Perhaps because ballet as an art form is so unreal, it’s easy to accept the fantasy it presents on stage as separate from real-life concerns. Le Corsaire is essentially the story of female slaves being bought, sold and kidnapped for a randy pasha’s Ottoman harem, painted in the cliches of orientalist exotica – sparkling jewels, bra tops and acres of midriff. It sounds tasteless written down, but in the theatre the audience claps and laughs because it comes with dazzling beauty, great flights of virtuoso dancing, finely etched classical lines and a good dose of theatrical artifice.
Artistic director Tamara Rojo addresses some of these issues in the ballet’s programme, but Corsaire was brought into the rep not primarily to debate its problematic politics but because it’s packed with firecracker variations (this version was mounted by Anna-Marie Holmes, based on Russian productions by Marius Petipa and Konstantin Sergeyev and fully embraces its 19th-century roots). The plot is mostly stuffed in around the dancing, a rush of action in the last five minutes before the interval; it’s the performances that matter. Erina Takahashi and Francesco Gabriele Frola play the pirate Conrad and his lover Medora. Both dancers are supremely capable, but the standouts are Jeffrey Cirio and Shiori Kase as slaves Ali and Gulnare. Cirio slays his centrepiece solo, with precision-engineered power and finesse in his handling of speed and turns, winding down each fierce spiral with consummate control, skimming to a perfect close.
Kase’s Gulnare is more pained by her station in life, and ploughs that into the tight urgency of her steps. Her fellow concubines, the three odalisques, demonstrate the cast working hard to give their characters life, even when their roles are two-dimensional. Precious Adams’s feet brilliantly flicker through quick combinations, while her face moves between hopeful prayer and resigned appreciation of her fate. Meanwhile, the men bring light entertainment: Erik Woolhouse’s Birbanto dances with spring and flair and a bit of the panto baddie, while Shevelle Dynott plays up the comedy as the pasha’s fusspot assistant.
They lay on a lavish show, without doubt, beautifully danced. Its success as drama, its relevance and appropriateness today are all up for debate.
At the Coliseum, London, until 14 January.
