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Alexandra Tomalonis
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Shim Chung

Universal Ballet
By Alexandra Tomalonis
Special to The Washington Post
June 16, 2001

Shim Chung may not be a household name in the United States, but she’s been a legend in Korea for at least 1500 years. Her poignant story has been given life in a new form, that of western classical ballet, and the Universal Ballet’s lavish production of the ancient tale was danced Thursday night at the Kennedy Center Opera House to a packed and happy house.

In the legend, a sea captain needed a young woman who would agreed to sail with him and be sacrificed to the sea gods if a storm came up. (Handy things, women.) Shim Chung, hoping the money would pay a monk to pray away her father’s blindness, volunteered.

The inevitable happens: storm, drowning, Act II in an underwater kingdom where Shim Chung is wooed by the Sea Prince and entertained by dancing mermaids and angelfish, and a final act where she’s restored to life, marries the King, and cures not only her father, but all the blind men they can find.

This is all told with remarkable clarity, and the work has a moral force few Western ballets can equal in that it’s more than just a love story. The point is Shim Chung’s moral fiber, her love for her father, her trading of underwater riches to find him again, and the final resolution of virtue rewarded.

While the choreography (by Adrienne Dellas) and score (by Kevin Barber Pickard) are no more than serviceable, the ballet’s structure is made of iron and there’s plenty of both classical and character dancing, showing off the women’s beautifully schooled technique and soft upper bodies and the men’s athletic prowess. Jae-Yong Ohm was especially impressive as the Sea Prince and Jae-Woong Pu made a real character out of the father.

Julia Moon, the company’s General Director and prima ballerina, danced the role of the humble beggar girl honored for her selflessness and filial piety. It was a careful rather than spontaneous performance, but Moon is a lyrical dancer with a gorgeous line and the gracious authority to make one believe she can calm a raging storm, capture the heart of a sea monster AND a king, and make the blind see again.