According to Berlingske Tidende, Kenneth Greve, 39 will be the new Ballet Master at the Finnish national ballet in Helsinki. He will start a four year reign in August. Probably Helsinki's gain will be Copenhagens loss, as it must be expected that Greve will scale down on his dancing and thereby robbing the Danish audience of our best male dancer and he will be deeply missed. Greve will follow fellow Dane Dinna Bjørn as ballet master. In early December he will premiere his first major production for the Royal Danish Ballet, a new version of the Nutcracker.
Kenneth Greve was educated at the RDB school, but was not picked up as dancer by then ballet master Frank Andersen. Following studies in NY he had an international career, including being chosen by Nurejev as the Prince in Swan Lake at the Paris Opera and a few years in Vienna before rejoining the Royal Ballet as a much needed principal dancer. He and Silja Schandorff became our leading classical, romantic and even modern partnership, starring in works like Giselle, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Odysseen, The Nutcracker, Apollon, Symphony in C ,In the Night, Manon, In the Middle somewhat Elevated and numerous other ballets. Kenneth Greve has also stared in Ballets like Onegin, A Folk's Tale, La Sylphide, The Little Mermaid, Sacre de Printempt and Anna Karenina. He has guested internationally, most frequently with Royal Ballet in London, where he has gathered a dedicated fan group.
A man of many talents, Kenneth Greve last year won a celebrity singing competetion in Danish Television. (can be seen and heard on YouTube) He has choreographed for the South African ballet and is also teaching at the RDB school.
It was made public today that Kenneth Greve's wife, principal dancer Marie Pierre Greve, also will stop her career in Copenhagen and to Helsinki. Greve's appointment in Helsinki will help him build a resume as ballet master, and he will certainly be a strong contestant when and if Nicolaj Hübbe should leave the Copenhagen post. But the appointment will leave Hübbe and the RDB without its best card and without its strongest partnership and audience draw.
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