Review: Kang Sue-jin’s swan song Onegin

She was elegant and sad. Kang Sue-jin, the head of the Korean National Ballet and prima ballerina of the Stuttgart Ballet, made a perfect choice – Onegin, one of the best drama ballets in the late 20th century.

She showed excellent techniques and mature performance as she played Tatyana in “Onegin” performed by the Stuttgart Ballet at the Seoul Arts Center in Seoul from Friday through Sunday. Despite her 170 centimeter (5.6 feet) height, she seemed like waking on clouds and displayed both gracefulness and stability.

Unlike classical ballet, which values the sophistication of dances over a plot, drama ballet maintains the framework of classical ballet and highlights the emotions and actions of characters. For such reason, audiences are impressed differently depending on how ballerinas perform emotions. In this regard, Kang Sue-jin was clearly understanding Tatyana’s feelings. Audiences were immersed in her performance in Act 1 where Tatyana, an innocent country girl, writes down her love to Onegin, an aristocratic youth, in a letter, Act 2 where she is rejected by Onegin in her birthday party, and Act 3 where she who is married to Prince Gremin loves and rejects Onegin who belated came to her and confessed his love to her.

Though Kang was away from the stage for 16 months since last year’s “Madam Butterfly,” her performance remained solid. In particular, the famous “mirror pas de deux” in Act 1 Scene 2 and the “regret pas de deux” in Act 2 scene 2 were outstanding. Kang made no mistake in a high-level turning technique in the “mirror pas de deux” where Tatyana dances with the phantom of Onegin while looking into a mirror to see her future husband with friends. She showed restrained beauty and Tatyana’s pain in the “regret pas de deux” where she rejects Onegin who confesses his love to her after a long time.

Kang has said, “I would never regret even if I quit ballet today.” Audiences gave her a standing ovation after her last performance in Korea and missed her retirement.

On the first day of the performance, Kang Hyo-jung, another prima ballerina of the Stuttgart Ballet, showed impressive performance playing “Olga,” Tatyana’s younger sister. Even five hours before the performance, some audiences who failed to get a ticket lined up to buy a ticket for a seat with limited visibility that is sold only for the day.