Boston Ballet returns from its record-breaking 2015-2016 season—which saw the highest attendance in more than a decade on top of the biggest box-office revenue in its 53-year history—with Le Corsaire, loosely based on Lord Byron’s epic inspired by French-American privateer Jean Laffite. The ballet follows the young and beautiful Medora, sold by her father to a wealthy Turkish pasha and rescued not once but twice by her love interest Conrad—but even those familiar with the swashbuckling tale may be unaware of how it led to a real-life treasure hunt a decade ago. With the help of dance historian and musicologist Doug Fullington, Czech choreographer Ivan Liska dug into the Harvard Theatre Collection, which houses a trove of documents preserving the 19th-century works of St. Petersburg’s Imperial Ballet. Their goal: to recreate Le Corsaire as audiences would have seen it in Marius Petipa’s 1899 staging.
During the course of nine months, the pair scoured museums, studied photographs and deciphered handwritten notations, uncovering two long-lost character dances and filling in missing variations. “I imagined Mr. Petipa sitting there,” Liska says of the empty chair he left beside him while choreographing. “I tried to feel his intentions.” Liska’s Le Corsaire premiered with the Bavarian State Opera Ballet in 2007, and it’ll make its North American debut on Oct. 27-Nov. 6 at the Boston Opera House, with 113 performers showing off some moves modern audiences might not be used to seeing.
“Many of the steps, which were written down in the old score, we have forgotten. We don’t do them anymore,” Liska says, noting some were originally performed on demi pointe and even featured a different carrying of the arms and neck, more akin to what one might expect to see in an Edgar Degas painting. Still, “His steps were not dry,” Liska insists. “They were dramaturgically, musically, absolutely 100 percent not only necessary, but they fit the situation.” He spent 15 days with Boston Ballet to help the dancers master those steps—not to mention the tricky matter of integrating the plot’s pantomime with the music. “Ivan was teaching me how to act for the audience,” explains principal dancer Seo Hye Han, who stars as Medora. “He said, ‘Don’t make anything fake.’ ”
While the moves may be a touch unfamiliar, Liska expects the story to resonate, no matter how far off the world of kidnapping buccaneers may seem. “It’s a romantic style of living, not always being responsible for what you do,” he says of the appeal. “Take what you love, whether it’s money or a woman. It’s the perfume of adventure.”
THE IMPROPER’S 2016 FALL ARTS PREVIEW: VISUAL ARTS | THEATER | MUSIC | COMEDY
Fill Up Your Fall Dance Card
By Sarah Hagman | Photo Credit: Sakari Viika | Sept. 16, 2016
Historical Footnotes
Boston Ballet returns from its record-breaking 2015-2016 season—which saw the highest attendance in more than a decade on top of the biggest box-office revenue in its 53-year history—with Le Corsaire, loosely based on Lord Byron’s epic inspired by French-American privateer Jean Laffite. The ballet follows the young and beautiful Medora, sold by her father to a wealthy Turkish pasha and rescued not once but twice by her love interest Conrad—but even those familiar with the swashbuckling tale may be unaware of how it led to a real-life treasure hunt a decade ago. With the help of dance historian and musicologist Doug Fullington, Czech choreographer Ivan Liska dug into the Harvard Theatre Collection, which houses a trove of documents preserving the 19th-century works of St. Petersburg’s Imperial Ballet. Their goal: to recreate Le Corsaire as audiences would have seen it in Marius Petipa’s 1899 staging.
During the course of nine months, the pair scoured museums, studied photographs and deciphered handwritten notations, uncovering two long-lost character dances and filling in missing variations. “I imagined Mr. Petipa sitting there,” Liska says of the empty chair he left beside him while choreographing. “I tried to feel his intentions.” Liska’s Le Corsaire premiered with the Bavarian State Opera Ballet in 2007, and it’ll make its North American debut on Oct. 27-Nov. 6 at the Boston Opera House, with 113 performers showing off some moves modern audiences might not be used to seeing.
“Many of the steps, which were written down in the old score, we have forgotten. We don’t do them anymore,” Liska says, noting some were originally performed on demi pointe and even featured a different carrying of the arms and neck, more akin to what one might expect to see in an Edgar Degas painting. Still, “His steps were not dry,” Liska insists. “They were dramaturgically, musically, absolutely 100 percent not only necessary, but they fit the situation.” He spent 15 days with Boston Ballet to help the dancers master those steps—not to mention the tricky matter of integrating the plot’s pantomime with the music. “Ivan was teaching me how to act for the audience,” explains principal dancer Seo Hye Han, who stars as Medora. “He said, ‘Don’t make anything fake.’ ”
While the moves may be a touch unfamiliar, Liska expects the story to resonate, no matter how far off the world of kidnapping buccaneers may seem. “It’s a romantic style of living, not always being responsible for what you do,” he says of the appeal. “Take what you love, whether it’s money or a woman. It’s the perfume of adventure.”
THE IMPROPER’S 2016 FALL ARTS PREVIEW: VISUAL ARTS | THEATER | MUSIC | COMEDY
By Sarah Hagman | Urbanity Photo Credit: Celso Enrique Photography
Company Town
More dance dates with local troupes …
Urbanity Dance returns to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s courtyard on Oct. 29 for pop-up performances during an all-day Dante Festival, which will have two dancers improvising in response to cantos from the Italian poet’s Divine Comedy. Then on Nov. 18, the full 10-member company takes the stage at the Strand Theatre for Call of Courage, a collaboration with the City of Boston that draws inspiration from local middle and high schoolers’ stories of bullying. On Oct. 14-30, José Mateo Ballet Theatre opens its 31st season with Impelling Forces, a program that includes 1796, a love triangle paired with Beethoven’s moody Cello Sonata No. 2 in G Minor, and Mozart Provoked, which features a bit of uncharacteristic sass set to experimental musician Uri Caine’s jazzy interpretation of the composer’s Sonata in C Major for piano. Drink it all in at the Sanctuary Theatre with sips from Forage’s Stan Hilbert, who’s kicking off a wine curation program that’ll have a different bar star pouring picks at each production.
THE IMPROPER’S 2016 FALL ARTS PREVIEW: VISUAL ARTS | THEATER | MUSIC | COMEDY
By Sarah Hagman | BalletX Photo Credit: Alexander Iziliaev; Shailesh Bahoran Photo Credit: Steven Tips
Tours de Force
Meet three cool companies dancing through town this fall.
With powerful athleticism and popular songs, Philadelphia-based BalletX ushers solid classical technique into the modern world. Take co-founder Matthew Neenan—who began his training at Boston Ballet School—and his The Last Glass, which taps indie-rock outfit Beirut’s The Flying Club Cup. The company’s Boston debut also showcases intimate duet It’s Not a Cry, choreographed to Jeff Buckley’s haunting rendition of “Hallelujah,” and Delicate Balance from Robert Joffrey and William Forsythe mentee Jodie Gates. Oct. 21-22 at the ICA
The Suzy Newhouse Center welcomes Amsterdam’s Shailesh Bahoran, who combines traditional Indian dance with hip-hop, breaking and funk with his Illusionary Rockaz Crew. They’ll tackle Lalla Rookh, a tale of 19th-century immigrants who believe they’re en route to the Land of God but soon discover they’ve arrived in Suriname as indentured workers. Nov. 10 at Wellesley College
Named for co-founder Adi Sha’al’s experience during Air Force training, the contemporary Vertigo Dance Company leaves behind its eco-art village nestled in an Israeli mountainside—where members rehearse in mud-wall studios and drink purified rain water—for a Celebrity Series appearance and Boston debut. The evening includes a performance of Vertigo 20, a reflection on its two-decade run. Oct. 29-30 at the Shubert Theatre
THE IMPROPER’S 2016 FALL ARTS PREVIEW: VISUAL ARTS | THEATER | MUSIC | COMEDY
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