Nikolaj Hübbe & Silja Schandorff:
“Swan Lake”
Royal Danish Ballet
April 10 2015
The Opera
A continuous theme in reviewing Nikolaj Hübbe and Silja Schandorff’s “Swan Lake” have been the discussion of whether putting six casts on a run of only 17 performances was a good idea. There have been many good and even outstanding performances to back the strategy, but there has also been performances where it was clear that some of the casts would have benefitted from more rehearsals and more coaching. There had even been strong arguments for more casts, as several dancers has shown here or previously that they also deserved a place in the lineup.
The final couple in the run Gregory Dean and Amy Watson is only the second of the casts where both are principals. Both are veterans from the previous RDB “Swan Lake” by Peter Martins, so the audience should rightly expect a top-notch performance.
A True Siegfried
We certainly got that from Gregory Dean as Siegfried. These last seasons have shown an outstanding line of fine interpretations from Dean as the leads in “Romeo & Juliet”, “Come Fly Away”, “The Nutcracker”, “La Sylphide” and “A Folk Tale”. For this, his second shot at Siegfried, he outperforms not only his previous achievement but as the only of the current casts managed to conquer the first act’s vacuum treatment of the role. His solution is to build a character, stay in character and dance the character. A recipe that places Siegfried where he should be, but also enhances the dancing.
The purity of his line matches the purity of Siegfried. Because he had managed to make the prince come alive as a romantic hero in the first scenes, the Bruhn solo becomes a logical continuation of the theme. This dancer can merge the character building with the pyrotechnics to a coherent and clear statement. That is frankly what Siegfried and “Swan Lake“ are all about.
However, Dean is not only serving this production as the star. He is also the choreographer for two of the divertissement, so he got the opportunity to see his own work from the royal podium. Both segments led by respectively, Gudrun Bojesen and Ida Praetorius, both in top form, clearly presenting Dean’s love and understanding of the classical language. They sort of become embodiments of his qualities. This man really gets the language of classical ballet and is able to interpret it.
Scaling Down
This is the third run for Principal Amy Watson as Odette/Odile. The role has been her greatest achievement and her biggest challenge. She has always been able to create both sides of the role dramatically but the technical content have been a hard battle to fight and win.
For this production, Watson has clearly chosen the strategy to survive rather than try to win the war. However, Odette/Odile is not a role that should be danced with a minimalistic approach. The role lives on the dare. For Odette arabesques must be high and accentuated. For Odile the pyrotechnics is as important as the black costume. The survival strategy also let to decision to omit the fouettes series and instead do a series of pirouettes and turns.
It is true that the five other Swan Queens in the run has also struggled with this challenge, but they had kept on fighting and is likely to conquer the beast with more performances. Watson’s decision to downsize has pulled her out of the race.
This performance showed high level female dancing from all the soloists in the divertissements, but as importantly from the corps itself, again reaching new heights. The symmetry, precision and flow is outstanding. It is a joy to experience how this sisterhood makes the strongest argument for ballet come alive.
Photos:
1. Black Swans by Costin Radu
2 Gregory Dean in "The Nutcracker" by Henrik Stenberg
3. Amy Watson in "Symphony in C" by Kyle Froman
Copyright(c): Royal Danish Ballet
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