Hong Kong Ballet put through their paces for Le Corsaire, piratical romp that Anna-Marie Holmes has made her own
Canadian former ballerina whose affair with Le Corsaire has lasted a lifetime is polishing dancers’ style ahead of performances next month and says audiences can look forward to an evening of bravura ballet
“It’s a good night out,” says choreographer Anna-Marie Holmes, referring to her celebrated production of Marius Petipa’s classic 19th-century ballet Le Corsaire, which she will stage for Hong Kong Ballet in November.
Taking its title (but little else) from Byron’s epic poem and set in a wildly fictional Ottoman Empire, the work is an incorrigibly politically incorrect extravaganza packed with swashbuckling pirates, gorgeous harem girls, a sneaky slave trader and a lecherous pasha.
While Le Corsaire’s story and score lack the coherence of other comic ballet classics such as Don Quixote or Coppélia, it is a lavish spectacle and offers a feast of virtuoso dancing for both women and men.
Hong Kong Ballet is pulling out all the stops for this major premiere, bringing in not only Holmes but the great Argentinian dancer Julio Bocca as coach plus two guest stars, Maria Kochetkova and Matthew Golding, who will be dancing in different shows on the first weekend of the run.
Nowadays the Le Corsaire pas de deux, with heroine Medora partnered by the sinuous, bare-chested slave Ali, is a staple of every ballet competition and gala. However, it was unknown in the West until Rudolf Nureyev made it famous after his defection, while the full-length ballet was not seen outside Russia until the late 1980s, when Oleg Vinogradov’s 1977 production for the Kirov (now Mariinsky) Ballet toured overseas and caused a sensation.