‘Le Corsaire’ for Posterity : For Crew Taping Ballet at OCPAC for PBS Series, It’s Also a Matter of Teamwork

When Diana Alba bought a ticket to American Ballet Theatre’s swashbuckling “Le Corsaire,” she had no clue she might be on TV.

“I came to see Ethan Stiefel,” said the Long Beach pharmaceutical sales rep, speaking of the blue-eyed virtuoso who’s been compared to Baryshnikov.

But even if the cameras never panned her way during Wednesday’s ballet at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, Alba took part in a process that will bring the performance to millions of dance lovers around the globe.

“Le Corsaire” was captured on videotape for the esteemed PBS series, “Dance in America,” and will be broadcast sometime between October and June during PBS’ 1999-2000 season. PBS affiliates worldwide will air the show thereafter.

Cameras or no cameras, Stiefel said he gave his all, as he does every performance.

“If you think about it too much, you’re in trouble,” he said backstage, between heart-stopping leaps. “You just have to come with your guns out and hope it works.”

Ditto, said the seasoned TV crew of camera operators, producers, myriad lighting, sound and other technicians and one director who descended on the center this week.

“I’ve never been nervous in my life,” director Matthew Diamond said Wednesday. It was the first of three same-cast performances that the crew taped; they will conclude filming Sunday.

The best footage from each will be edited into a single “Corsaire,” being produced by Thirteen/WNET New York.

The process began last spring, when Judy Kinberg, who’s been producing and directing for “Dance in America” since its 1976 birth, saw ABT’s “Corsaire” premiere in New York. She knew the exotically costumed, three-act Russian ballet with its stolen slave girls, love-struck pirates, sinking ship and sword fights would make good TV.

Spatial depth and speed don’t come across on TV as well as they do in the theater. But, Kinberg asserted last week, “what TV’s better at is telling a story” because cameras can zoom in to capture intimate pantomime up close, then pull back for a wide shot to show the entire troupe.

“You can be in the best seat all the time,” she said.

Once the center happily agreed to the taping (it’s hosted crews twice before for David Copperfield specials), Kinberg began to assemble a 65-member team, including Diamond.

A former modern dancer, the New Yorker-turned Angeleno has directed about 10 “Dance in America” programs, helping to translate choreography by George Balanchine, Paul Taylor and Mark Morris to the small screen.

The heart of his job involves choosing shots. For instance, a group of dancers running on stage would take a wide shot, he said, while principal dancer Julie Kent’s entrance gets a head-to-toe, followed by a close-up. Kent also will star in the PBS “Corsaire,” as will ABT principals Paloma Herrera, Angel Corella, Juaquin De Luz and Vladimir Malakhov.

“Someone once said you put a show together moment by moment by moment,” Diamond said, “and when all the moments work in a row, you have a show.”

Analyzing a rudimentary “Corsaire” videotape, then scrutinizing live rehearsals, Diamond mapped 725 such moments, scribbling each into a script next to its related step or bit of action, such as “bourree/2 waltzes (arms up)” or “slave walks in.”

During Wednesday’s performance, Diamond and his associates slavishly followed this dog-eared bible from within the production’s eerily dim, cramped command center: a state-of-the-art, $6.5-million mobile control room housed in a 53-foot-long truck parked in the center’s loading dock. Its previous stops?

“This [truck] does the Oscars, the Grammys, the Emmys,” said veteran technical director John Field, who flips the switches that make the cameras roll. He sat next to Diamond right in front of a bank of wall-to-wall TV monitors showing what each camera was shooting.

The truck itself showcased a performance of sorts once the curtain rose. It was like a cacophonous bit of absurdist theater, in fact, as Diamond, connected by headphone to the camera operators inside the center, rapidly called out 725 shots in succession. Simultaneously, an associate director announced each step of the ballet as another assistant loudly counted out every single beat of the score--”One, two, three, four”--to keep everybody in sync.

“It sounds crazy, but we make our own kind of music and it all comes together,” said coordinating producer Kelly Desroches.

The group’s only link to the stage--besides about 2,800 feet of cable--was the crew’s stage manager Peter Margolis, also hooked up by headphone. He stood beside ABT stage manager Dathan Manning, echoing his commands in a whisper to keep Diamond on track.

“Stand by to roll,” Margolis said moments before the ballet began. He was surrounded by a clutch of Degas-esque, duck-footed dancers staring at a monitor and awaiting their cues. The dancers were impressed with their “best seat in the house” view.

“It’s weird, it’s nice,” said a sweaty Angel Corella, sipping a tumbler of water. “It’s not the same when you’re in the wings.”

ABT artistic director Kevin McKenzie spent the evening shuttling between the truck, backstage and the audience. With posterity in the taping, he had no problem admitting nervousness.

“The dancers aren’t overwhelmed by it. I’m the only one who’s face down in the theater,” he joked.

Actually, dark-haired beauty Paloma Herrera, also a company principal, acknowledged that she felt a little extra pressure.

“I get nervous every time I go on stage,” she said.

Corella, who like many of his colleagues has appeared on TV before, added that he watches with a critical eye.

“Dancers are very hard to please--you always find something wrong.”

Back in the truck, crew members worked intensely to avoid something--anything--going awry. Diamond, who readily admits to becoming “a maniac” at times, was occasionally forced to repeat commands, his voice rising with urgency. Camera “four to the right! Four!!” he barked.

As the three-hour ballet drew to a close, the tension waned. It had never boiled over, however. Even though they were taping a live performance, the crew knew they had two more chances, “or passes,” as Diamond called them. Imperfections can be hidden with editing, too.

“Very good first pass, everybody,” said the director, rising stiffly from his seat to go home. Yes, he’s happy when all goes well. But just as Kent can’t do it alone--she graciously plucked a rose from her bouquet to hand to partner Stiefel during bows--neither can Diamond.

“It’s only because everybody pulls together so perfectly,” he said, “that I get to drive so well.”

* American Ballet Theatre performs “Le Corsaire” tonight at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Sunday’s matinee will be taped for PBS. Tickets are $10-$68. (714) 556-2122.