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"Friends of Danish Ballet" presented their annual Honour Award to former RDB star Arne Villumsen at a ceremony last month. Arne Villumsen was the leading male star of the Royal Danish Ballet for almost 20 years and covered a broad repertoire from Bournonville and Petipa to Balanchine, Cranko and Neumeier.
In 2005, I interviewed him for DanceView Magazine and is pleased to use this oppotunity to post the interview with the dancer who defined Danish male dancing for my generation.
Noam Griegst:
“Double Vu”
A Photo book on Royal Danish Ballet
Photographer Noam Griegst has followed the Royal Danish Ballet for a longer period and has published his images in the book “Double Vu”.
The book covers mainly back stage and rehearsal photo from the first period of Nikolaj Hübbe’s directorship with the main focus on John Neumeier’s “Romeo & Juliet”, Nikolaj Hübbe’s “Napoli” and a Balanchine program, consisting of “Stravinsky Symphony in 3 Movements”, “La Sonambule” and “Symphony in C”.
Lene Boel:
”7 Runer”
Netx Zone
Takkelloftet
November 2. 2015
“Bolshoi
Babylon”
European premiere
as part of CPH:DOX
Empire Bio
November 7, 2015
Financial Cuts at the Royal Theatre
The Royal Danish Ballet will keep the number of performances, but will have to rely more on heritage productions following the cuts.
A Modern Dance groups presents a work inspired by Viking and Hunger Game, while the Copenhagen audience can get an insight view on how another company handles their issues.
Nick Reed’s documentary on the acid attack on Sergei Filin is trying to find an explanation on how such an aesthetic art form can develop into thug behavior. However, the question remains it the reason a Russian issue or a ballet issue? The movie follows the three men in the conflict, the victim, Company Director Sergei Filin, the culprit and the new broom, Vladimir Urin, who was brought in to put the organization either back on its track or create a new organization.
“The Hübbery”
Liam Scarlett:
“Viscera” – pas de deux
Gregory Dean:
“L’Homme”
Oliver Starpov:
“Beginning and Ending”
Sol León & Paul Lightfoot:
“Short Time Together”
Gregory Dean:
“On the Feeling of Light”
Royal Danish Ballet
The Old Stage
October 31, 2015
Tim Rushton:
“Love Songs”
Danish Dance Theatre
Baltoppen Live
October 29, 2015
As the three last programs from Royal Danish Ballet have amassed almost more critical response than what Nikolaj Hübbe has received in his 7, 5 years as Artistic Direytor, he had really put the boat out for the first of his live dance/talk show “The Hübbery”s. Guests included national icons like singer Lis Sørensen and author Peter Høeg. However, the real stars of the evening was two budding in-house choreographers Gregory Dean and Oliver Starpov.
Two days earlier choreographer Tim Rushton, once a budding in-house choreographer at RDB, showcased his greatest hit “Love Songs” with Danish Dance Theatre, the modern ensemble, he had lead for almost a decade.
These events and the quality of the works presented, fuels the discussion of whether RDB might not be better of developing its own choreographers , rather than leaving the pitch to an array of guesting modern choreographers, more bend on their own agenda than was suits the needs of RDB.