”Lost on Slow” (Jorma Elo)
"La Sylphide” (August Bournonville)
Royal Danish Ballet
March 12, 2008
Anne Middelboe Christensen
“Sylfiden findes” (The Sylph exist”)
The combination of the house classic with a brand new ballet demonstrates the strengths and the challenges of the company: How to maintain the tradition and how to develop as a company?
It may be totally coincidental or it may not. But the programme consisting of the premiere of Jorma Elo´s “Lost on Slow” and Bournonville’s “La Sylphide"is totally divided on all parameters; age, subject, style and most surprisingly the dancers nationality. In all casts “Lost on Slow” is danced by the foreign wing and “La Sylphide” by the home grown dancers. Surprising, yes because, if the project of assimilating the imported dancers into the Danish style had succeeded this casting should be mathematically impossible and it makes one wonder whether this coincidence shows that the assimilation is only skin deep.
Another indicator of this is the formation of Cross Connection, which I accidentally caught on the net. Most of the foreign dancers and a few Danes have formed a dancing troupe under the leadership of dancers Cedric Lambrette and Constantine Baecher. It may be a simple administrative forum to book dancers for off season appearances, but the website is illustrated with a number of company pictures indicating that this group sees themselves as a separate group within the company. It does indicate that the group does not feel like 100% bona fide members of the Royal Danish Ballet and I can understand the frustration if you look at the career patterns of the foreign dancers.
Today there are five foreign dancers at principal level; Caroline Cavallo, Jean Lucien Massot, Marie Pierre Greve, Andrew Bowman and Amy Watson. Save Caroline Cavallo who dances a fuller and broader repertoire than most principals, the other four are dancing a rather sporadic repertoire. There is no clear employ of their roles. Whereas Gudrun Bojesen is the leading ingénue and romantic ballerina, there is no pattern in Amy Watson’s roles. She is Odette/Odile but not Kitri, Irma but not Teresina etc. and that must be frustrating. Andrew Bowman dances most male leads, save the really meaty onesm and Massot dances mainly the difficult ones. If you include the soloists, the pattern gets even clearer. The foreign dancers are the replacement team, which also might explain why several of them have left the company after only a few years. This season soloists Dawid Kupinsky and Izabela Sokolovsky have left even though their career was definitely on the up.
To be quite frank only Caroline Cavallo and Lloyd Riggins have been able to break the glass ceiling and become full scale principals. It may have to do with talent and determination, but probably the fact that they both joined the company in their late teens is a contributing reason. That they also both joined when there were very few foreign dancers may also be a factor. They had no choice but to assimilate into the Danish company culture. The formation of Cross Connection indicates that today there is a real expatriate subculture in the company. With +30% of the dancers coming from abroad it is probably not to be avoided, but counter actions should be made to assure that RDB does not become a two-culture company.
When Nikolaj Hübbe treated the ballet press to a bit of company class, I noticed that he initially addresses each dancer in Danish. He only switches to English when absolutely necessary. It could imply that Hübbe mistakes the company he had taken over as the company he left many years ago. But Hübbe is a clever man, and I think he is in total control of his communication. My interpretation is that he wants to send a clear signal to the dancers. This is The Royal Danish Ballet, not any other ballet company and although Hübbe does not want to overplay the tradition card, he is very well aware that the company culture is the backbone of the identity of the company.
A few years back I did an interview with Arne Villumsen, the leading male star from late 70s to early 90s. In the interview he gave a very precise example on the difference between the Danish and the foreign dancers attitudes. A foreign dancer was casted as Gurn, a pivotal role in “La Sylphide” and he could not be bothered. He saw no point in dancing the role. Villumsen said that he could not imaging a dancer brought up in the tradition would not be proud to get the part of Gurn.
So if definitely goes both ways. Foreign dancers may not get major Bournonville leads because they are seen mainly as supplements to the home grown stars or may not have the dramatic training to carry the leads or they do not value and understand the tradition enough to make the effort and the commitment. In Anne Middelboe Christensen’s book “Hvor danser den Kgl. Ballet hen?”(Where are the Royal Danish Ballet heading?” a Danish dancer states that that the foreign dancers who really love Bournonville and the tradition and joined because of that love are the ones the company needs and will treasure. Probably not a bad box to check at future auditions.
Anne Middelboe Christensen has just published another book “Sylfiden findes” (The Sylph exists). For the Bournonville festival 2005 companion, Anne Middelboe Christensen wrote a stunning piece on “La Sylphide” and its many interpretations. This time around her aim is to communicate to a broader audience, and her book includes examples on how “La Sylphide” would function as poem, novella, saga, rap text etc. In short depending on the reader’s background and preference, Middelboe Christensen is creating a communication line that they can relate to. But not all is communication. Behind the contemporary packing lies an incredible deep research and the book is a miracle of facts and statistics on the ballet and performance practice.
The book is illustrated by a photo series taken from the left wing of a performance starring Caroline Cavallo and Mads Blangstrup. The factual black and white photos further documents that this is hard labour rather than matches the magic that Middelboe Christensen sees as the major success component. In one particular chapter, where Middelboe Christensen writes about the best photos of the ballet, it is downright annoying that the pictures discussed is not included in the book.
Likewise the impressive summary on dancers in the leading roles lacks more and bigger and better photos to give the readers a picture of the dancer in question to match the quoted reviews. In theory I salute the idea of a coherent photo theme, but in this book, which is so strong on facts and history, the trouble should have been made and the financial commitments on copyright should have been lifted. It would have helped the book to communicate clearer and better to both traditional and new readers of ballet books.
But does the sylph exists, is a reasonable question to the present performance. Christina Michanek, who debuted in the title role last year (then using her maiden name Christina L. Olsen) now got the chance to show her development in the role. She has definitely gotten stronger, mainly in the technical aspects. Her acting is also improved. But she still looks and acts too immature in the part.
Christina Michanek is a talented dancer and potential future star. Tall and fair, it is easy to view her as the next Silja Schandorff, but it should be remembered that Schandorff, like Mette Hønningen, another tall dancer, only started to dance “La Sylphide” when their full set of ballerina skills were in place.
In line with company practice, both “La Sylphide” and “Napoli” suffer from too many casts. I do not want to go back to the old practice used up till the early fifties, where there were only one cast, and a talented dancer had to wait for the predecessors retirement the get chance, but the talent pool has seldom included four Gennoros, four sylphs and four Madges at the same time. The result is that the outstanding talent is spread too thinly, each cast gets too few performances ,and instead of a really stellar cast, each cast is reduced to one star performance instead of a trio on top. For this evening performance, the star performance belonged to Mads Blangstrup as James, back from a long injury spell and as wonderful a James as ever. I have earlier questioned the policy of casting star with novice, and although Blangstrup is an attentive partner, his vocabulary is so much stronger than Michanek’s that the balance gets upset. Continuing this casting principle once Christina Michanek finds her ultimate sylph she will be partnered by a young and immature James. Why not pair her with Kristoffer Sakurai now and let them develop into a long-serving team who will peak at the same time and let Blangstrup dance with Schandorff or Bojesen?
Returning to my opening phrase, “Lost on Slow” turned out to be a pleasing but not very deep ballet making light mischief on the forms of classical ballet and by combining tutus with bare legs and flat shoes and awkward moves created new shapes. Its casual appearance did not save it from looking a bit unfishished , but the cast of Amy Watson, Kizzy Howard, Alba Nadal. Jean Lucien Massot, Fernando Moro and Tim Matiakis were able to show their skills and demonstrate their personalities.
Comments