Interview with Sebastian Haynes
Sebastian Haynes had just changed out of his black tutu after dancing ”The Dying Swan” at the press meeting when someone congratulated him of being cast as the witch “Madge” in “La Sylphide”. That came as a total surprise for the first year dancer.
It must be added that the news was also a big surprise for the press. However the surprise was the fact that Nikolaj Hübbe changed the sex of the witch. Not that Sebastian Haynes got a major role.
The reason is that while still a first year dancer, Sebastian Haynes had already carved a strong position in the RDB ensemble as a versatile and outstanding dancer. And as a dancer who breaks the traditional mold of Danish male dancer. Normally when a young potential star emerges, it is clear what type of roles he might get later on. Sebastian Haynes is the exception to that rule. Madge is traditional a role given to very experienced character actors, not to first years dancers.
The production showed that Nikolaj Hübbe knew exactly what he was doing. The young dancer showed that not only could he bring on a strong and bitter Madge, he could also interpret Hübbe’s vision for the role as an educated nobleman, who had a previous history with James.
Together with Gregory Dean as James, this was the dancers who could justify the interpretation. When I spoke to Sebastian Haynes in the rehearsal process, he was cautious but not scared about the prospect of taken on the challenge:
“All I can do is to make my best effort. If I work hard and invest myself in the part and create the best Madge I can, I can do no more. As a ballet dancer you have to make the best of every chance. I cannot say that Madge was a dream role, because performance history has never casted it so young, so it was not in my mindset that it could happen. But now I am really looking forward to see what I can do with the part.”
Sebastian Haynes is very modest about his success. But the truth is that since his first outings, it has been clear that this was a dancer with a unique gift.
Boy Star
Sebastian Haynes was still a student at the RDB School when he made a big impression in the Children’s Company B annual performance. He was here, there and everywhere covering the whole spectra from Bournonville to Break dance. His stage appeal was remarkable.
“I started at the satellite ballet school I Holstebro, Jutland and I was on the dance/performance line. That meant that I have done many more performances than the average RDB pupil”, says Sebastian Haynes.
The children at the school knows from an early age that if they have the qualification to be professional dancers, they will have relocate to the RDB ballet’s boarding school in Copenhagen when they reached the age of 12 years.
“Although I was proud to be selected for the company school, it was a difficult situation. Holstebro is so far away from Copenhagen that in order to be at Monday morning school, I had to travel back Sunday. The group of children from Odense could make it on a morning train and thereby have longer weekends at home. Luckily my mother started looking for a job in Copenhagen as soon as I was selected for the school and 10 months later, I could leave the boarding school and live with my mum and our dog in our new Copenhagen home. That was a great relief.” Sebastian Haynes says.
Team Player
Sebastian Haynes is one year younger than the large talented group, including Ida Praetorius, Stephanie Chen Gundorph and Andreas Kaas. They trained together at the school, but for reasons connected to retirement age, the group was split up, depending on birth year, and as one of the youngest Sebastian Haynes had to wait a year before entering the apprentice class. Instead he was listed as a pre-apprentice, a seldom used tern at the RDB School.
However, the delay did not hold him back career wise. In his first real apprentice year, he was a first cast member of Wayne McGregor’s “Chroma”.
“It was so good to be part of a real cast. I had been an understudy or extra on several ballets, but by being in the first lineup, I got the full experience of creating the ballet and a real part”.
“Chroma” became the break out success of an otherwise rather unsatisfactory modern programme and was performed in several other contexts, mostly by the first cast, so Sebastian Haynes got a lot of stage time in a featured role.
His second apprentice year also included several treats. First he was a part of Jose Limon’s all man/no music tribute to native Indian Warriors “Unsung”.
“It was in many ways a difficult ballet to perform. Without musical cues, we had to find other ways to synchronize our moments, but it was a great experience to dance”.
The old school modern dance style, used by Limon is in many very far from the schooling of a classical Danish dancer. Where the Danish tradition is all about speed and lightness, Limon style is about gravity and economizing the movement. It looks difficult on many of the cast members.
Haynes, on the other had appeared in perfect tune with the requirements and showed great personality as well as coordination skills in this work.
It became clear to the audience and the reviewers that a very exciting dancer had arrived. Later that season Haynes was casted as one of the four men in Pas de Action in Nikolaj Hübbe’s “La Bayadére”. Hübbe has changed the divertissement cast to gain more roles for his group of strong male dancers and Haynes could showed that he was as much home in the classical style as he was in the modern.
Singled out
In the next season Sebastian Haynes danced in practically all productions. He was a cast member in Twyla Tharp’s Sinatra ballet “Come Fly Away”, in the Balabile in “Napoli” and a Cavalier in “Manon”, but it was his involvement in a little in house project that really put him on the map.
The in-house company Corpus has an activity called Popups, small informal performances put together by one of the company members. Principal Amy Watson decided to ask her colleagues to dance their dream roles:
“One time I have said something about that I would like to try to dance a tutu role, to really experience what it like from the female point of view, and she really picked up on that. So I put on a black tutu and did The Dying Swan,” Haynes explains.
For the small audience of 100 people it became the stand out part of the Popup. It was not a camp Trockadero style number, but a real poetic moment. Sebastian Haynes did not imitate a female dancer, nor was his performance dripping of sentimentality. It showed that Haynes has great skills, great personality and an unlimited range.
A few months later Sebastian Haynes was asked to do the solo on the press event presenting next year’s season. He has also danced the role in tandem with Ballerina Susanne Grinder’ white Swan in a fundraising episode of “Dancing with The Stars”.
Going Classical
The season included more roles and the acknowledgement of his talent by being awarded The Queen Ingrid Memorial Award, a significant award carrying a large grant and handed out by the Queen of Denmark herself and her sisters.
The 2014-15 season started with a rerun of John Neumeier’s successful production of “The Lady of the Camellias”, which offered Sebastian Haynes one of the leading roles as DeGrieux, a character lifted from Manon Lescaut to mirror the protagonist, Armand Duval. I was the time that Haynes got his hand on a big pas de deux. He rose to the challenge.
With a season also including heavy weight ballets like a new production of “Swan Lake”, it is likely that Haynes will get significant roles. He also has his sight on a special challenge. He and Stephanie Chen Gundorph will represent the RDB in the bi-annually Erik Bruhn Prize, a completion for young couples from the four countries where Erik Bruhn spent the main part of his career: Denmark, United Kingdom, USA and Canada:
“As Ida Praetorius and Andreas Kaas, who attended last time made a clean sweep and took all three available prices, we must try to do our very best. We are considering with our trainers which classical Pas de deux to present and we will probably get a new choreographed piece for the modern sector”.
Being part of the competition can bring a lot of international contacts and awareness. For Praetorius and Kaas, the competitions not only gave them a lot of international coverage. It also brought attention from leading choreographers and secured guest performances. Andreas Kaas will guest as the Nutcracker prince in Canada and both of them have danced at international galas. John Neumeier invited them to the annual Nijinsky Gala in Hamburg to dance one of his pas de deux and casted them as the leads in “The Lady of the Camellias”.
A good performance in the competition can bring Chen Gundorf and Haynes international recognition.
But Haynes remains focused on whatever role comes next. He is very much living in the present and enjoys what treats and challenges he is meet with.
Luckily he seems to be able to handle all kinds of roles with intelligence and flair.
Photos:
1. Sebastian Haynes (Photo by Henrik Steenberg Copyright(c) Royal Danish Ballet)
2 Sebastian Haynes as Madge and Eva Kloborg as Anna in "La Sylphide" (Photo by Susanne Grinder Copyright(c))
3. Sebastian Haynes as Madge and Andreas Kaas as Gurn in "La Sylphide" (Photo by Susanne Grinder Copyright(c))
Comments