Exemplary

“Little Corsaire”
Hungarian National Ballet Institute and Hungarian National Ballet
Eiffel Art Studios
Budapest, Hungary
May 31, 2024

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2024 by Ilona Landgraf

The best way to nurture young talent and groom a new generation of dance enthusiasts is a concern for many ballet companies. The Hungarian National Ballet and its affiliated Ballet Institute have pursued an impressive strategy to address this issue. Last weekend, they premiered the third children’s production in a row, Little Corsaire, at Eiffel Art Studios. The first series of four performances gave students of various ages ample opportunities to present their skills to the public, which at this premiere consisted of family, friends, and many young children with their parents. The scenes that I observed in the atrium during the break proved that the project has yielded the desired results. Toddlers copied dance steps, and girls—already wearing tutus upon arrival—bounced about excitedly. In a corner behind the old steam locomotive (reminiscent of the venue’s historic role as Northern Railway Maintenance and Engineering Works), the young artists posed for photos with even younger admirers. Some children’s eyes were shining, and hopefully, some of those youngsters will be drawn to the ballet barre too.

To put the Hungarians’ achievements into perspective, one need only compare them to the efforts of the Berlin State Ballet School. Its end-of-the-year gala, which was scheduled for May, was canceled because of “organizational reasons to ensure the best possible performance result.” This marks yet another low in years of misery. In 2020, Berlin’s school senate sacked the school’s directors, Ralf Stabel and Gregor Seyffert, in light of accusations of “child endangerment and a climate of fear.” In 2021, the accusations were dismissed as slander and legally voided, but Seyffert was reinstated only this April. However, Berlin’s school senate did not allow Seyffert to return to his previous director’s post. The future of Stabel is still uncertain.
Whether the school can recover from the immense image damage that it suffered is uncertain. In addition, concern for Berlin’s state coffers given its onerous tuition costs has given rise to the question of whether the school will continue to exist at all.
Meanwhile, in Budapest, finances are a source of good news, as the Hungarian State Opera welcomed the Raiffeisen Bank as its seventh Gold-Level Sponsor. The sponsorship contract was signed right before the premiere of Little Corsaire.

Unlike the preceding children’s productions, Little Swan Lake and Little Sleeping Beauty, Little Corsaire doesn’t attempt to narrate the story of its big brother Le Corsaire. The four ballet masters in charge of the choreography (Olga Chernakova, Dmitrij Taraszovics Kirejko, Denis Murujev, and Dace Radina) assembled group dances and solos in the style of Le Jardin Animé from Act II of Le Corsaire for the first part and a class-like training session similar to Harald Lander’s Études for part two. It was accompanied by Éva Hajnal on the piano and juxtaposed classical and character dancing, each performed by six students. After an entertaining assembly of folk dances, all students came together to cut a mean tap-dance-ish rug in front of a pirate ship.

Örs Domonkos Molnár, a fourth-year student who presented the program, introduced each part. Although I’m not regularly in Budapest, I recognized some students who had participated in earlier productions, and it was interesting to see how they’ve developed over time. Laura Berki, Zsófia Enikő Albert, and Julianna Éva Pollák portrayed three confident Odalisques; Lilla Emese Varga was a calm, focused Little Gulnare alongside Léna Petrovics’s Little Medora. Lukács Márton Kiss—one of the few boys on stage—led a jaunty Tartar dance together with Petra Hanna Varga—a cute couple!
The Hungarian National Ballet sent two pros: Soobin Lee and Luca Massara. Their pas de deux of Medora and Ali from Le Corsaire demonstrated what can be achieved with perseverance and hard work. For all those whose appetite for the “big” Le Corsaire was whet, the pirate romance will be performed by the Hungarian National Ballet later this June.

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