as gains in the new revival: The child Prince is no longer played by a child, the swan costumes are growing shabby and some of the comedy is punched awfully hard, as if we’re not to going to get it otherwise.

On Wednesday, Alan Vincent sometimes proved a problem in the dual role of the White and Black Swan. Those lucky enough to have seen Vincent as the hunky catalyst of “The Car Man” won’t be surprised by his exciting swagger and muscularity in the ballroom sequence. Once again, he partners men (in this case Wakefield) as easily as women and exudes a narcissistic sexuality and a superbly fluid use of the arms and upper torso.

But his burly physique isn’t ideally suited to the feathered jodhpurs that Lez Brotherston designed for the swans in the lakeside scene and last act. Moreover, Vincent’s technique doesn’t reliably command the balances in extension that Bourne made a signature stance for the role.

As the conflicted Queen, Oxana Panchenko dances skillfully and traces her deteriorating relationship with Wakefield very astutely. Leigh Daniels has enormous fun as the Prince’s uncomprehending girlfriend and stops the show with one of Bourne’s newest inspirations: a joke about a cellphone that goes off during a dance performance.

Refurbished with redesigned party dresses, Brotherston’s physical production remains handsome and atmospheric, with swan images and wordplay turning up everywhere.

Half the Ahmanson performances will feature different leads than those reviewed Wednesday, but the New Adventures company is so rich with dancing actors (or acting dancers) that it’s hard to believe another New Adventures ensemble is touring England with “Edward Scissorhands” at this very moment.

Believe it. In the decade since the premiere of “Swan Lake,” Bourne’s career not only intensified the rebirth of narrative in modern dance but fostered the emergence of a dancer generation with more on its mind than showcasing perfectly aligned limbs and pretty feet. And, for once, L.A. had a ringside seat, watching the process by which a choreographic spoiler becomes an artistic institution.

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‘Swan Lake’

Where: Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave., L.A.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday through March 18; 2 p.m. Saturday, Sunday and March 18 and 19; 7:30 p.m. Sunday and March 19

Price: $30 to $85

Contact: (213) 628-2772 or www.taperahmanson.com