Summerballet presented by Alexander Kølpin
Jiri & Otto Bubinicek:
"The Picture of Dorian Grey"
"Cathy Marston":
"The Elephant Man"
Bellevue Theatre
& news update on The Royal Danish Ballet
August 2013
Alexander Kølpin a former principal at Royal Danish Ballet has always had an entrepreneurial streak. Allready as a young dancer he arranged extra curricular tours and performances. And when injury stopped his career early he reinvented himself as a choreographer, producer, filmmaker, jet setter,tv-personality and hotel owner. As a consequence he is a very well-known name in Danish entertainment and media and besides Nikolaj Hübbe the most well known dance personality in Denmark.
The most constant factor in his wide range of activities is his annual summer production at the Bellevue Theatre, designed by famed Danish architect Arne Jacobsen. This year he has taken the step back into dance performance and has persuaded Nikolaj Hübbe and RDB character dancer Mette Bøtcher to join him on stage in a ballet production, based on "The Elephant Man".
Both ballets have simple but effective scenography, but struggle to make the two rather complex storylines understood by the audience. The choreography is to the range of the plus forty and thereabout casts. In all "The Elephant Man" succeed the best, primary because Kølpin in the title role managed to create a really touching character portrait. He wears some patting, but make most impact from his impressive face. Acting wise it is the best I have ever seen him done.
Nikolaj Hübbe is less lucky with the part of the doctor who discover the humanity in the freak. There is simply nothing he can do with the part. Dressed in white he looks like a Merchant Ivory character, but as phrased by an audience member, leaving the theatre: "There was not much Hübbe about Hübbe".
Mette Bødtcher creates a sympathetic character as Mrs. Kendall a women who befriends the elephant man and engage his devotion.
Is there a Market?
It is an almost universal truth that dancers get more expressive with age and Jiri Kylian formed NDT 3 several year ago as an outlet for the mature dancers. Later this season RDB will present an evening focusing on the mature dancers as part of the "Corpus" experiment. But like this evening showed expression cannot stand alone. To get the seniors potential working, someone has to create viable and works for the mature dancers. Looking a present choreography in general this would be a tall order.
Looking at RDB, next season will be the last season for leading dancer Mads Blangstrup, who will turn 40 and one of the group of mature dancers. He will hard to miss due to his exceptional gifts as dancer and actor. But no matter how many outstanding + 40 dancers the company produces, budgets and lack of choreography limits any ideas of a senior company, especially as a senior company would demand large number of new works, as there is but little heritage repertoire. It cannot exist on The Old couple in "The whims of Cupid & The Ballet Master". Next season's programme is a testament to the limitations of the company's resources. It will be difficult to cater for all talents.
Comings & Goings
Maybe that is part of the reason why several dancers chose to leave or take leave for next season. Save soloist Sebastian Kloborg, who has chosen to stay one more season with the Gauthier company in Stuttgart, it seems to be the shorter dancers looking elsewhere. Shellby Elsbree and Tara Schaufuss has left permanently for respectively Boston Ballet and Australia. Julien Romain and Stephanie Sahlgreen are on leave. She is spending a season with West Australian ballet. But with 5 dancers reaching retirement by the end of the upcoming season, the corps is slimming. The major issue here is that with a smaller corps, promotions could be delayed, as they are still needed for corps duty. There are a handfull of dancers, who should be promoted to soloists and even principals. Staying too long in the corps does nothing for their development.
New Talents
Three dancers joins the company from the aspirants class, and neither represents a surprise. Victoria Falck-Smith and Magnus Christoffersen from the strong class of Ida Pratorius, Stephanie Chen Gundorf and Andreas Kaas was given an extra year at the school and now joins their class mates in the strong line-up. Joining them are second year aspirant Sebastian Haynes, who have already had so many feutured roles, that one has not considered him an aspirant for a long time. Two girls are accepted into the aspirant classand joins Louise Brorson (3rd year aspirant), Tobias Praetorius and Oliver Marcus Starpov (both 2nd year).
Star in Motion
Alban Lendorf recieved great review for his guest stint in ABT's "Sleeping Beuty", but more importantly the US reviewer really seemed to understand his special talents and definitely not only seing him as the brillant technican.
Returning to Denmark he was once more awarded this time with the Hans Beck Award, named for the famed preserver of Bournonville. This time however, Lendorf shares the award and money with Canadian Alexander Bozinoff,who joined RDB in 2011 and is one of several gifted young men in the company. Bozinoff have dancer soloist roles in many ballet, and last season took over Mercurtio in "Romeo & Juliet" following Jòn Axel Fransson's injury.
The season kicks off Saturday with a free for all performance mixing ballet, drama and opera.Among the snippets will be a pas de deux from "Come Fly Away" by Twyla Tharp, promoted as the big ticket this fall.
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