The Royal RUSSIAN Ballet

Nikolaj Hübbe presented his repertoire for his fifth season. In answer to financial cutbacks he plans a season of big splash ballets including three Russian mastodonts: Alexei Ratmansky's"Coq D'Or, Christopher Wheeldon's "Sleeping Beauty" and his own and Eva Draw's take on "La Bayadere". The Ratmansky and Hübbe ballets have received generous sponsorships from Annie & Otto Johs. Detlef's Fonde. It was also mentioned at the press briefing that foundations have approached the  RDB in order to secure a return of this season's outstanding production of "The Lady of the Camellias" in 2014 and hopefully also as a DVD production.

The season will also include among others John Neumeier's "Romeo & Juliet" and new productions of August Bournonville's  "Kermes in Brügge" and "La Ventana", directed by Ib Andersen and Gudrun Bojesen. And the Danish audience will finally be able to see NYCB dancing among other works "Symphony in C" on the Opera stage.

As reported here and elsewhere the Royal Theatre has taken a large financial cut and the RDB is carrying there share of the burden. The financial limitations have so far prevented that the production of John Neumeier's "Lady of The Camellias" in spite of outstanding reviews and public interest can return for a second season. The cuts also limits the number of productions for next season and therefore Nikolaj Hübbe will be in dire need of one of his strongest qualities as a Ballet Master, his ability to chose repertoire. Luckily he can also depend on the results of his four years reign: The steep growth of the quality level in the corps de ballet.Without it a production of "La Bayadere" would not be possible.

True to form Nikolaj Hübbe will once again try his hand of time travelling and "La Bayadere", co-directed by Eva Draw, who has been a part of his team for several years,will take place in a British Raj setting with Solor as a British officer.

Alumni Week

Alexei Ratmansky spent his younger years as a principal of RDB and started his choreographic career in Copenhagen. Following his first attempts in company workshops he choreographs three ballets for the company: "Turandot" and "Anne Karenina"  as well saving "The Nutcracker" after Aage Thordal Christensen bailed out. Ratmansky should therefore have the right background for creating something really interesting for RDB. His choice have been to make a new version of Ballet Russe classic Coq d*Or with designs by Richard Hudson who will also design Hübbe's "Bayadere".

Another alumni signing on is Ib Andersen, who following his triumphant youth in RDB served as principal in NYCBand now as Ballet Master in Arizona. A master and reinterpreter of Bournonville style he will present a new version of "Kermes in Brügge". In 1979 Ib Andersen starred with Mette-Ida Kirk in Hans Brenaa's glorious production of this work and it is hoped that Andersen can create a new magic era for the classic.

This will not be the only remiscense of the Andersen and Kirk magic, as Neumeier's: "Romeo and  Juliet", their great break through roles i 1974 , will also return to repertoire after a four year hiatus. With the great success of "Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Lady of the Camellias"  the beneficial relationship between Neumeer and RDB will once more likely work it magic.

Gudrun Bojesen will make her debut as Bournonville director in "La Ventana".

Going Everywhere - Dancing for Everyone      

The rest of the season is more or less dominated by various outreach projects like Hübberiet (targetingthe urban chic), Dance2Go (targeting youth), "Bamse, nu Balleter vi/Teddy goes Ballet "(pre school children)  Summer tour (the provinces), Sleeping Beauty (Family audience and provinces) and Oman (International audience).

The various programmes will present standard works like "La Sylphide/Napoli Act Three", "The Lesson", "Pas de Quatre" and"Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux" mixed with two of the works for the upcoming modern programme in May: "Chroma" by Wayne McGregor and a new work by Patrick Delcroix as well as "Unsung" by Jose Limon which was part of the Danseur Noble M/K programme two seasons back.     

 Presenting an in-company company

Nikolaj Hübbe also lifted the veil on a sort of Company B for grown ups called "Corpus" which will allow the corpse members to experiment and try out choreographing and staging ballets. The concept is not finalised yet and appear somewhat vaque, but it might be a road forward for the company and it will at least give interesting challenge for a broader numbers of artists, and might diminish some of the effects of a smaller repertoire.

I like that Hübbe is continuing to raise the bar and not scaling down because of financial hard times.

There will also be a number of guest companies some local like Danish Dance Theatre and some internationals, including NYCB. The Copenhagen audience will,  in contract to former NYCB visits to TIVOLI, be able to see NYCB in professional and spacious surroundings.