Universal Ballet, City Center, April 14-19, 1998

Dance Magazine, August, 1998 by Robert Greskovic

UNIVERSAL BALLET CITY CENTER APRIL 14-19, 1998 REVIEWED BY ROBERT GRESKOVIC

Martha Graham suggested that it takes ten years to make a dancer. No one, as far as I can tell, has yet ventured to put a figure on the time needed to make a dance company, never mind to establish a dance tradition. Universal Ballet of Seoul, South Korea, may offer a ballpark figure, however. Established in 1984, the young troupe made an impressive first showing in New York City and suggested that, given a strong commitment, such exacting work can be done in little more than a dozen years.

Founded by the famous (or infamous, depending upon the spin) Reverend and Mrs. Sun Myung Moon, and now chaired by businessman Dr. Bo Hi Pak with general direction from ballerina Julia H. Moon and artistic direction by Bruce Steivel, the fifty-eight-member troupe performed two evening-length ballets. Shim Chung--The Blindman's Daughter, a three-act ballet created for the troupe in 1986 by Adrienne Dellas, its first artistic director, opened the season. Swan Lake, in Oleg Vinogradov's three-act post-Petipa-Ivanov production, finished the run.

Shim Chung is a narrative ballet on a Korean subject in the shape of a nineteenth-century fantastic ballet--think Ondine, La Fille du Danube, and the like. Nicely painted, old-fashioned settings (by Myung-Ho Kim) and handsome costumes, both folkloric and ballet-apt (by Sylvia Taalsohn), frame a tale about a pure and loving daughter whose selfsacrificing actions through trials and tribulations bring sight to her blind father. The serviceable original score with old-world aspirations (by Kevin Pickard), complete with storm and divertissement music, underpins the ballet's narrative and choreographic aims.

The actual choreography ranges from delicate, postural moments for dramatic exposition to standard, showy, academic dancing for divertissement display. None of this is groundbreaking, but neither is it egotistically overwrought with desperate inventiveness and misguided aspirations to take ballet into the next millennium. No matter how simple, the choreography offers a recognizable and rewarding ballet experience.

Both casts I saw rendered Shim Chung's movement and dramatics confidently. Julia Moon and Sun-Hee Park each had a winning way with the title role, while all the supporting men, from athletic sea captain and sailors to mimetic blind men, performed with conviction, warmth, and, when necessary, a sound degree of danse d'ecole finesse.

The real test of such finesse predictably came with Swan Lake. And here the troupe's scrupulous way with ballet's rigorous mechanics told an even more remarkable story of a no-shortcuts tradition taking strong root in Korean soil. Though the overall accent of the company's dancing now tends to be a little restrained in thrust, energy, and spontaneity, it still reveals requisite academic detail. For instance, the company consistently shows a sure ability for executing strong, booming, and unforced grands jetes. Both the male and female dancers share this ability, with the men showing extra-impressive strength and force. The troupe's connection to Soviet ballet shines through in details like these. The fact that some of the women work in Russian pointe shoes while others, mostly select leading dancers, wear non-Russian ones indicates that the "Russian school" dominates but does not have exclusive claim on the company's aesthetic.

Vinogradov's Swan Lake, last seen here in 1995, has been emended for Universal Ballet, with the Soviet-era happy ending restored. Throughout this famous ballet of ballets, Universal Ballet did its young reputation proud. The all-important female ensemble was somewhat overregimented, but it essentially rendered the Ivanov-cum-Gorsky swan scenes with unerring conviction and attention to detail. Moon was the more successful interpreter of the dual leading role, though Sun-Hee Park acquitted herself honorably. Both Jae-Hong Park and Dragos Mihalcea made dashing Siegfrieds, with Park performing the more impressive dancing.

American-born Steivel left his post following the tour for artistic responsibilities at Nevada Dance Theater. With assistance from six ballet masters and mistresses, his troupe appears to be sailing with unmistakable grace and remarkable ease into the deep waters of a lasting ballet tradition.