Although “Le Corsaire” was first performed in 1856 in Paris, it was completely re-choreographed by Maris Petipa in 1899 for the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. Additional revisions followed, culminating in a ballet with the grandiose dimensions of Russian dance.
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I am currently the stage management intern for this ballet, and I have to say, it has been a crazy experience. The ballet is completely wonderful and everything is so beautiful. I am glad there was a brief synopsis though, since I have never seen the whole thing from the front and now know what has been going on...
The really cool thing about working on this show is that ballet works so much differently from theatre, particularly in tech. Rather than the stage manager running rehearsal, it's actually the ballet master and mistress. This is not only strange, but sometimes fairly frustrating. There were a few times in tech and dress when the ballet master would have the orchestra start (which subsequently started the dancers) before a transition was done. There would be stagehands still working and drops still coming in, and everyone would already be dancing and playing instruments! Total chaos. And the SM has to just go along with it, because she is actually not allowed to call a HOLD at any point. It is a very different culture in ballet that I feel lucky to have experienced, because I'm not sure I ever would have known just how strange it is.
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