Korea National Ballet's debut cast for 'Giselle': Lee Ha-yeon and Kim Yun
First full-length production under Artistic Director Kim Joo-won; six rookies cast in lead roles
Lee performs Tuesday and Friday evenings; Kim takes the Saturday matinee
Two months before the curtain was set to rise on "Giselle," a rehearsal cast list went up on the bulletin board at the Korea National Ballet's studio. Lee Ha-yeon saw her name and still could not believe it. She ended up asking colleagues to confirm she was reading it correctly.
"I thought my ears must be broken, or my eyes were playing tricks on me," she said. "At some point I even wondered if I was having delusions."
For Kim Yun, who joined the company at 17 as its youngest full member ever, the news arrived just as unexpectedly — his first principal role just two and a half years after joining. "It happened so suddenly that at first I couldn't really believe it," he said. "But the more we rehearsed, the more fun and grateful I felt. These days, coming to work at the ballet company has become something I actually look forward to."
A fresh wind is blowing through the Korea National Ballet's rehearsal studio this autumn. "Giselle" is the first full-length production since Artistic Director Kim Joo-won took the helm in August, and six new faces have been cast in principal roles across seven performances. Lee Eun-seo, Eom Na-yun, Lee Ha-yeon and Ahn Su-yeon will take turns as Giselle, while Na Dae-han and Kim Yun have been chosen as Albrecht. The pairings are striking: each debut dancer is matched with a veteran. Lee Ha-yeon (31) is partnered with Kim Ki-wan, who danced alongside Park Se-eun last year, while Kim Yun (19) performs with principal dancer Park Seul-gi.
The two met recently at Seoul Arts Center, where rehearsals were in full swing. "We've achieved a dream, but it still doesn't feel real," they said shyly.
Lee Ha-yeon, a 'Giselle' specialist
For Lee Ha-yeon, "Giselle" has long been a dream. Now in her ninth year with the company, she danced the Act I variation for high school entrance exams and competitions, performed Act II in college, and after joining the ballet has worn nearly every costume the production offers — a village girl, a Wili, Berthe (Giselle's mother) and even Myrtha. She has, in every sense, become a "Giselle specialist," having inhabited almost every role surrounding the title character.
Having watched more versions of "Giselle" from more vantage points than almost anyone, she has learned to read the work through many different eyes. The result is a Giselle built from layered perspectives — a three-dimensional character. She approaches the role with the precision of a craftsman, mapping out every detail. "Even if the audience can't catch everything, I feel I have to tell the story accurately," she said. "I've been thinking about it a great deal."
Standing at the center of a stage she has long dreamed about has also deepened her sense of responsibility. The Wili scene in Act II — the pinnacle of the "white ballet" tradition — is a measure of the entire company's ensemble strength. For 24 ballerinas to hold their positions for dozens of minutes, barely seeming to breathe, is an ordeal. Lee Ha-yeon has stood in that corps for years. "Those moments of standing perfectly still were incredibly hard," she said. "Knowing that 24 dancers are giving everything to hold that picture made me feel I had to do even better."
The scene she singles out as her favorite is the "mad scene" in Act I. "It's not just Giselle losing her mind from the shock — she's also remembering the happy times she shared with Albrecht," Lee said. "She smiles as if a field of flowers has opened up before her eyes. There's grief in it, but it's also the scene where Giselle's loveliness shines through." She sees it as the moment that distills everything the ballet is about.
Her Albrecht is principal dancer Kim Ki-wan, a veteran who has partnered many Giselles over the years. "He has danced 'Giselle' with so many partners, so he offers all kinds of suggestions," Lee said. "My center of balance can be unpredictable, but he catches everything — I really trust him completely."
Lee Ha-yeon's Giselle is, in many ways, a story of perseverance. She has trained in classical ballet since childhood, yet people around her repeatedly urged her to switch to contemporary dance. She herself acknowledges that her body "isn't ideally suited" to the form. Her legs, which curve slightly, were considered a disadvantage in a world where a sculptor's physique can be an overwhelming asset.
"My feet weren't well suited to pointe shoes, and my hip flexibility meant my turnout didn't come easily," she said. There were many difficult moments, and the suggestions to change direction never stopped — but she says she "simply didn't know how to quit ballet." It was, for her, "the most enjoyable world there is."
"If I compare myself to others, I fall to the bottom endlessly. So I always give myself a talk on the way up the studio stairs — don't compare yourself to anyone else, just focus on yourself, do your own thing."
Joining the Korea National Ballet felt, to Lee, almost like fate. After graduating from university, she spent roughly 70 days alone in Europe — from January through April — auditioning for contemporary ballet companies. She was accepted by some, but not by the ones she had most hoped for. Alone in a foreign country, she began to ask herself whether she could truly be happy dancing there on her own.
Choosing to return home was not easy, but after long deliberation she came back to Korea. The very next day, she learned she had passed the audition for the Korea National Ballet's trainee program, and she joined the company in April 2018. Now she finds herself performing Giselle under the direction of Kim Joo-won — the very dancer who was her role model as a child. That is why she knows exactly what she would say to her younger self: "Keep going. You need to taste failure at least once."
The youngest prince, growing with every sigh
Kim Yun took a different path from the typical ballet elite. Rather than attending an arts middle or high school, he trained at a regular school and honed his skills at a hagwon. His sister, four years his senior, is Kim Byeol — a former Korea National Ballet principal who recently moved to the Vienna State Ballet.
"Back then I was young and didn't want to push myself that hard," he said. "I thought I could still be competitive training at a hagwon." This year he won the gold prize at the Korea International Ballet Competition.
His early days in the company were not easy. In a world governed by a strict hierarchical ranking system, he confessed that he "was so conscious of everyone around him — people he had never met before — that he could barely dance." Time has since smoothed things over naturally.
Landing a principal role just a year and a half after joining has brought with it a flood of attention. Expectations are running high that a new star is about to emerge. At 190 centimeters tall, with striking looks that have drawn comparisons to an idol group member, some are already calling him the dawn of a new "ballet idol." The weight of being the "youngest-ever Albrecht" presses heavily on his shoulders. "Going from corps work straight to a lead role has given me a sense of responsibility, and I feel like I'm growing," he said — though lately his sighs have been growing deeper too.
"For about three days now I've just been sighing constantly. I care a lot about what other people think of me, and that makes it hard to concentrate — it's been really tough."
When things get hard, Kim Yun turns to his senior colleagues and Artistic Director Kim Joo-won. "I told the director I was struggling, and every time she told me to trust myself and keep going," he said. "Those words gave me a real sense of security." The director's faith has been the key to breaking through his shell. The 19-year-old is growing as fast as his sighs are multiplying.
Albrecht in "Giselle" is, at heart, a villain wearing the mask of innocence — a young nobleman who pursues a naive village girl while already engaged to another. "I can't exactly relate to him, but I do understand him," Kim said. He named the Act II variation as the scene that feels most true to the character. "It's a scene where he's filled with regret, but also where he can express a whole range of emotions."
The role demands that Albrecht captivate the audience from the moment he steps onstage, and the 19-year-old's goal matches that perfectly. "I want to look cool, so I'm working on that," he said. "I try to find the most elegant lines when I look in the mirror, but the emotional acting doesn't come as easily."
Listening to Kim, Lee Ha-yeon added her own thoughts. At 31, she said the hardest part of playing Giselle is "showing the girlishness of someone who knows nothing of the world." She even dug up old competition videos from when she was Giselle's age — around 19 — but found she could not recapture it. "I just couldn't get back there," she said with a laugh. Giselle is roughly that age, she noted, and Albrecht likely the same.
"Yun is already that age. He's a young man who can naturally express the flutter of arriving in a new village and falling for someone at first sight — he should feel confident about that."
Kim Yun's Giselle is Park Seul-gi (40). The year Park joined the Korea National Ballet — 2007 — is the year Kim Yun was born, making her the oldest Giselle in the cast. "There are a lot of gaps in my partnering, but she covers everything and teaches me so much," Kim said. "She's warm and easy to be around, and I can feel myself improving."
A debut cast that became each other's mirror
The two are preparing to step into the spotlight as part of a debut cast — a prospect they say makes them even more nervous than a solo debut would. With opening night closing in, the weight of anticipation and anxiety has been bearing down on them.
"After the casting announcement, even the principal cast members stayed in the studio well past the end of the workday, drilling the choreography," Lee said. "We practiced regardless of who our partner was, so Yun and I ended up running through things together quite often." Out of those sessions came a promise between them.
"We're both in the debut cast, so let's work hard together — and not just say nice things to each other, but give honest, objective feedback, even the hard truths that sting a little. We made that promise and leaned on each other."
The hard truths fell mostly to Lee Ha-yeon, the senior of the two. She was strict even in the face of praise. "I'm the conservative type who only takes in about a third of any compliment I receive," she said with a laugh. "So when the director praised Yun, I told him not to get carried away." Whenever their eyes met, they would mouth encouragement to each other — "Stay focused, keep going." Kim, for his part, said watching Lee made him want to push himself just as hard.
As the youngest member of the debut cast, Kim Yun is in a phase of absorbing everything around him. In his eyes, Lee is a sunbae he wants to emulate in every way. "From the very first time I saw her, I was in awe of how expressive and accomplished she was," he said. "And then to see her stay behind and keep practicing even after all that — it made me think I have to work just as hard."
Lee, in turn, spoke highly of Kim's natural gifts and work ethic. "Yun has a solid foundation and technique, and he hits the right position accurately every time," she said. "Some of that is innate talent, but you can see him constantly thinking it through — it reminds me to pay that kind of attention too." Now the time has come to prove what two months of relentless work have built.
"Giselle" is both the first gateway and a new turning point in their journeys as dancers. "Even if I go back to the corps after this, I don't think the way I feel about standing on a stage will ever be the same," Lee said. "Whatever role I'm given, I want to dance in a way that keeps the original spirit but keeps expanding my range." Both dancers are reaching for something beyond technique. "Saying 'moving' feels too one-dimensional," Lee said. "I want to be a dancer who makes people feel something genuinely real." Kim put it simply: "I want to be a dancer who can fully concentrate without worrying about what anyone else thinks."
shee@heraldcorp.com
