The Dying Swan that the dance today is often made to appear to be a variation of "Swan Lake", which she describes as "Odette at death's door." Isabelle says that the ballet is not about a ballerina being able to transform herself into a swan, but about death, with the swan as a metaphor. Pavlova was recorded dancing "The Dying Swan" in a 1925 silent film, to which sound is often added. The short ballet has influenced interpretations of Odette in Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake", particularly during the parting of the lovers in the first lakeside scene. The dance was almost immediately adapted by
Ballet of the Nuns Andre Levinson writes, "The academic dance had been an agreeable exercise to watch. Now, [ballet] clarified matters of the soul. Ballet was a divertissement (an entertainment, a distraction). It became a mystery." Kisselgoff writes, "... the preoccupation with the supernatural that characterized so much of 19th-century ballet could be traced to the success of the "Ballet of the Nuns" in Meyerbeer's first production at the Paris Opéra". Ballet of the Nuns Ballet of the Nuns is the first "ballet blanc" and the first romantic ballet. It is an episode in Act 3 of Giacomo Meyerbeer's grand opera, "Robert le diable".