Hot Hot Hot
Coming Together
Choreography: Nacho Duato
The Wanderers
Choreography: Christopher Wheeldon
Minus 7
Choreography: Ohad Naharin
The Royal Danish Ballet, May 2008
The Royal Ballet conquers yet another new stage with an impressive and entertaining programme with works by three international choreographers
As far as numbers of stages goes, the RDB is in paradise. Following the creation of not only the new opera with two stages we got the new drama house with three stages and the ballet has taken almost sole possesion of The Old Stage at the Royal Theatre, the company is now spoilt for choice. For the final programme this season the drama house was conquered with one of the best modern programmes presented in many years.
First out was Coming Together by Nacho Duarto, an energetic ballet slightly based on prison life and voiced over by the letters of a prisoner killed in a jail riot. As an abstract ballet it could not be called naturalistic, but there were several small pointers to create a sort of Shawshank Redemption feel. Especially the choreography for the male ensamble was striking. Duarte uses the dancers arms and hands to greate great swinging motions, and in one sequence one girl joins the male corps to great effect. In all a well choreographed, well danced burst of energy, but grounded by its references to prison life.
Christopher Wheeldon's The Wanderers was the only ballet of the evening created for the company. More classical than the others and created for the top dancers of the company, it is a melancholy mix of neoclassical style with a few modern twists. As Kenneth Greve will retire this week to take up the post as Ballet Master in Helsinki and Silja Schandorff will retire by the end of next season this ballet has a significance as being the last work created for the formidable duo and also the last chance for the Danish audience to enjoy our dream couple. The way Greve and Schandorff dance makes a good argument for a higher retirement age, for they are as good as ever, but in fairness, it must be said that they are the only dancers of their strong generation who has been able to continue a high level dancing up to retirement.
Kenneth Greve was brought back to Denmark following years at ABT, Paris Opera Ballet and the Vienna Ballet to form a partnership with the equally tall Silja Schandorff and they have over the years build a strong partnership, developing from a pure classical base to taxcle dramatic and modern parts as well. It has been a constant joy to follow the two extraordinary gifted and beautiful dancers reaching the highest level possible and the list of highlight are long including Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Manon, Don Quixote, Agon, Apollon Musagetes, In the middle somewhat elevated and many more. It is a partnership that will rightfully be considered as one of the bests in company history and it is also a good argument for letting partnerships be an integrated part of talent management. They will be greatly misted and celebrated. Their qualities as dancers also make one wonder whether The Wanderers would be interesting without it starring couple. Alongside Greve and Schandorff, Thomas Lund, Diana Cuni and Tim Matiakis dance a pas de trois and Femke Mølbach Sloth and Ulrik Birkkjær a second pas de deux. all very pretty but not unforgettable.
The evening conncluded with Minus 7, a conglomorat of various pieces of Ohad Nahahin, the brilliant and funny choreograher and leader of Batsheva Dance Company from Tel Aviv. Nahadin plays with every convention in ballet. For instance the performance starts in the inteval when the brilliant Morten Eggert improvises a solo consiting of everyday move, soft shoe dancing and technical show-off. Eggert, probably the best underused dancer in the company, shines and sets the tone for what will follow. The next segment consist of the full company sitting on chairs creating a expressiove piece to a, I believe, traditional Jewish chanting game, repeating the same pattern and adding a little bit more for each turn. This segments show how much drama and movement Nahadin can get out of stillness and sudden changes and how dramatic effect he can create by dancers perfectly coordinated throw back their bodies and open their jackets. Little by little small individual versions are added to the scheme and the cresendo builds as dancers throws cloths items and shoes high in the air. Here Nahadin shows us how effective simple movements can be when coordinated and done by a mass of dancers. Follwing a more traditional segment and pas de deux, the dancers leaves the stage and rooms the auditorium for dance partners to join them on stage for the final proof that good dancing has very little to do with schooling, but a lot to do with choreography and joy de vivre. It creates a magic moment to see the audience and professional dancers blend well on stage. Nahadin is a very clever man of theatre and he dares cut through all conventions and ask the audience to see ballet in a totally new light. It would be great if he could retun to Copenhagen to create an original work for the company. Minus 7 sets free the humour and joy of dancing that rests in the company and it was a joy to follow and to see how the whole programme by finally believing in good professional choreography and fun, created a modern based evening that the audience could both enjoy and understand.
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