Nat’l Ballet Goes Global for New Year
By Kim Ju-young for The Korea Times


The ``Special Gala for 2003’’ by the Korea National Ballet at 7 p.m. on Jan. 11 at the Haeoreum

Theater (Main Hall) of the National Theater of Korea in downtown Seoul opens the new year with an

opportunity to take in a variety of local and international performances in one place at one

time, a kind of whirlwind trip across the dance spectrum for ballet-goers.
This one-night treat, a two-part program, starts with the classic ``Swan Lake’’ performed by Kim

Seh-yun from the Universal Ballet and Stanislav Belyaevsky from the National Ballet of Finland.

Following this is ``The Talisman,’’ danced by members of the Korea National Ballet, then

``Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux’’ will feature Hong Jeong-min and Lee Won-chol, two principal dancers

from the Korea National Ballet.

click for more

<small>[ 15 October 2003, 05:49 AM: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]</small>

French Ballet to Woo Local Fans
By Yoon Ja-young for The Korea Times

Elegant, graceful and artistic, but not a few would complain that ballet seems to be the story of another world. They have good reason to say so, since most of the ballets that we know here are about princesses and fairies. But ``La Fille Mal Gardee (The Unchaperoned Daughter),’’ to be performed in Seoul for the first time by the Korean National Ballet Company Oct. 10-13, will divest those critics of their prejudice, proving that classic ballet can arouse our sympathy and be fun.

The ballet is a jolly love story of two young people in rustic 18th century France. Simone, a rich widow, wants to marry off her only daughter, Lise, to stupid Alain, a rich farmer’s son. However, Lise has no one else on her mind but her sweetheart Colas.

click for more

and, Here's one more article about KNB's performance^.^~

the Korea Herald - Oct. 8. 2003

<small>[ 07 October 2003, 10:55 PM: Message edited by: Yoonhee Lee ]</small>

Thanks Yoonhee Lee - always feel free to post dance links from the Korean press that we may have missed. We are very keen to hear about ballet and dance from this country, which is already an important place for the art form.

Chris Lee posted in another topic:

From Oct. 10th to 13th, Korean National Ballet has performed "La fille mal gardee" at Seoul Arts Center in Seoul, Korea. This was the second time that this work has been performed in Korea, since Universal Ballet company had done this about 10 years ago.

I saw this piece on Saturday, Oct. 11th matinee. Un-Kyu Jang and Bo-Yeon Ro were playing Colas and Lise. Since this couple are lovers in real life, it was pretty interesting to see their performance. They were great together, danced very well.

It was great one. Really funny and exciting. Especially, Mu-Seop Shin, who played Lise's mother Simone and is one of the male principal of KNB, and In-Kyung Kim, played Alain, were fablous. Both of them were hilarious and brought a great responses from the audience.

I think this performance reaches more wider audience. I saw a lot of families coming together to see this show. Especially, the father really enjoyed it. I hope KNB could bring more of these kind of works which all family members can enjoy it. I regret that I could not come to see this one with my mother, who wondered why I enjoy to see the ballet. Maybe next time...

Below are some english articles about this performance in newspapers.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/culture/200310/kt2003100316235411700.htm

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/archives/result_contents.asp?id=200310080046&query=ballet

Chris.