Home and abroad the RDB’s dancers puts Bournonville on the map in very different initiatives.
A group of RDB dancers have used their winter vacation to tour London and New York with Bournonville hightligt. The tour is organized by principal dancer Ulrik Birkkjær. It is in some respects a low scale tour, no live orchestra and no décor and performed in relatively small theatres. But in other respects it simply outperform the RDB’s own recent Bournonville productions by presenting the foreign audience with the star lineup of Sorella Englund and Gudrun Bojesen in “La Sylphide” and Diana Cuni in “La Conservatoire” and in various other Bournonville pieces. All three have been missed in Nikolaj Hübbe’s new Bournonville productions (Save Bojesen and Cuni in a divertissement in “A Folk Tale”).
The tour has been an overwhelming success and much praise has been laid on the established stars and on upcomers Andreas Kaas, Ida Praetorius and Sebastian Haynes.
The tour has confirmed Bournonville’s status as a major choreographer, the RDB dancers’ sublimity and special gift and traditions. But several of the reviews also shows a growing concern of what is happening in Copenhagen and Nikolaj Hübbe’s own approach to Bournonville, which from the distance and sometimes -also closer to Kongens Nytorv - looks like a desperate attempt to force Bournonville into new and very unknown territories.
Hübbe first showed his skills as a Bournonville stager and a stager of classical ballet by fine and very loyal productions of “La Sylphide” and “Giselle”, but is must be said that the trio of the three masterpieces, “Napoli”, “A Folk’s Tale” and recently “La Sylphide” can be viewed as experimentation for experimentations sake. The production also seems to be influenced by views, often pronounced by ballet critics and researchers , to look for deeper content in Bournonville of philosophical and psykological nature. In short given Bournonville the same treatment as Wagner has been subjected to.
Luckily, the productions still includes fine Bournonville dancing, and hopefully the fine reviews for the group may confirm the view that Bournonville still maters.
War Requiem
Bournonville’s spirit showed itself in another RDB venture, the Corpus production “ I Føling” which is getting a second run this season due to its popularity when it was premiered last year. Unfortunately the decition to tour the production was taken to late to get including in the provinces theatre annual marketing effort and therefore few tickets was sold in Esbjerg in Jylland. A fast decision therefore moved the interested audience to Copenhagen, which also gave the interested audience in the Capitol a new chance to see the production.
“I Føling” interprete the Danish soldiers taking part of the War in Afganistan. Danish troops has mainly been applied for peace keeping UN mission, but the Afghan war put Danish soldiers in the frontline, and several got severe injuries from mines and roadsite bombs as well as develop Post Traumatic Stress.
In the production by Esther Lee Wilkinson and Tim Matakis in collaboration with Dramatist Christian Lollike, the issues are treated and the ensemble include three war veterans telling and dancing their stories. It is the greatest success so far for Corpus and shows that ballet indeed can be be a strong interpreter of current affairs. It remains as strong a performance as when first seen last year.
However, the link between ballet and war efforts is actually not new for RDB. August Bournonville himself directed various celebrations and benefits for the Danish war efforts. With “I Føling” Corpus follows the route taken by Bournonville himself and prove Bournonville was strong in his belief that the ballet could and should be a part of the national war and crisis efforts.
So the Bournonville heritage pops up in very different formats , and proves once again by two very different activities, that the example of Bournonville still is the foundation of the company and a quality product and brand that can stand very well on it own outturned feet.
Stars in Motion
The second "Hübbery" of the season was dedicated to the theme passion. Beside the various non-ballettic items on the menu, Nicolaj Hübbe dished up with company specials on a very high level.
Gudrun Bojesen and Ulrik Birkkjær created magic with an outtake from "Lady of The Camellias" followed by a equally outstanding performance by Alban Lendorf and Alexandra Lo Sardo of one of the pas de deux from "Manon".
These are two of the best examples of what the RDB does best and also an example of inspired casting. Ulrik Birkkjær performs on a much higher level when partnered with Bojesen and Alexandra Lo Sardo has proved the best inhouse partner for Alban Lendorf. But neither of the two ballerinas are included in the six casts for Odette/Odile in Nikolaj Hübbe and Silja Schandorff´s upcoming production of "Swan Lake. Hilary Guswiler, who last time around proved a very promising Odette/Odile, is not cast either.
I suppose the Swan Lake production will be a long-running addition to the repertoire and therefore other dancers will get the chance later. And hopefully the chosed pairings will make sense once seen.
This programme included the Black Swan Pas de Deux, danced by one of the six casts, Ida Praetorius and Marcin Kupinski. As the duo only had worked with the pas de deux for one week, any kind of review will be imposterous. On February 24 there will be a workshop on the Old Stage, and it will be livestreamed on www.kglteater.dk/live af 20.00 h CET. More films and information is available on www.svanesoen.tumblr.com
The final ballet item on the "Hubbery" menu was the pas de deux from Alexander Ekman's "Cacti" very well danced by Kizzy Matiakis and Sebastian Haynes, the later continues to develop his skills and impressive stage persona with every role. He is one of the six Siegfrieds and it would intersesting to see how he will handle his first big classical lead.
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