At Last, ABT Makes Us Feel Its Star Power

In recent years, balletomanes haven’t had much cause to thank PBS, what with its major cutbacks in original dance programming and the disastrous reediting of preexisting dance tapes to fit them into smaller time slots. However, an act of compensation took place Wednesday, when PBS cameras moved into the Orange County Performing Arts Center to shoot a performance of the American Ballet Theatre staging of “Le Corsaire� for the “Dance in America� series.

Thanks to PBS, company casting priorities shifted dramatically. Where the two other “Corsaire� casts in Costa Mesa this week featured mostly second-ranked ABT dancers in the leading roles, the TV lineup gave local audiences rare exposure to the all-star depth of talent normal in the company’s New York performances but nowhere else. From that all-star depth of talent comes ABT’s reputation as a major international company, though Southland audiences usually must take it on faith. Not this year.

Admittedly, such ABT/N.Y. stars as Nina Ananiashvili, Jose Manuel Carren~o, Alessandra Ferri and Julio Bocca again remained absent from the OCPAC roster. But the telecast dancers managed to generate nonstop excitement in this problematic “Corsaire�--a vehicle with a doggerel score and a melodramatic plot focusing less on the adventures of its Byronic hero than depictions of sexual slavery, abduction and the standard 19th century harem fantasy.

Ten years ago, a very different Kirov Ballet “Corsaire� made the leading characters into rebels against or refugees from that corrupt world--the ABT version seems to find corruption fun. To make a modern audience swallow or even ignore such a vision takes more than mere balletic competence--it takes all the energy, allure and honed bravura of world-class pros. And ABT had them in force on Wednesday.

In constant danger from every kind of fate-worse-than-death: Julie Kent as Medora, dancing not only with classical exactitude but also great dynamic variety and even a lush, sinuous stretch when Middle Eastern sensuality seemed apt. She may have lacked the ultimate majesty needed for passages in the “Jardin Anime� dream scene when the music expanded in scale, but otherwise this performance confirmed her ballerina status admirably.

Opposite her: Ethan Stiefel, a tireless virtuoso dancer who made Conrad a sweet-natured, Penzance-style pirate with no deep Romantic drives but enormous ease whenever he took to the air. Nearly all the Wednesday male leads were shorter than their partners, and Stiefel proved no exception. But he made the duets with Kent plausible and even touching with a sense of tender ardor and artful partnering.

As Gulnare, Paloma Herrera may have pushed too hard against the wispy music of the “Pas d’Esclave� to seem ideally graceful, but she certainly held her own against one of the most celebrated international stars of this era: Vladimir Malakhov, here playing the slave-trader Lankendem with immense, seedy glee--and dancing with a casual, almost throwaway, brilliance.

For those who like their virtuosity dramatized, Angel Corella (the slave Ali) pumped out a series of spectacular turning combinations in the title duet, including Baryshnikov-style compression turns in which he sank down on the working leg while spinning at high velocity. Speedy turns also turned out to be the specialty of Joaquin de Luz (Birbanto), who made his revenge solo in Act 2 very special indeed. Christine Dunham again served as lead pirate moll in the ensembles.

As the Pasha, Michael Owen contrived to turn mime into dance by moving lightly, rhythmically, to the music. And through a bubbly, almost childlike interpretation of the character, he very, very nearly turned an ugly stereotype of the lustful Turk into something benign.

Ermanno Florio again conducted the Pacific Symphony--still painful in brass-dominated passages but sounding considerably less ragged than on opening night. Seven PBS cameras in the orchestra section recorded the performance and will return tonight and Sunday afternoon, when the same cast dances again. If we could only get them back every season.

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* The ABT “Le Corsaire� repeats, with changes of cast, tonight and Saturday at 8 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. $10-$68. (714) 556-ARTS.