Philadelphia Ballet performs 'Le Corsaire' at the Academy of Music, October 18-26

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Le Corsaire brings swashbuckling on the high seas to the Academy of Music stage.

"It's mainly the story about pirates and treasure," says Angel Corella, Artistic Director for Philadelphia Ballet. "But it's really, really fun, really high energy. A wonderful ballet to start the celebration of our 60th anniversary. We have such an amazing group of dancers in the company."

He says he's incredibly honored to be where we are today.

Corella is re-staging the adventurous ballet, which he says is now more about the dancing and the love story.

"Because it's my 10th anniversary, I wanted to bring ballets that I was kind of popular for," he says. "And it has a lot for everyone."

The story is based on a poem by Lord Byron.

"Conrad and his friend Birbanto, they go into this town," he says. "Conrad gets into town, he sees Medora, he falls crazy in love with her, and she falls in love with him too."

But Medora's brother wants her to marry the Pasha, the richest man in town.

"The Pasha comes into town, she dances for the Pasha," says Corella. "And then finally, the Pasha takes her to the palace."

In the meantime, Conrad comes up with his own plan to be with Medora. He has his pirate friends kidnap her.

There's greed and betrayal, with Birbanto creating a plot to kill Conrad.

But Conrad's servant, Ali, saves the day.

"The part of Ali was made famous by Rudolf Nureyev or Mikhail Baryshnikov. I danced that part too," says Corella. "This ballet is very unusual because it has a lot more male characters than any other ballet."

He says the pirates get to dance this really difficult dance, and when audiences see the dancers on stage, they'll get pulled into the performance.

"It feels like when you're watching, you're part of what they're doing on stage," he says. "And it's pretty amazing."

Philadelphia Ballet presents Le Corsaire, Oct. 18-26 at the Academy of Music.

Le Corsaire at the Philadelphia Ballet | Tickets
Academy of Music
240 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102