Tilting at the castanets

While Peter Tchaikovsky's name is familiar to ballet lovers around the world, his contemporary Ludwig Minkus has not fared so well outside of Russia. The Vienna-born Minkus became the official ballet composer at the Bolshoi Theater in 1864, a post he held for seven years. Although he composed more than 20 ballets, he is best remembered for Don Quixote.

The ballet was rarely performed outside Russia until the mid-1960s, when George Balanchine choreographed his version for the New York City Ballet and Rudolf Nureyev did a production for the Vienna State Opera in 1966.

Tonight and tomorrow, the Taipei Royal Ballet will perform a version of Don Quixote at the Metropolitan Hall, choreographed by its director and leading dancer, Wu Ching-yin, who will dance the role of the heroine, Kitri.

Now in its fourth season, the Taipei Royal Ballet was founded by Wu to promote classical ballet in Taiwan and elevate the level of choreography in this country. In its first year it performed a mixed program of excerpts from ballets such as La Bayadere; last year it performed a full-length Sleeping Beauty.

The plot of the ballet Don Quixote has little to do with Cervantes' novel of the same name. The story revolves around the courtship of Basil and Kitri, which is threatened by a rich suitor her father favors, Gamache. This being Spain (sort of) there is a matador, and lots of clicking castanets to accompany the dancing. Don Quixote and his hapless sidekick make an appearance, but really have little to do.

Wu has put together a 60-strong company, including 20 youngsters, to perform the ballet. While many of the dancers have worked for her before, she also held open auditions to attract new talent, and the group has been working on this project for several months.

“Don Quixote is an easy ballet for audiences to understand,” Wu said in a recent interview. “It's very comedic, very lighthearted.”

While she watched recordings of some of the other versions, including Mikhail Barishnykov's for the American Ballet Theater, Wu said her production will be different. She has chosen some of Minkus' music that was dropped from other versions, changed some of the tempos and gotten rid of a lot of the mime that has traditionally been used to move the story forward.

“Everyone dances,” she said. “There is not so much walking around.”

She also changed the traditional big pas de quas to a pas de deux to “make it more passionate.”

The Taipei Royal Ballet will also perform a slightly condensed version of Don Quixote in Kaohsiung on Sept. 16.

While the quality of the dancing may not be up to level of international visitors such as the English National Ballet, a ticket or two to Don Quixote won't empty your wallet.