Partly Royal

Copenhagen Summer Dance,

August 8, 2016

 

Wubkje Kuindersmaa: "Mahl3"

National Youth Ballet of Germany by John Neumeier. 

Alessandro Sousa Pereira: “KRASH“

Royal Danish Ballet

 B.Dance: ”Innermost”

Stefanos Bizas: "A Naked Feeling",

with Alba Nadal Royal Danish Ballet

Tim Rushton:”Kindred Spirits”

Micaela Petri and Danish Dance Theater

Tim Rushton:”Firebird” excepts

Danish Dance Theatre

Tim Rushton; DRUMS

Danish Dance Theatre.

 

The annual summer event, Copenhagen Summer Dance in the Police Yard remains one of the best events on the summer circuit. The outstanding architecture forms an ideal frame around the choreography, the audience is taken good care of and Tim Rushton and the company and guests presents a pleasing array of small scale works and except from bigger ballets.

A New Beginning

Danish Dance Theatre is entering a new phase. From next season, they move from the rustics Dance Halls to more luxurious surroundings at the Opera, where they will have the experimental stage “Takkelloftet” as their base.

As the Royal Theatre also have three stages at the drama house as well as the Old Stage and the Opera, there has been few productions on “Takkeloftet”. Bringing in “Danish Dance Theatre” gives the company not only a better stage and better training facilities; it also will make the modern dance scene more visible in the royal context. One of the initiatives, Tim Rushton, himself a former RDB dancer who has also choreographed several successful works for the RDB, will present at Takkelloftet is new choreography by DDT dancer and choreographs Alessandro Sousa Pereira , Edhem Jesenkowich and RDB alumni Sebastian Kloborg. It will also be interesting to see how bringing DDT inside the perimeter will influence the in-house company Corpus.

Friends on Stage

The good relationship between the RDB and DDT was equally present at the summer performance. The menu included an excerpt of Alessandro Sousa Pereira’s “KRASH” for the RDB; RDB dancer Alba Nadal danced a pas de deux with DDT’s Stefanos Bizas and Tim Rushton presented RDB School alumni Lukas Hartvig-Møller as a new company member, who showed of his strong stage personality in ”Drums”, created especially for the occasion. Otherwise DDT showed a segment from last season’s production of “Firebird” and performed with the Danish Flute player Michaela Petri.

The tree remaining items Stefanos Bizas’ “A naked Feeling”, Wubkje Kuindersmaa´s “Mahl3” ,danced by National Youth Ballet of Germany by John Neumeier and “Innermost” by Po Chen Tsai, were all pleasant middle of the road modern dance pieces. They did not offend, but neither did they present real dare and innovation. The Rushton and Pereira pieces showed more force and blessed with stronger performers, with RDB’s Tobias Praetorius as the real standout I KRASH.

In all a pleasant evening, but also a performance that showed that the modern scene, in spite of the high production values, needs more dare, stronger concepts and most importantly development of a stronger and more innovative technical content to deliver on all criterias.

 

Photos:

1. "INNERMOST"
2. Lukas Hartvig-Møller in "DRUMS"

 

Photo Copyright(c)  Søren Meisner Danish Dance Theatre