The Mariinsky Ballet’s tour to Seoul – a great success

Kim Kimin

“We first performed in South Korea twenty-two years ago, and our most recent tour to Seoul was in 2004,” Director of the Mariinsky Ballet Yuri Fateyev told ITAR-TASS. “In many ballet companies throughout the world performances feature stars of international renown, that’s no surprise, but we have something special. One of the top stars at the Mariinsky Theatre is its corps de ballet, one that no other theatre in the world can boast of. I can say with no false modesty that the Mariinsky’s corps de ballet is a true superstar in the world, and I say that with pride,” stressed Yuri Fateyev.

Especially interesting for Seoul’s audiences was the performance by Kim Kimin as Siegfried, a compatriot and current trainee with the Mariinsky Ballet. As ITAR-TASS reported, “The twenty-year-old dancer performed with outstanding Mariinsky Theatre ballerina Olesya Novikova. The day before, to staggering success, Kim Kimin created a furore, the first dancer from Korea to join this internationally acclaimed company.” As the dancer himself declared at a press-conference before the tour opened, “This will be my first appearance in Seoul as a dancer of the Mariinsky Ballet, and I hope that I can show the best I am capable of.”