Soloist Caroline Baldwin is one of the most used dancers at the Royal Danish Ballet. She is one of the foreign intakes who have been most successful in adapting to the Danish ballet style and company culture. With meaty roles like Aurora in “The Sleeping Beauty” and Terpsichore in “Apollo” and a good grip on Bournonville, her future look very bright. No mean feat for a girl, for whom ballet was an extra curriculum activity.
When Chicago girl Caroline Baldwin joined the Royal Danish Ballet as an apprentice, it was the first time she was part of a ballet company. Her parents was firm in their belief in school first – ballet later, so Caroline Baldwin had to balance her ballet craze with the demand of a high school education, so late afternoons, evenings, weekends and holidays was where she could develop as a dancer. She also attended summer schools at SAB, Royal Ballet Schools and others.
“I participated in a competition, Youth America Grand Prix in New York and was spotted by an RDB representative and was gifted three weeks training. In Copenhagen I was offered a year’s apprentenship and was eager to stay,” says Caroline Baldwin.
Learning Danish
However her parents wanted her to finish high school as well. So for the first year in Copenhagen she finished her studies on an online course. There was only one casualty in the process:
“By prioritizing finishing high school, I did not have time to take classes in Danish at that point. I am sorry to say my Danish skills are still not where they should be. But everybody here is so willing to speak English that I am seldom forced to speak Danish, so I get very little practice. But my aim is to improve my skills, but it is a difficult language to learn. I learned French in school, but there are few similarities, so no easy pass-road there either.”
Still the language barrier has not kept Caroline Baldwin to amass her into the company culture. She is very well integrated and has found her BFF in Hilary Guswiler, whom in spite of her name is a Danish girl, whom has been at RDB since she was seven.
“Hilary and I seems to either share a lot of roles or are standing next to each other",
They have both danced Terpsichore and are presently sharing the part of Olympia in “Lady of the Camellias”. They also cast themselves in the male Bournonville spoof “Jockey Dance” in a workshop where dancers could choose their dream parts.
Natural Choice
RDB is Caroline Baldwin’s first company and that might well be the reason why she has succeeded so well in adapting to the company style. There was not another company identity to compete with. I have earlier interviewed some of the dancers with a School of American Ballet background, and they told that SAB culture is 100% focused on NYCB. So for them joining RDB has been more of a mental struggle.
It was the Christopher Wheeldon’s “Sleeping Beauty” that gave Baldwin her first stand out roles. She danced one in the fairy line, the cat and as Wheeldon has made the lilac fairy a mime role, there was also a great solo available. And that was where Baldwin’s talent was put on show. Two years later she was promoted to Aurora and created and young, kind and totally believable Aurora.
It is difficult to describe Caroline Baldwin as a dancer without using the word natural. She is a natural Russian dancer. She is a natural Bournonville dancer and even without a SAB background she is also a natural Balanchine dancer. It probably has a lot to do with musicality and phrasing. So far her acting skills have not really been tested. She is up for the leading role Hilda in Bournonville’s “A Folk Tale” which is a good type match.
“I am really looking forward to it. I was an understudy last time. We have not started rehearsals yet, but I am looking at videos. Unfortunately they are filmed from the back of the auditorium at the opera house (this time “A Folk Tale” is on the smaller old stage) so it is difficult to get all the details”.
Luckily Caroline Baldwin can draw on the support from dedicated Bournonville specialists:
“We did a run of “Napoli” in Paris and I shared a solo with Diana Cuni, and she really took on herself to teach me the solo and the style. Gudrun Bojesen has also been a tremendous help. I count myself very lucky to learn from these great Bournonville dancers. Sorella Englund is also a force and inspiration I depend on.”
New Territory
In the last months Baldwin had to on an employ miles away from her comfort zone. She has twice been called on to interpret a prostitute. In MacMillan’s “Manon” she is the nameless character, known as Lescaux’ Mistress. And in “Lady of the Camellias” she is Marguerite’s rival Olympia:
“It was not the easiest phone call to my mother when I had to tell her that I was cast twice in a row as a prostitute”, Caroline Baldwin admits.
“The role in “Manon”, I found the most difficult, both technically and dramatically. I was happy to get it and to have the experience of being out of my comfort zone.
It was much easier to take on the ingénue role in Twyla Tharp’s: “Come Fly Away”. It was fun to do and I enjoyed dancing with Principal Ulrik Birkkjær, who is a very giving partner. It will be one again in November and I look forward to it.”
Sharing the Recipe
This year RDB welcome more than 10 new dancers, picked from a wide range of companies and schools. Likely many of these will not find their artistic home with RDB. I therefore asked Caroline Baldwin what advice she would give them:
“I think they need to be open to what the company can offer and to invest themselves. You cannot succeed if your mentally is somewhere else.
We have fewer productions and performances than what is ideal. That means we cannot have a multitude of casts, but the young dancers often get the chance to learn and understudy a role.
For instance Ida Praetorius and I are both undestudys for the Ballerina in “Etudes”. It is not likely that we will get a performance. Never the less we enjoy getting the chance to learn the part and maybe someday, it will be our turn. “Etudes” is a constant on our repertoire and will be back.
The new recruits can learn so much here and there are so many great teachers and directors, that are bursting with helpful advice”.
They can certainly learn a lot from studying Caroline Baldwin and how she has managed to develop into a dancer, who encompasses the key qualities of the RDB.
Photos:
1. Caroline Baldwin
2. Caroline Baldwin and Alban Lendorf in "Apollo"
3. Caroline Baldwin in "Napoli" Act 3
4. Caroline Baldwin as Lescaut's Mistriss in Manon.
Photos by Costin Radu and Henrik Steenberg (portrait) Copyright (c) Royal Danish Ballet
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