Pierre Lacotte:
“Paquita”
Paris Opera Ballet
May 28, 2015
The Copenhagen Opera
“Take Four”
Royal Danish Ballet
May 2015
The Drama house
Talent Award to Tobias Praetorius
The Paris Opera Ballet make a seldom visit to Copenhagen showing Pierre Lacotte’s big style reconstruction of “Paquita”. Although the ballets shares several similarities with the Danes own French heritage (Bournonville) it comes across more as a collection of fashionable scenarios than as a work of art. It definitely shows the trends of mid-19th century European taste. The performance is partly saved by the Russian reediting by Petipa, but as a vehicle for the Paris Opera Opera Ballet, it cannot provide the content to really display the company’s high qualities and skills.
At the 2005 Bournonville Festival Gala, Paris etoiles Marie Agnès Gillot and José Martinez created a magic memory with their elegant and outstanding rendering of “Diamonds Pas de Deux”, showing the true French qualities. Unfortunately, this performance of “Paquita” could not match the memory.
Gillot, Martinez, Letestu and recently Aurelie Dupont has retired and the company is now trying to establish a new generation of stars to take over from the very impressive team that has delivered the POB qualities for several decades.
First cast Laura Hecquet and Josua Hoffalt, could not in spite of strong technical dancing, especially from her, infuse the ballet with significant character building nor outstanding equilibrism. They could not save the material. Neither could the ballet present them with material they could enhance.
Shared Heritage
True a strange twist of fate, the POB lost their own heritage repertoire. However, through August Bournonville, the Danish dancer of French heritage who became Ballet Master in his hometown Copenhagen, the style was kept alive and paired with his own skills as a dramatic choreographer. So seeing the reconstructed “Paquita” is a reminder of what Bournonville saved, but also what he brought to the plate in form of storytelling, character building and message.
Seeing “Paquita” is almost like seeing a high number of ballets melted into one. There are similarities with “Don Quixote”, “Napoli”, “A Folk’s Tale”, “Coppelia”, “La Vivandiere”, ”Kermesse in Bruges, “Onegin” and several others.
It is documenting the 1846-1851 taste, combining the fascination with gypsies, national dances, current affairs, abducted children and corrupt leaders. The officer fall in love with the gypsy girls, but as she proves to be from his own class and family, the conflicts disappears and leaves nothing but an ongoing dancuenza of ensemble after ensemble with little difference.
Lacotte cannot make the heritage better. He is trying as hard as in his version of “La Sylphide” to match the posture of the surviving illustrations, and yet one constantly hopes that he instead would have added Russian virtuoso to the many ensembles.
Everybody is Dancing
Almost every one of the + 20 dance numbers are performed by + 16 dancers placed on two or four parallel lines. It lacks variation and several of the divertissements is difficult to perform with perfect coordination, especially the male variations. I am also somewhat surprised that there are so many divertissements for the male corps. It does not match my impression of the 1850s priorities.
The production shows beautiful designs, but that cannot save a work with few real choreographic or dramatic highlights. THE POB and its dancers are seldom guests in Copenhagen. It is understandable why “Paquita” is the chosen work, due to the shared history. It shows the width of the company but not their real depth, Last year Mariinskij visited with the old war horse production of “Swan Lake”, equally full of big style ensemble numbers, but that was overshadows by the qualities of the classic Russian dancing and the Tchaikovsky score. That is the extra layer that this production of “Paquita” lacks, partly due to the quest to reconstruct it as work of the French school, and partly because it always have been an empty shell.
How much we aim and wish to make lost ballets come to live, the well-meaned efforts unfortunately often shows why they did not survive.
Take Four –Take Two
Normally Royal Danish Ballet have double casts for most programs, but for the ”Take Four” combo of moderns works only two of the ballets presents double casting and only for some roles.
Alexandro Sousa Pereira chose to work with only one cast for “Krash”, but also asked that his cast not should be involved in any of the other works, thereby limiting ten of the top dancers to one ballet.
And as “Take Four” is also overlapping with the Corpus production “Fever Harbor” with 19 dancers, that also reduced the number of available dancers.
While Sebastian Kloborg has not put a second cast on his work “Strangers”, all his features dancers are also involved in Liam Scarlett’s “Viscera”. For the second cast of “Viscera” J’aime Crandall moves from the soloist role to the pas de deux, and Amy Watson take over as the soloist. Gregory Dean replaces Ulrik Birkkjær in the pas de deux.
However, Crandall and Dean are not able to get as many layers in the pas de deux as Alessandra Lo Sardo and Ulrik Birkkjær in first cast. Amy Watson cuts a striking figure but seems less comfortable with the high speeded variations.
Watson is also second cast in Adam Lüders’ “Schubert Pas de Deux”, where she dances with first cast Jonathan Chmelensky. Second cast male Magnus Christoffersen is likewise partnering first cast Holly Jean Dorger in his only performance.
Magnus Christoffersen is from the same age group as Andreas Kaas, Ida Praetorius and Sebastian Haynes, but has so far had significantly fewer roles and chances than the golden trio has. He is probably developing at a more natural pace. The Lüders piece has be described as technically difficult, but no less Christoffersen managed all the difficulties and showed his competences as a classical partner. He only need to bring more personality to the mix.
Well-earned Praise.
Indeed, it has been a month that had shown that the line of upcoming male talents is unbroken. First year dancer, Tobias Praetorius was awarded with the Talent Prize from “Friends of the Ballet”. Tobias Pretorius has in his first season shown his classical skillset in several divertissements in “Swan Lake”, his strong character skills as an outstanding Viderik in “A Folk’s Tale” and replaced an injured Alban Lendorf as one of the leads in “Krash”, the later showing impressive modern skills.
As a mere 15 year old, not yet in aspirant class, Tobias Praetorius danced a solo from “Who Cares” as part of “The Hubbery” series. With such a broad base of talent and skills, and a suitability for several Danish key roles, the future looks very bright for the young dancer.
Photo credits:
1. "Paquita" by E. Bauer (Copyright(c) Paris Opera Ballet)
2. Laura Hecquit as Paquita by Laurent Phillipe (Copyright(c) Paris Opera Ballet)
3. "Paquita" by Francette LeViex (Copyright (c) Paris Opera Ballet)
4. Magnus Christoffersen & Holly Jean Dorger in "Schubert Pas de Deux" by Henrik Stenberg (Copyright(c) Royal Danish Ballet"
5. Tobias Praetorius by Henrik Stenberg (Copyright(c) Royal Danish Ballet
Such elegant and beautiful images!
Posted by: Chris Rahimi | June 04, 2015 at 09:47 PM