When Thomas Lund a few weeks ago danced the pas de deux in Balanchine's "Symphony in Three Movements" with Gudrun Bojesen, their performance raised the production to a new level and made one realise that the pas de deux in "Symphony in Three Movements" is as central a Balanchine pas de deux as the ones in "Apollon" and "Agon", the other ballets in the Strawinsky programme. Little did we know that he will curtail his career on September 29, 2012 to take on another important assignment, when he takes over from Niels Balle as principal of the core institution of the Royal Danish Ballet, the ballet school.
Niels Balle has had a phenomenal track record as principal and during his years the school have turned out a large group of highly qualified dancers, including Alban Lendorf, Hilary Guswiler, Jón Axel Fransson and this season crop including Ida Praetorius and Stephanie Chen Gundorph Møller and added +20 dancers to the company. I will come back to Niels Balle's achievements in a later article. Now Thomas Lund will carry the mantle and he is a natural choice for the job.
Thomas Lund was hardly out of Ballet School himself before he took on teaching assignments and through out his illustrative career he has graced the RDB as teacher, choreographer, Bournonville expert and director. He has always has close ties to the ballet school and has created the successful "Teddy goes Dancing" for the schools pupils.
All-though Lund is in his late 30ties the audience had banked on keeping him in the dancing wing for many years to come. Not only his gifts as a character dancer but also for the high quality of his dancing, demonstrated in the last years in very fine performances of classical works like "Swan Lake", "Sleeping Beauty", "Other Dances" and in modern works like "Earth". His Farewell performance will consist of two of his greatest roles the teacher in "The Lesson" and James in "La Sylphide". He will previous to this dance five performances in Ratmansky's Cog D'Or, which will be made on the RDB.
In a recent comment in "Dancing Times" Ann Hutchington Guest stated a fear for the future of the Bournonville tradition at RDB due to experimentation with the heritage. I do not agree and is planning to write a reply to the magazine, but I will conclude that with Thomas Lund in one of the most central posts regarding the Bournonville heritage, she - nor we - need worry.
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