Jeon Min-cheol: 'Without Universal Ballet, I couldn't have handled the Mariinsky's pressure'

Tickets sell out within a minute of going on sale whenever his name is on the bill. Now, just over a year after joining Russia's Mariinsky Ballet, Jeon Min-cheol is back in Korea as Prince Siegfried.

Jeon will meet Korean audiences through "Swan Lake," a co-production by Universal Ballet Company (UBC) and Seoul Arts Center opening Friday. Speaking to reporters Thursday ahead of the performance, he said, "I think this production will let me show what I've achieved in my first season at the Mariinsky."

Jeon has deep ties to UBC. Moon Hoon-sook, the company's artistic director, recognized his talent when he was still a student at Seonhwa Arts High School and boldly put him on the professional stage. Just before joining the Mariinsky, Jeon performed as the lead in UBC's 40th-anniversary productions of "La Bayadère" and "Giselle" — a turning point that proved decisive in his development as a dancer.

"Looking back, I'm so grateful that I was given the chance to take on a full-length lead role as a student — it was a tremendous opportunity," he said. "If I had stepped onto the Russian stage without that experience, I think the weight and pressure of a full-length ballet would have been very hard to bear."

Moon also recalled the moment she first saw Jeon, describing him as "a dancer I couldn't take my eyes off from his very first practical exam in his freshman year of high school." She added, "The pressure of a premiere is indescribable, but I thought that if he could build experience as a lead in Korea before going, he would be able to stand on the vast Mariinsky stage with confidence."

The past year in St. Petersburg has transformed Jeon's dancing and daily life entirely. "The thing that has changed the most in Russia is life itself," he said. "Unlike before, when I practically lived in the rehearsal studio, I now have room in my everyday routine — time to go see performances and fill myself with inspiration."

The historic and cultural landscape of St. Petersburg has been a constant source of artistic inspiration. Even the simple act of walking home through the city's stately streets after rehearsals stirred a flood of thoughts and emotions, and that inner shift has found its way into his dancing.

The greatest asset he has gained as a dancer there, he said, is the understanding that not only technique and fundamentals but every moment of acting on stage must be handled with care. "What I learned most carefully from my Russian teachers was the acting side," he said. "Even the same mime gesture has to be performed at a different speed and with different power depending on the character's situation and personality — that was an invaluable lesson in how to fully convey a role."

He said another major achievement was learning the essence of "dramatic plausibility" and what he calls "language written with the body" — the idea that the vitality of every character on stage constantly expressing and communicating their emotions must take priority over the brilliance or precision of the movement itself.

His portrayal of Prince Siegfried in this production is expected to reflect those hard-won insights into acting. "Siegfried is a character who feels stifled by the arranged meetings with potential brides thrust upon him at a time when he is on the verge of making his own choices and changes," Jeon said. "Even when he first encounters the swan by the lake in Act II, what I felt first was not love, but curiosity toward a strange being and a desire to save her."

The version of "Swan Lake" UBC is presenting is a historically significant staging first introduced to Korean audiences in 1992 through a collaboration with Oleg Vinogradov, then artistic director of the Mariinsky Ballet. It combines the Mariinsky's classical grammar with UBC's signature tragic ending. "Watching 'Swan Lake' in Russia, I felt in my bones why this is classical ballet," Jeon said. "I want to convey that feeling and its lingering resonance to Korean audiences in full."

The role of Siegfried will be shared among Jeon and UBC principal dancers Lim Seon-woo, Lee Seung-min and Lee Hyeon-jun. The roles of Odette and Odile will be performed by Lee Yu-rim, Jeon Yeo-jin and Hong Hyang-gi, among others. All tickets sold out four minutes after going on sale.