Many critics have disputed the original source of the Swan Lake story. The Russian ballet patriarch Fyodor Lopukhov has called Swan Lake a "national ballet" because of its swans, who originate from Russian lyrically romantic sources, while many of the movements of the corps de ballet originated from Slavonic ring-dances.[
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According to Lopukhov, "both the plot of
Swan Lake, the image of the Swan and the very idea of a faithful love are essentially Russian"