ward to Ida Praetorius
& Royal Danish Ballet Summer Tour
June 2013
Ida Praetorius and Alban Lendorf are present in media, awards, international galas and the RDB summer tour. Having two big media interviews with two company stars is a welcome but far from usual occurrence in Danish media.
By each gaining an award, Praetorius and Lendorf break trough the media barrier, which for the last seasons has only been possible if negative stories of the company were available. Praetorius gives the nice ballerina in the making interview in Berlingske following the news of her receiving the Queen Ingrid Memoriral Award where Alban Lendorf is presented as the cool hipster of the RDB who also happens to be the best ballet dancer in the world, based on the recent Benois award in a five page interview with front page teaser.
Alban Lendorf has become the most well-known dancer in RDB, partly though his outstanding talent and partly through a marketing effort from the theatre. One can understand the justice in focusing on the arguable best dancer, but the consequence is that his fellow principals Marcin Kupinsky and Ulrik Birkkjær remains practically unkrown. The interview also mentions his guest stint with ABT later this summer.
The media appeal of Ida Praetorius is likewise understandable. A young dancer getting Juliet, the most coverted role in the company, winning an international award (that eclipsed Lendorf) and being the oldest child of the presumable very talented trio of Preatorius children is a story that have a broad media appeal. I am certain that Ida Praetorius will be a future star of the company, but she is still a young dancer in the making. It was therefore good to learn from the interview that Praetorius and her partner and co-winner Andreas Kaas will not only participate in the Hamburger Ballett Tage, but they will get the opportunity to work with John Neumeier on his "Daphnis & Cloee" pas de deux, which they will dance at the gala - and hopefully at "The Hübbery" and other RDB events. Getting this opportunity can give the two up-coming dancers a significant challenge in a season, that on paper does not cater as well for their types as last season did.
A Nice Surprise
In the first seasons as Ballet Master Hübbe boosted the summer tour repertoire with works like "Raymonda Pas de Dix" and others. Since the reality of the summer tour including bad weather kicked in, he has stopped expanding and experimenting as much and are instead relying on what is available.
This years tours present Balanchines "Nutcracker Pas de Deux" which will appear again in a Christmas run, this time danced by J'aime Crandall, who has danced it previously and Lendorf, who is new to the production. Praetorius and Kaas presented their Erik Bruhn Competition packet of "The Kermess Pas de Deux" and a tailormade modern piece called "Traditional". Segment of McGregor's "Chroma" and "La Bayadére" made up the rest of the programme. And then there was a segment of "La Ventana", this time without the scenery, flamenco dancers and walk on characters so generously bestowed by Gudrun Bojesen in her recent production. The good news is that the scaling down on effects make Bournonville's choreography come across much better and the piece has rediscovered its charm. Could I only get the double promenade in arabesque that usually opens the Pas de Trois back I will be as happy a camper as the large audience enjoying the picnic, sun and the ballet in historic Roskilde. Hopefully the audience got inspired to make the 30 kilometer trip to Kongens Nytorv to see full performance ballet.
Photo by Costin Radu Copyright Royal Danish Ballet
Comments