Flemming Flindt:
"The Lesson"
August Bournonville:
"La Sylphide"
Royal Danish Ballet
September 24 2011
"The Lesson" will probably be the only Flindt ballet that will stay in RDB's future repertoire and "La Sylphide" is the ballet that will never leave the same repertoire. But although "La Sylphide" cannot be kicked out, production values should not be jeopardized and it should be performed with passion, commitment and interpretation. Yesterdays performance showed how a strong performance ad longevity to "The Lesson" Whereas "La Sylphide" came across as bland and where James most suprisingly could be overshadowed by Gurn.
In my last review I skipped reviewing Mads Blangstrup as the teacher in "The Lesson". The reason was that I needed to see Thomas Lund in the same role, mainly to see if it was the director Vivi Flindt who had downplayed the scariness or whether it was Blangstrup, who had a softer approach. I got my answer. Thomas Lund was as good as ever, but also his performance seemed to have been turned down a notch or two. In the case of Lund he compensates the lack of scariness with more intensity. Blangstrup is dancing the role extremely well and is adapt at building a believable character. What he cannot do is removing his well-known qualities as a dancer nor diminish the impact of his physique. He remains the good classical dancer and partner under the veneer of the maniac ballet teacher. Lund who contrary has spend a lot of his career trying to emulate the princely qualities of Mads Blangstrup has the upper hand here, as he is able to use, what could have been limitations on the classical field, to present the physical decay of the mad as a hatter ballet teacher and to build a character portrait of outstanding quality.
Understanding the ballet
The first performance this season was dominated by Alban Lendorf's energetic and believable James and let down by the supporting casting. The joy of the second cast was the strong performances by Camilla Ruelykke Holst as Effy and in particular Nikolaj Hansen as Gurn, which was a gem of strong acting, good dancing and mostly of making a real person out of Gurn. In act 1 he managed to dominate James.
How was that even possible when James was danced by one of the best dancers in the company, recently appointed principal Marcin Kupinski? Kupinski is a marvel of light and elegant dancing, but it became very clear to me that after nine years in the company, he dos still not understand that the role of James is not only a dancing role. I noticed that Kupinski did the non-dancing part of the role (which is as big as the dancing segments, and originally James did not dance the solo in act one) as dancing. He did not walk, he did steps. He did not use gravity to establish James as a real human character. The consequence was that his James do not establish himself as a human being but more like a male sylph trapped in a human form. Acting-wise he has not yet developed a character.
Susanne Grinder as the Sylph also seems to blend too much into the background. It is surprisingly how little impact these two dancers, gifted with looks, lines, musicality and technique make. Both dancers are late appointments and I get the impression that they may have spend too long time in the corps where blending in is a quality and now somehow cannot really put themselves forward as principals. As principals they have the responsibility not only to dance the roles but to create the performance and communicate it to the public. In the second act divertissement I got the feeling that they not know what the divertissement is there for other than to show the variations. In the divertissement James and the Sylph is building common ground and James acquires the skills of the Sylphs. It is as an important part of the story as the first act encounters and the tragic finale.
As it is this casts looses the plot in act II, and therefore the ending does not create as much impact as it normally does.
Nicolaj Hübbe uses Grinder and Kupinski a lot and often cast them together. The share many qualities as dancers. They are beautiful, elegant, skilled dancers, but they lack the ability to really break through the barrier. Maybe they should be teamed with other partners with more stage presence or maybe they should be cast in other roles? Kupinsky has his best roles so far as Lensky and Lysander. Roles that sit well on a youthful and light dancer. Maybe Hübbe put him in to many roles, that needs the gravity he lacks. The problem is of course that with limited resources and fewer performances, it is difficult to cater for individual dancers. But if Hübbe really wants Kupinski to reach his full potential he should perhaps use him more as a speciality dancer and not as much as a leading man. From a leading man the audience expects a more indepht understanding of the role in question and a stronger ability to communicate the story.
Finally Eva Kloborgs has developed her Madge, but I wishes she will dig deeper in the material and add a more tragic touch to her Madge.
Being a household name
Talking about Hübbe he has stepped up his strategy of making himself available for the public. He has joined the judges panel on the Danish version of "Dancing with the stars" and has proved a sharp and precise analyst of ballroom dancing. This makes him known in broader audience who hopefully will gain more interest in the real thing.
Pictures:
1.Thomas Lund & Ida Prætorius in "The Lesson"
2. Mads Blangstrup in "The Lesson"
3. Marcin Kupinsky in "La Sylphide"
4. Susanne Grinder in "La Sylphide"
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