Le Corsaire in the Afternoon

I knew already that ballet companies tend to put their star dancers on in prime-time slots: opening night, Friday and Saturday evening performances. So my Saturday matinee selection for American Ballet Theater's spring visit to the Kennedy Center had more to do with timing my first viewing of the classic Le Corsaire with when I would be able to see Daniil Simkin perform in it.

ABT and KenCen do a good job of listing the dance assignments well in advance for the convenience of fans wanting to get tickets on the right days. So I knew Daniil had drawn both weekend matinee dance assignments, but with different roles.

The bad news was that neither role Daniil performs this weekend is the lead, the hero (Conrad the pirate). But the good news is that Le Corsaire is structured to give a lot of dancing to the featured performers.

My Daniil draw today was for Lankendem the slave trader. It's a character role, but he gets to start dancing as soon as the curtain goes up on Act I. Yay! He also does considerable partnering with the slaves he's auctioning, particularly the second lead lady, Gulnare (today performed by Sarah Lane).

When I realized that Daniil would be playing the role of Ali the Slave at tomorrow's performance, I was disappointed that I would miss the iconic role of this ballet. It's Ali (Ivan Vasiliev, photographed by Rosalie O'Connor) on the cover of the program:

And it's Ali the Slave that you see Mikhail Baryshnikov performing during the gala montage in The Turning Point.

But as it turns out, despite the iconic status and the technical fireworks in the slave's big Act II dance, it isn't much of a role. So I was very satisfied with my Daniil dance fix today. I can simply extrapolate and imagine.

Daniil Simkin as Ali the Slave in Le Corsaire, American Ballet Theater. Photo by Gene Schiavone

And before I could even start this blog, Daniil had already blogged his own post-performance assessment: #ItWentWellButI'mKindaTired 

What a cutie!
love, hosaa