August Bournonville/Nikolaj Hübbe:
“La Sylphide”
George Balanchine:
“Theme & Variations”
Royal Danish Ballet
January 6 and 7, 2016
The RDB rings in the new year with a glorious production of Balanchine’s “Theme & Variations”. It is a ballet perfectly suited to the company style and especially to the fine corps de ballet that during Nikolaj Hübbe’s reign has developed into a stellar ensemble.
“Theme & Variations” is the finale of an evening also offering the national treasure. August Bournonville’s “La Sylphide”. However, in Nikolaj Hübbe production from last season it has become a more problematic revival as Hübbe and his designer Bente Lykke Møller, has taken the large broom and cleaned the ballet of many of its stellar qualities.
However, great performances can save even problematic productions. Hübbe´s “La Sylphide” made a much more positive experience with strong interpretations by the second cast, while “Theme and Variations” lost some points by a second cast leading couple, neither perfectly tuned to the ballet or to each other.
Stars in Motion
“Theme & Variations” is often described as Balanchine’s take on “The Sleeping Beauty” .I would rather call it his distillation of the Pepita style. In less than half an hour, Balanchine demonstrates every value of the Russian classical style, and takes it even further. Not only in the adagio where the ballerina is supported by the corps, but also in the segment where the cavalier movement are in sync with the four soloist girls. RDB danced the ballet first time in 1991 as part of a Balanchine celebration and it is a well timed return to the company at a point where the corps has reached a very high level.
The premiere cast was outstanding. J’aime Crandall and Jon Axel Fransson has been paired before, and he is without doubt the partner, who can bring out her special qualities and complement her best. Fransson is not only technically strong; he is also a great stylist and has the musicality to interpret the music. It became a perfect pairing and an outstanding performance bringing out all the qualities of the ballet. Fransson should be up for a serious promotion. He has an impressive range as a dancer and actor, and has for a long time been the primary alternate to Alban Lendorf.
Second cast Soloists Jonathan Chmelensky and Caroline Baldwin proved a less stellar combination. Chmelensky is a strong technical dancer, but not primarily an adagio one. However, he took clearly the responsibility for the pas de deux, but got little response from his partner. Like in “The Nutcracker” recently, Baldwin tends to concentrate on her own performance and neglects the partners. She is a lovely classical dancer, but was also challenged by the tempi and the level of the pas de deux.
Hopefully “Theme & Variations” will stay in the RDB for a prolonged period, as it remains an ideal ballet for the company.
Clean Sweep
One could say that Nikolaj Hübbe in his second production of “La Sylphide” also tries to distillate August Bournonville’s master piece. His first production was a marvel of how to rejuvenate the ballet without messing with the core qualities. His second production goes beyond toying with the family silver. Danish ballet critique has shown little respect for the older generations of Bournonville directors, who saw preservation of the style and the ballets as their main concern. They were dubbed custodians, and if there is one label, the never generation of stagers want to avoid is the term custodians. And nobody can call Nikolaj Hübbe and designer Bente Lykke Møller, custodians. It is a clean sweep strategy, but also an incoherent one. It is also built on the thesis that there is a deeper level in Bournonville’s works. Researchers often forgets that “La Sylphide” is not actually a piece of art created by Bournonville. It is a treatment, a copy of this season’s international hit that happens to outlive the original. A god statement to show his new employers that he could deliver international level.
Nikolaj Hübbe has shown in his best productions that he is an excellent custodian, but it is clearly not a label he wants. He wants to put his own stamp on the productions, so “Napoli”, “A Folks Tale” and “La Sylphide” is dragged through time travel, agnosticism, and sexual ambiguity in an effort to make Bournonville more relevant, more daring, more philosophical and more artsy.
Revisiting the production at the first performance this season, confirmed the reservations from first time around, especially regarding the second act. Individual performances like Sebastian Haynes as the male Madge bad guy and the supporting cast showed quality and style. Gregory Dean was a passionate James, but his sylphide, Amy Watson faced major challenges. It was easy to conclude that the decision to remove all flying tricks from the production, made it harder for the ballerina to create the illusion of being a creature of the air. Likewise suggesting a liaison between Madge and James did nothing to keep the focus on the Sylphide. It must also be mentioned that although Watson put everything she could into the role, she does not possess the lightness or the soaring jumps, so essential for a sylph.
However, the second cast managed to make the most coherent performance ever of this production. When Susanne Grinder was the Sylph as last year’s premiere, she almost became became invisible as both Nikolaj Hübbe as Madge and Ulrik Birkkjær as James went big style acting and the focus were moved to their toxic relationship. This time around she became the natural center. Partly through her own ballerinaship. But also because Marcin Kupinski in his best James ever, made the room for her, the production omits to make.
Another Way
The real and positive change was Sebastian Kloborg as Madge. When recently taking on Drosselmeyer, Kloborg succeeded by making the role more active. As Madge he presents a totally different strategy, not only from his former success, but also from the production history and the other three Madge’s seen so far. It is the triumph of quietness. Kloborg’s Madge is not an aggressive, outreaching baddie. Instead he reminds of the tragic Henrik Ibsen characters, who are facing death because of their fathers depravities. It is a sort of “If I got to go, I will take someone with me”. It created a strong focal point, but it also makes room for James and the Sylph and it makes the tragedy even bigger. In short an outstanding performance by a truly outstanding character dancer.
However, putting the second act divertissement into a white box is still first degree murder. The dancers can only make their entrances and exits by the corners, which totally kill any surprise elements. The corps and Hilary Guswiler as the first sylphide, dance beautifully, but cannot get the space they need.
Nikolaj Hübbe has now had his chance to experiment with “La Sylphide” and the other Bournonville masterpieces. It is now proven by every method, that you cannot make better Bournonville than Bournonville himself. So hopefully now Hübbe and other in house stagers will let off turning Bournonville into things he is not. It will needs a few custodians, but is it not the finest employ, to preserve the real masterpieces?
Photos by Costin Radu (Copyright(c) Royal Danish Ballet)
1: Jon Axel Fransson & J'aime Crandall in Theme & Variations
2: Jonathan Chmelensky & Caroline Baldwin in Theme & Variations
3: Marcin Kupinski & Susanne Grinder in "La Sylphide"
4: Sebastian Kloborg in "La Sylphide"
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