Flemming Flindt:
"The Lesson"
August Bournonville:
"La Sylphide"
Royal Danish Ballet
September 17, 2011
It was a given fact that the next stop on Alban Lendorf's meteoric rise would be the national hero James in "La Sylphide" and the first night of the new season was dedicated to the anticipated event.
Alban Lendorf was as great a James as expected but the performance was not 100% successful. The ballet management must learn the lesson that a star turn also demands that the other roles are cast on the same high level or as close as possible to create real magic.
The only challenge for a ballet master is how to select partners for Lendorf. Alban Lendorf is not on the scale of the average ballet dancer. He is of a relatively short but sturdy build.
In his own generation there is a girl almost as talented as himself, Hilary Guswiler, and it is easy to make the comperation with former generation's Ib Andersen and Mette-Ida Kirk. And although Alban Lendorf can parallel Ib Andersen's qualities and career and Hilary Guswiler already have danced several of Kirk's roles, Guswiler impressive height hinders that they can be as unbeatable a pairing as Kirk and Andersen. Luckily for Guswiler there are tall men available, but there are not many smaller ballerinas available that can perform on Lendorfs level.
For "Swan Lake" and "Sleeping Beauty" Lendorf was cast opposite Gudrun Bojesen, which proved a magic pairing. Bojesen's style, presence and musicality was a perfect match. As Gudrun Bojesen is our leading Sylph it seemed an obviuos idea to pair Lendorf with her. I do not know if Bojesen was available or maybe suffering from minor injuries.At least she is dancing a minor role in the second casts of "The Lesson". The fact is that Lendorf was paired with American soloist J'aime Crandall, who did so well this spring as a late replacement in "Etudes" which include its own Sylph interlude.
From "La Sylphide" to "Les Sylphides"
The role of the Sylph is the key female role in the Danish repertoire, but also a role that cannot be danced by every ballerina. It needs not only a good grip on Bournonville, but also the ability to act a creature of the air and carry a large death scene. It is a role for the specially gifted ballerina and each generation do usually only include one or two natural Sylphs. But over the last years the numbers of Sylphs has grown dramatically. I wish I could say that it was the result of more naturally gifted Sylphs in the company, but the truths is that in the last seasons only Gudrun Bojesen have been able to present the full packet.
Both Susanne Grinder and Christina Michanek is still struggling to reach the mark. For the small scale summer tour Hilary Guswiler and Alexandra Lo Sardo was casts for a segment presentation and now J'aime Crandall is brought on for the full role. Including Bojesen that brings the total to six potential sylphs. I would not mind six sylphs if the talent base was there, but spreading the low number of performances on so many dancers do not raise the quality.
J'aime Crandall is a strong dancer who has impressed as the replacements in "Etudes" and "Sleeping Beauty" , but as yesterdays performances showed she does not have the range, presence and dramatic skills to fill the Sylph nor to match Alban Lendorfs level of performance. There were parts of the choreography she did very well, especially in her pointe work, but she surprisingly missed several of the signature movements of the Sylphs like the flatfoot pirouette and the soring jump sequences. I am sure she will impress us again when casted in her natural employ, but her attempts as the Sylph were too meagre and sketzy.
It takes two to....
Unfortunately "La Sylphide" cannot succeed without a strong performance by both protagonists, especially in the second act, where the drama intensifies. From the first scene, Lendorf build a young James, well based in his local environment, a strong character enchanted by "The Sylph's, agressive with Madge and almost childlike in his joy in the forest. He makes every little gesture clear and his dancing is detailed and big scale, but the performance looses intensity with only one protagonist delivering. The witch performed well by Jette Buchwald also loose importance when the Sylph cannot carry her end. I am sorry also to have to point out that the supporting cast was also relatively weak. There was not much originality in either the Gurn, Anna or Effy. Only Morten Eggert relegated to a farm hand kept up the level of character acting.
It may be the company's or ballet master's belief that Lendorf is so good that he can carry the whole performance, but the better the supporting cast is, the better the end result. It may also be that there is too much focus on the height issue and the casting principle becomes choosing small. But Lendorf does not dance small and could easily handle a taller cast. The quality of Lendorf's dancing deserves that he gets the best of what the company could offer and better is fortunately available. So bring it on for Lendorf and the audience.
arning Learning the lesson
While Crandall struggled to build a character, young aspirant Ida Prætorius succeeded in the first ten second of "The Lesson" to grab the audience's full attention and support as the unfortunate, eager ballet student in Flemming Flindt's miniature based on Eugene Ionesco's play. When included in the recent American tour, American critics questioned the choice of what they saw as a grotesque and unconfetable cruel ballet. Well, Prætorius gives the answer. Because it gives great opportunities for character acting. Paired with Mads Blangstrup as the murderous ballet master Prætorius showed her potential and her quest to be another strong character actress and dancer, a vital part of the DNA of the Royal Danish Ballet, as important here as in "La Sylphide".
This is such a beautiful image! Is that what you call Digital Painting? It looks stunning.
Posted by: Whoelsale Links of London | February 17, 2012 at 10:20 AM