Giselle
Nikolaj Hübbe and Sorella Englund:
Royal Danish Ballet
October 14 2009
Leonide Massine:
Symphony Fantastic
Royal Danish Ballet 1948 captured on DVD,
Dancebooks
Continue reading "Revisiting "Giselle" and the ghosts of the past " »
November 04, 2009
October 13, 2009
At Last!
(Andrew Bowmann and Gudrun Bojesen)
Jerome Robbins:
"Dances at a Gathering" & "West Side Story Suite"
The Royal Danish Ballet,
The Opera
September 2009
For a choreographer so well suited to the Royal Danish Ballet, Jerome Robbins' ballets have been the obvious missing component in the RDB repertoire. The productions have been too few and too far apart and more often than not we have had to survive on his small scale works. No other ballet has been missed like "Dances at a Gathering" and missed by generations of dancers and audiences. There cannot be many other ballets so suitable to a high standard dramatically toned classical company. But instead of the real thing the company has presented several ballets that resembles "Dances at a Gathering" like Hans van Manen's "Song without Words". Finally we have our hands on the original.
August 09, 2009
The Soul of the Company
Royal Danish Ballet
Whims of the Ballet Master
Ohad Naharin : Minus 7
Christopher Wheeldon: Wanderers
Jacopo Godani: Uncontaminated
Alicia Alonso: "Don Quixote"
April- May 2009
One man improvises on stage. He communicates with the growing crowds who have stayed in the theater during intermission in anticipation of his act. No two performance are alike and the dancer is fully in command of his steps, miming and audience. This is Morten Eggert, one of the most original dancers in Royal Danish Ballet warming up the audience for "Minus 7" and what he represents in those few brief moments is the soul of the company, the special abilities of the Danish school to combine drama and dancing and be able to communicate without words, to give a dramatic twist to even the most abstract ballet. He is the more than 200 year old tradition, but does he also represent the future?
April 10, 2009
Silja the Swan
Silja Schandorff retires from The Royal Danish Ballet on top of her craft.
Her career have been a constant source of pleasure and artistic development and her high standards, integrity and faith in the classic company traditions may be the main reason why there still is a tradition to inherit. She has been the guarantee that the highest possible levels could and should be meet in decades of poor artistic management.
Luckily her career is now portrayed in a beautifully illustrated book by Ole Nørlyng.
April 02, 2009
Getting there!
B for Balanchine
Royal Danish Ballet
March 2009
Royal Danish Ballet managed to dance the full Balanchine program ("Symphony in 3 Movements", "La Sonnambula" and "Symphony in C") with a cast lacking Silja Schandorff and using only one male principal and doing an ok job. Taking a half time status is Nikolaj Hübbe's first season as ballet master one must conclude that he managed to develop promising dancers to potential stars in record time.
March 19, 2009
Welcome back, Mr. Balanchine
Symphony in 3 movements
by George Balanchine
Directed by Suzy Pilarre
La Sonnambula
By George Balanchine
Directed by Richard Tanner
Symfoni in C
By George Balanchine
Directed by Merrill Ashley og Stacey Cadell
For most of the Danish ballet audience, George Balanchine is the creator of New York City Ballet and the employer of Danish male talent. It is not well known that Balanchine has spent two long periods at the company and had the climate been more appreciative, his story could have been our story.
One of the charms of having Nikolaj Hübbe as Ballet Master is his knowledge and love of the Balanchine heritage, and as his first Balanchine outing he has selected two masterpieces with long performance histories at The Royal Danish Ballet for an evening tying the knot of the happy combination of Mr. B and the other Mr. B's company.
March 07, 2009
Flemming Flindt dies
Former Principal Dancer, Ballet Master and Choreographer Flemming Flindt dies at age 71.
Flemming Flindt is an important chapter in the Royal Danish Ballet’s history, all though it is likely that only his first ballet “The Lesson” will earn continuing performances. But what Flindt also should be remembered for was his major contribution of growing the company and pushing ballet from an elite art form onto the masses. Unfortunately this effort was done mainly by trivialising and vulgarising the art form, but he none the less made ballet matter both in the Royal Theatre and to everyman.
Expected and unexpected
Today Nikolaj Hübbe presented his repertoire for next season and the repertoire is a reflection of his own career consisting of a healthy dose of Balanchine, Robbins, Bournonville and even John Neumeier's "A Midsummer's Night Dream", one of the first ballets where the young Hübbe had starring roles. That was an unexpected but welcome dish on the menu . Although it was expected for Hübbe to do a new version of "Napoli", it is very unexpected that he together with Sorella Englund will put a Fellini type frame around the classic.
January 27, 2009
The Generation Game
Kenneth Greve & Peter Langdal:
The Nutcracker"
Royal Danish Ballet
December 2008
John Neumeier
"Romeo & Juliet"
Royal Danish Ballet
January 2009
"The Leth Box"
Royal Danish Ballet & NYCB on Film
Nikolaj Hübbe is trying to develop the young dancers of the Royal Danish Ballet to handle the mantle, but not every ballet in the inherited repertoire help him to reach his goal.This winter's productions of "The Nutcracker" and "Romeo & Juliet" demonstrate the challenges but the dancers are developing and a blast from the past gives the young dancers a unique opportunity to emulate the qualities of yesteryear.
November 19, 2008
Happy Endings
John Cranko: Onegin
Tim Rushton: Cinderella
Royal Danish Ballet
New casts
New principal dancer American Nehemiah Kish has certainly been put to work. Following leading parts in Giselle and Cinderella he is now also cast as Onegin.
His previous roles has showed him to be a technically strong dancer with dramatic limitations. Therefore Onegin could be considered something of a stretch.
