“It feels like going into the exam hall holding the hand of a friend who already has the answer sheet. Dancing is more about practice than practice. You can’t beat someone who has been on stage a lot. In that sense, I studied ‘La Bayadère’ only shallowly, but I learned it well. This is different because I was able to practice with Kimin dozens of times.”
<img alt="Park Se-eun, a principal dancer at the Paris Opera Ballet in France, and Kim Ki-min, a principal dancer at the Russian Mariinsky Ballet, attended a round interview held at the Seoul Arts Center in Seocho-gu, Seoul on the afternoon of the 27th. Photo: National Ballet” src=”https://news.koreadaily.com/data/photo/2024/10/28/426e912f-8858-4ede-9a6c-b84751dad62e.jpg”/>
Paris Opera Ballet Etoile (principal dancer) Park Se-eun (35), who plays the dancer Nikia in the National Ballet’s performance of ‘La Bayadère’, expressed her feelings about joining forces with Mariinsky Ballet principal dancer Kim Ki-min (32) for the first time in 14 years. . The performance will be held at the Seoul Arts Center in Seocho-gu, Seoul from the 30th to the 3rd of next month, and the two will perform on stage twice, on the 1st and 3rd of next month.
In a round interview held at the Seoul Arts Center on the 27th, Park Se-eun and Kim Ki-min expressed their deep trust in each other, saying, “We talked on the phone often before coming to Korea and talked about ‘La Bayadère.'”
Kim Ki-min and Park Se-eun are world-class ballet superstars produced by Korea. Since Kim Ki-min in 2015 and Park Se-eun in 2021 became principal dancers of ballet companies representing Russia and France, respectively, they have always been given the modifier ‘the first Asian dancer’. Kim Ki-min received the Benoit de la Danse Best Dancer Award, known as the ‘Academy Award of the dance world,’ in 2016, and Park Se-eun received it in 2018. Among Korean male dancers, Kim Ki-min is the only one to receive this award.
On this day, Park Se-eun continued to praise Kim Ki-min endlessly. He even boasted to his fellow members of the Paris Opera Ballet, saying, “I’m performing with Kimin Kim.”
“Just as dancers in the past grew up watching the 20th century ballet legend Rudolf Nureyev (1938-1993), young dancers today are growing up watching Kim Ki-min. Ki-min is an internationally respected dancer.” (Park Se-eun)
Kim Ki-min said, “Se-eun was my idol when I was young.”
“My older brother (Kim Ki-wan, principal of the National Ballet Company) is in the same class as Se-eun Se-eun at Yewon School. Every time I went to see him, I asked my older sister to dance with me. From then on, my older sister became famous, and it was every major student’s dream to dance with Park Se-eun. “I achieved that dream at the National Ballet’s performance of ‘Swan Lake’ in 2009, and there were a lot of jealous male dancers.”
The first time the two worked together was in 2009. The two dancers, who were promising dancers at the time, were selected for the lead roles in the National Ballet’s ‘Swan Lake’ and performed on stage together. The last time they appeared on stage together was in 2010, when the Korean Ballet Association performed ‘Don Quixote’ and the Universal Ballet Company’s ‘La Bayadere’. 14 years have passed since then.
Kim Ki-min has more experience performing on stage with ‘La Bayadere’. Park Se-eun said, “Unlike the Mariinsky Ballet, the Paris Opera Ballet does not often perform ‘La Bayadere’. This is the National Ballet’s fourth appearance as Nikia, following the Universal Ballet in 2010, the Mariinsky Ballet in 2015, and the Paris Opera Ballet in 2021. “I think this experience will be of great help as the Paris Opera Ballet plans to stage this performance in 2026,” he said.
Kim Ki-min has performed ‘La Bayadère’ more than dozens of times, but said, “That’s why it’s a more dangerous work.”
“The more you dance (the same dance), the easier it is to fall into mannerisms, and it can be dangerous because you may think, ‘I would dance well anyway.’ That’s why I try to study the work more.”
Kim Ki-min, who had to perform the Mariinsky Ballet’s tour performance, arrived in the country with 5 days left before the performance, so the rehearsal schedule was tight, but the eyes of the two dancers were full of confidence.
Kim Ki-min said, “There are a total of three rehearsals starting tomorrow, and I think the rehearsals are already over. It is important to understand and feel what my partner wants. Since I feel comfortable with my sister’s dance style, rehearsals have already progressed to some extent.” “It is,” he said. Park Se-eun said, “Ever since the day it was decided that I would dance with Ki-min, I have been sleeping while imagining the two of us dancing the perfect pas de deux. I think that synergy will be a performance that explodes with a bang.”
When asked what kind of artist they view each other as, the two had no hesitation. Park Se-eun described Kim Ki-min as “an artist who is confident about the dance and stage he wants to perform, and who can convey that confidence to the audience.” Kim Ki-min said, “My older sister is a dancer with tenacity,” and added, “She is not only a good dancer, but she is a person who influences many dancers and audiences.”
‘La Bayadère’ is a masterpiece of such large scale that it is called a ‘ballet blockbuster.’ Set in ancient India, it depicts the quadrangular relationship between the dancer Nikia, the warrior Solor, the priest Brahmin, and the princess Gamzatti.
The National Ballet’s ‘La Bayadere’ is a version adapted by ballet choreographer Yuri Grigorovich from the original work by Marius Petipa, the father of classical ballet. Grigorovich revised the work for the Bolshoi Ballet in 1991 and again for the National Ballet in 2013. The National Ballet’s ‘La Bayadère’, reborn by Grigorovich, is characterized by adding dance to the music flowing between acts and mime scenes expressing emotions through hand gestures, thereby increasing the attractions.
With the news that the two stars who won the ‘Benoit de la Danse’, the dance world’s highest honor, would appear on stage together, tickets for that episode were sold out in 3 minutes.
Hong Jiyu (hong.jiyu@joongang.co.kr)
