Eva Kistrup

Shaken Miracle

 

Kim Brandstrup:

“Shaken Mirror”

Royal Danish Ballet

The Drama House

May 28, 2016

For many years, it has looked like combining the international well-known Danish choreographer Kim Brandstrup with the Royal Danish Ballet was a dream never coming through. Not that it has not been tried. Brandstrup has made four ballets on the company over the years and each time the conclusion had been that he did his best work on his own Arc Dance Company or elsewhere. Luckily, the miracle happened at the fifth attempt. “Shaken Mirror” really managed to merge the economical Brandstrup style with the expressionism of the RDB. Bente Lykke Møller and lightning designs by Jean Kalan, which plays tricks with the physical experience, also bless the production with an outstanding design.

Hungry for Ballet

 

Corpus

”Hungry for Blue”

Royal Danish Ballet

A salen

May 26, 2016

Now in its fourth season, the in-house company Corpus still seems more interested in process rather than quality. In “Hungry for Blue”, a group of dancers, including the choreographic talents Oliver Starpov and Beila Ungar, has undergone a democratic process. Unfortunately, the process has not resulted in an interesting ballet. Once again, I must question the artistic strategy in Corpus.

“Hungry for Blue” turned out be not an original work, but a constellation of roads already over traveled. Dancers using voices, crawling though tubes, cover each other in silver confetti, group pressure etc. The choreographic content is limited and unoriginal. Even with the two budding choreographers involved, no interesting choreography emerges.

I do understand that Corpus is challenged. There are limited time resources, as the dancers also have to honor their RDB duties. Nevertheless, to many of the Corpus productions underperforms. One of the main reasons being that the focus is not, where it should be - on the choreography -, but on testing various project models.

The international modern dance scene – and the Danish scene as well – has developed over the last decades and now offers not only interesting concepts, but has also reached a technical high level, which makes watching modern dance more pleasurable. It had also created a gap between the specialized modern companies and the classical companies, doing the odd modern ballet.

At present Corpus is fighting a match they cannot win. Unless they move the focus to choreography and use the special qualities of the dancers involved and the Danish tradition, the chances of creating interesting productions are limited. The good news is that the miracle had happened once. With “I Føling” Corpus produced a truly original and relevant work. Please continue down that road.

 

Photo by Signe Roderick (Copyright(c) Royal Danish Ballet) 

Finishing Touches

 

Twyla Tharp:

“Come Fly Away”

Royal Danish Ballet

Opera Stage

May 21, 2016

 

Nikolaj Hübbe:

“Don Quixote”

Royal Danish Ballet

Opera Stage

May 20, 2016

 

When Royal Danish Ballet got the opportunity to fill out a gap at the bigger Opera Stage, Nikolaj Hübbe chose to put on an extra run of Twyla Tharp’s Sinatra ballet “Come Fly Away”, which has proven one of the most secure cards to pull in new audience. The pulling power seems to work still, there are few ticket unsold to the run.

The move to the bigger stage brings two benefits, a much better sound and a more spacious stage. As both the orchestra and a full size nightclub take up much of the stage, it was crowded before. However, Nikolaj Hübbe has chosen not to bring new dancers to the run. Instead, the two casts are all old hands at deck.

Tell Me More!

Nikolaj Hübbe:

Don Quixote

Third Cast

May 5, 2016

Royal Danish Ballet

The Old Stage

 

Pairing Jonathan Chmelensky, known for all-in technical dare and panache with pure, quiet, stylish Lena Maria Gruber in “Don Quixote” could easily have come up as Danny meets Sandy in Grease. And although there certainly was a wild boy/quiet girl quality in the pairing, the result was pure bliss as the two artists managed to match their different sets of qualities into a harmonious and impressive performance.

The Charge of the Light-haired Brigade

Nikolaj Hübbe:

"Don Quixote"

Second Cast

May 13, 2016

Royal Danish Ballet

The Old Stage

 

 

The Second cast of “Don Quixote” offers a more classical version of the ballet and include yet another outstanding ballerina performance from Ida Praetorius.

When shooting the promo for the new production of Don Quixote, the director did everything he could to disguise the fact that the leading couple, Ide Praetorius and Marcin Kupinski is blond and blue-eyed by smearing the ballerina’s hair and covering Kupinski’s impressive mane with a scarf.

Luckily, on stage no such trick was used on the dancers. Susanne Grinder and Gregory Dean, who danced the Espada, Street dancer, Mercedes and Bolero combo, also appeared as light as usual.

Interestingly, the decision to not go Latino actually changed the impact of the performance. Instead of promoting the Spanish theme, the Petipa content shined even brighter.

Sort of Entertained

 

Nikolaj Hübbe:

”Don Quixote”

With additional choreography by Mikhail Baryshnikov

Royal Danish Ballet

April 30

The Old Stage, Royal Theatre

There can be little doubt that the main reason for bringing back the 1983 production of “Don Quixote” was to use it as a vehicle for RDB and ATB star Alban Lendorf. Unfortunately, he has been out for most of the season with an injury. Although Jon Axel Fransson proved a strong contender on his own merits, the ballet remains the vulgar cousin among the Russian classics. Nikolaj Hübbe brings in support in the form of a Baryshnikov solo; however, neither the ballet nor his treatment of it can make “Don Quixote” better or more interesting than the core version.