“Le Corsaire”
Korean National Ballet
Forum Ludwigsburg
Ludwigsburg, Germany
October 18, 2025
by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf
Last weekend, the Korean National Ballet presented Le Corsaire at the Forum Ludwigsburg. The tour stopped at Suejin Kang’s, the company’s artistic director, former home in the Stuttgart region, where she is a cherished former principal of Stuttgart Ballet. The senior guard of Stuttgart’s ballet circle therefore flocked to the performance as if it were a family gathering.
The Koreans’ Le Corsaire premiered in 2020 and is by Jungbin Song, a soloist of the company who began choreographing in 2016. He kept some of Petipa’s signature choreography (such as the tender pas de deux of Medora and Conrad in Act II; the pas de trois of Medora, Conrad, and Ali; and the Grand Pas de Trois des Odalisques) but rewrote the plot significantly. Many of Le Corsaire’s adventurous twists and turns were cut, and the texture was thinned 
to such an extent that it captured an audience only with difficulty. Colorful costumes partly compensated for the reduced set, which mainly consisted of painted backdrops of romantic landscapes, adventurously swelled sails, or a quaint village square. The recording of Adolphe Adam’s music didn’t add to the atmosphere, especially as Ludwigsburg’s Forum’s sound system is less than perfect.
The first scene made it immediately clear that the slave trade has no place in this Corsaire. Without much ado, Conrad (Jaewoo Lee), the heroic leader of the pirates, ordered the execution of the captain of a slave trading ship, which he had just seized. Seyd Pasha and his harem also vanished from the scene. They made way for the king of Margentos (Donghui Kang) and the palace priestesses. The shrewd slave trader, Isaac Lankendem, turned into Prince Lankendem (Donghyeon Kwak), a couth member of the king’s court. Consequently, neither Medora (Yeonjae Cho) nor Gulnare (Byeol Kim) was a 
slave competing for the sovereign’s favor. Instead, Gulnare was the leading priestess at court whose benevolence resembled that of a saint, and Medora was an inhabitant of a small island.
She met Conrad, her lover-to-be, when his ship accidentally made a port call. Pink lighting indicated their instant attraction. For unclear reasons, the king also paid a visit to the island. The synopsis revealed that he intended to subjugate the islanders. Because they couldn’t meet his material demands, he took Medora and her fellows captive. While freeing Medora, Conrad killed Lankendem, but unlike in the original, he escaped incarceration. Upon returning to the corsairs’ home island, the lovers enjoyed their romance, unaware of the threat posed by Conrad’s treacherous friend, Birbanto (Seongwan Byun). During Medora’s rescue, Birbanto snatched some bling from the royal treasure chest, but alas! The king’s guard nabbed him. To save his butt, Birbanto agreed to reveal the corsairs’ hideout and avenge Lankendem. He would have been successful if not for Conrad’s faithful buddy, Ali (Kiwan Kim), who intervened at the last second. Although he only slowly grasped the betrayal, Conrad finally overpowered Birbanto and, together with Medora and his comrades, set sail to new shores.
No doubt, regardless of how ferociously their swords cut the air, these pirates were good and righteous. Lee’s Conrad led them with Don Quixote-like heroism and princely noblesse. Only their ship’s black jack flag didn’t correspond with the noble ambition.
Nimble, graceful, yet also playful, once Cho’s Medora was captured, she adapted to her new role as priestess without a hitch. Her counterpart, Gulnare, was the more seasoned woman, yet similar tutus sometimes made it difficult to distinguish between the two. Kwak’s Prince Lankendem was a highlight. His dance and demeanor had exactly the quality you’d expect from a man of his status. Kim’s Ali was a supple jumper with arms as sharp as a clasp knife. Byun’s Birbanto oozed human baseness, and Kang’s king of Margentos spent most of his time sitting motionless on an oversized throne. The corps danced like clockwork and admirably in sync.
| Links: | Website of the Forum Ludwigsburg | |
| Website of the Korean National Ballet | ||
| Photos: | 1. | Ensemble, “Le Corsaire” by Jungbin Song, Korean National Ballet 2025 |
| 2. | Jaewoo Lee (Conrad) and Yeonjae Cho (Medora), “Le Corsaire” by Jungbin Song, Korean National Ballet 2025 | |
| 3. | Yeonjae Cho (Medora), Jaewoo Lee (Conrad), and Kiwan Kim (Ali); “Le Corsaire” by Jungbin Song, Korean National Ballet 2025 | |
| 4. | Jaewoo Lee (Conrad), Yeonjae Cho (Medora), and ensemble; “Le Corsaire” by Jungbin Song, Korean National Ballet 2025 |
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| all photos © Korean National Ballet | ||
| Editing: | Kayla Kauffman |