 Fokine 's granddaughter , Isabelle , notes that the ballet does not make " enormous technical demands " on the dancer but it does make " enormous artistic ones because every movement and every gesture should signify a different experience , " which is " emerging from someone who is attempting to escape death . " She notes that modern performances are significantly different from her grandfather 's original conception and that the solo today is often made to appear to be a variation of Swan Lake — " Odette at death 's door . " The ballet is not about a ballerina being able to transform herself into a swan , she states , but about death , with the swan simply being a metaphor for that . 
