Tim Rushton:
"Love Songs"
Dansk Danseteater
Royal Theatre
May 2013
Awards to Alban Lendorf & Gudrun Bojesen
Review of Ole Nørlyng's book "Et Folkesagn"
Seing Tim Rushton's hit ballet "Love Songs" with his own troupe one not only see his parallel work to Bournonville's own view on "Napoli": "I could possibly make something that was better, but not something that was more fortuitous", one also falls into time travelling to the not so distant future, where RDB will tackle Twyla Tharp's " Come Fly Away".
And it is not a particularly optimistic time travel as good ballets on popular music with performing live bands are few and far between. The quality of the Rushton piece for fourteen dancers is tied closely to the performance of the diva, Caroline Henderson, who integrates with the dancers. She walks about the stage, doing her diva routine, interacting with the dancers and managing a few steps here and there. She is the life of the party, and I have great difficulties in understanding how the work could have succeeded when Rushton toured it in USA without the singer physically on the stage.
When RDB take on the Tharp work, there will be no live performer. Instead it will be dead man singing, where the voice of Frank Sinatra will be accompanied by a live band. The Royal Theatre has not a good track record for presenting taped music. It usually comes out flat. Will it float?
But my main concern regarding this enterprise, is not as much on the quality of the performance but the reasons for it. For a company who these days hardly plays more than 12 performances of any masterpiece for financial reasons, the Tharp piece is booked for a staggering 21 performances, making up most of the fall season. It is difficult to see the enterprise as an artistic rather than a commercial venture.
The Royal Theatre's answer to the financial crisis over the last years have to a large part included trying to mount works with appeal to a broader audience. This summer a big outdoor performance of "Robin Hood" will include 28 horses and they have even floated part of the park to create a river, all in order to reach a bigger audience. A few season's back opera whiz kid Kasper Holten, now the head of Royal Opera, London, produced a version of "My Fair Lady" with popular Danish actors, who actually left more than 50% of the performances to the doubles from the ensemble. Yes it did sell well the first time around but got little repeat business. It simply failed both the new and old audience by not delivering the expected standard of the Royal Theatre. I suspect that the hope is to reign in all existing Frank Sinatra fans. It may work once but will this the best strategy to grow the fan base of the RDB? I doubt it very much.
Quality and Quantity
During the last month, both Gudrun Bojesen and Alban Lendorf have been awarded for their outstanding work in John Neumeier's "Lady of the Camellias". Bojesen picked up the Dancer of the Year Award at the Danish Reumert Awards and Lendorf was this years recipient of the Benois Award in Moscow. The award has put the PR department into over drive mailing audience that the can see Lendorf the world class dancer at the upcoming free for all summer tour. But Lendorf's qualities as a dancer is surely not tied to one award from a committee. Lendorf and Bojesen are the lead dancers of a leading company. The RDB's quality level are not, I hope, only tied to odd, by welcoming awards. It speak unfortunately of a lack of confidence and insight, hopefully only in the marketing department. But the real point here is that both Lendorf and Bojesen was outstanding in the ballet (as was the whole company) and yet they only got to dance it little more than a handful of performances. "The Lady of the Camillias" is what the RDB should do for out reach. It not only tells a popular story. It demonstrates what ballet and the RDB can do best. It is the best advertisement for the art form. This is where 21 performances should be awarded.
Double Duty
Danish Bournonville expert Ole Nørlyng has published a book on Bournonville's" A Folk's Tale". Unfortunately the book is so far only in Danish. It tells all the background of the ballet and has a special focus on the Nikolaj Hübbe version, where Nørlyng crossed the line and served as the dramaturgist. He recently also was dramaturgist on Gudrun Bojesen's rather problematic production of "La Ventana". It becomes clear in the book that Nørlyng has some difficulties in defending some of the choices of the production, which tried to take Bournonville in a more Freudian direction. And maybe it is a difficult step from being the historian to participate in the staging.
However, he has produced a book where you can get all the facts but the special charm of a Folk's tale is difficult to get on paper. It is beautiful illustrated and deserves to be complimented by an English version.
Photos:
1. Caroline Henderson in "Love Songs" (Photo: Bjarke Ørsted)
2. Alban Lendorf and Amy Watson in a photo promotial for "Come Fly Away" (Henrik Stenberg Copyright The Royal Ballet)
3. Alban Lendorf in "Lady of the Camellias" (Photo Copyright The Royal Ballet"
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