Rough Launch for ‘Corsaire’

Everyone knows what a B-movie is and, in its irredeemably cheesy way, the American Ballet Theatre version of “Le Corsaire” is a textbook B-ballet--one that belongs in some booze-and-snooze drive-in or dinner theater rather than a culture palace such as the Orange County Performing Arts Center, where it opened Tuesday.

Don’t expect highfalutin production values. From its worn and wrinkled Arabian Nights sets, designed by Irina Konstantinova Tibilova and acquired from a Bolshoi warehouse, through wretchedly tinny playing by the Pacific Symphony under Ermanno Florio--right down to dancing of no notable stylistic or expressive distinction from much of the opening night cast--this “Corsaire,” as they say, has a coarse air.

The ballet itself vaguely derives from Byron in the same way that the better known (and just plain better) “Don Quixote” vaguely derives from Cervantes. Marius Petipa tinkered with it for more than 40 years, but never managed to fit his great showpieces into a plot that he inherited from Jules-Henri de Saint-Georges and Joseph Mazilier, a plot dedicated to the proposition that being sold into slavery makes women feel like dancing.

As a result, his celebrated “Pas d’Esclave” (1858), “Jardin Anime” (1868) and title pas de deux (actually a trio, 1899) don’t gain emotional resonance from being seen in context but remain just as much isolated party pieces as when you see them on a “Stars of the Volga” mixed bill. Adding to the sense of disjunction: music by no less than five composers--Adam, Pugni, Delibes, Drigo and Prince Oldenbourg.

A decade ago, the Kirov Ballet danced a shorter, simpler and infinitely classier “Corsaire” on the same stage. As in that production, Anna-Marie Holmes’ ABT edition (originally created for the Boston Ballet) assigns bravura challenges in the first act to the subsidiary characters of Gulnare and Lankendem--and erases the crude anti-Semitism in the latter role. It also pumps up the virtuosity for other characters and incorporates lots more dancing for the lead lovers, Medora and Conrad.

It clearly wants to be a 2 1/2-hour index to end-of-this-century classical technique--millennial Petipa-dancing. But ABT hasn’t got the chops. Whether it’s the pirate men slamming swords together or the toe-dancing flowers moving from one bouquet to another, the corps displays metrical accuracy but no spirit, no imaginative participation in the choreography.

During the six-day Costa Mesa engagement, ABT will field three slates of principals--one to be videotaped by PBS. Most of the Tuesday leads had developed individual approaches to the problems and opportunities of the ballet, but the results refused to mesh. Moreover, shaky finishes from nearly everyone suggested the consequences of either under-rehearsal or jet lag. Only the exemplary Maxim Beloserkovsky as Lankendem had the classical refinement, acting prowess and sense of star power to make the ballet seem a personal vehicle at every moment; he dances Conrad tonight.

Looking like the young Laurence Olivier, Italian firebrand Giuseppe Picone brought true Romantic fervor and a spectacular jump to the role of Conrad, though his partnering skills and stamina periodically faltered. As Medora, Susan Jaffe proved gracious and technically reliable, but stayed at the same dynamic and emotional level in all three acts as if on automatic pilot.

Marcelo Gomes danced Ali (Conrad’s slave) promisingly enough, but overplayed his signature character-pose; you’d have thought his fingers were surgically attached to his shoulders. Yan Chen looked delicate, fleet and elegant in the “Jardin Anime” divertissement but barely came alive in the “Pas d’Esclave” duet with Beloserkovsky. John Selya threw himself into the role of the treacherous Birbanto and his energy helped, though his bravura suffered from extreme roughness. Christine Dunham danced gamely opposite him in the pirate ensembles.

The resituated Odalisque trio featured Oksana Konobeyeva, Sandra Brown and an especially deft Gillian Murphy, while the “Jardin Anime” ensemble enlisted 16 capable children from local schools.

Ethan Brown mugged his way through the lecherous, bumbling duties of the old Turkish Pasha, a mime-caricature role that, unlike Lankendem, hasn’t had its bigotry softened for contemporary audiences. And that could be the ultimate lesson of this ABT charade: that in the evolution of our tastes in dance and the development of our social attitudes, we just might not be as far along the path to maturity as we’d like to think.

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* The ABT “Le Corsaire” repeats, with changes of cast, tonight, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. $10-$68. (714) 556-ARTS.