Silja Schandorff & Nikolaj Hübbe:
”Swan Lake”
Royal Danish Ballet
October 7 & 8
The Opera Stage
The two lasts casts of this seasons run of “Swan Lake” has now taken their place on the Opera stage. And they placed themselves in complete opposite corners on how to interpret the roles. One could almost call it a battle between Odette and Odile. In the end, the victory went to the right competitor. However, as in most parts of life it is not merely a black or white matter.
For this second run of “Swan Lake”, Silja Schandorff and Nikolaj Hübbe has kissed goodbye to two of the Odette/Odile’s from the first run and giving the opportunity to one new contender, Soloist until yesterday, Kizzy Matiakis.
Principals Susanne Grinder and Amy Watson, has both earlier also had the leading role in the Peter Martins production, but by omitting Grinder, this production lost one of the best Odette’s, and save Ida Praetorius, this run had not yet really shown a full ballerina performance.
Black Swan
Holly Jean Dorger was back for a second run in the leading role with new partner Sebastian Haynes, the young dancer who last time partnered Susanne Grinder. Dorger previously danced with Ulrik Birkkjær, who is not a part of this year run.
Type wise, Dorger is more Odile than Odette, and she really let out her pyrotechnic powers as the black swan. It was evident that she had put a lot of effort into her Odette, especially by adding as many swan touches as possible, but it remained an away match for her.
Sebastian Haynes is one of our most talented dancers. He has a strong stage presence and has succeeded in a wide range of roles from Madge in “La Sylphide” to Leon/Lightfoot’s “Short Time Together”. He has also made a strong Von Rothbart in this run. However, compared to the other great hope, Andreas Kaas, his classical technique has not developed as much over the last season. It may be the prize of dancing such a wide repertoire. Nevertheless, he struggled and so did the partnership.
It became a case of two dancers standing next to each other without reaching the full commitment and thereby not building the strongest case for the performance.
White Swan
Almost as soon as Kizzy Matiakis entered the stage it was clear that Odette was in the building. She presented a character driven heart-rending performance. Making Odette matter creates the right platform Her musicality and understanding of the style embellished the performance. It also brought out the home truth: “Swan Lake” is not a ballet with two equally leading roles. It is all about Odette. Odile is but a supporting character.
Getting Odette right makes the whole picture comes together. Kizzy Matiakis could not only use the experience of a long career. She also somehow found expressions not seen from her before.
As Odile, she did struggle somewhat, but because her approach, it did not really matter. She also had the luxury of Gregory Dean as her Siegfried. In the last run, Dean was the only Siegfried, who could really make himself manifest in the first act, where so much of the attention is on Von Rothbart and the plotters. Dean is a strong partner, actor and stylist. He goes all in in each role and he really enjoys the partnering process. Together they made the case for “Swan Lake” as a romantic tragic ballet. They dared to believe in the story and thereby putting “Swan Lake” where it needs to be.
This performance displayed the right way to do “Swan Lake” and why the RDB should stick to its core qualities. There is nothing wrong with the recipe.
Photo of Kizzy Matiakis and Gregory Dean in "Swan Lake" act 2 by Costin Radu. Copyright (c) Royal Danish Ballet
I was also present yesterday at "Swan lake " performance and was thrilled by Kizzy Matiakis interpretation of both Odette and Odile roles. I agree that she shone more as Odette and had created a very convincing image of a swan princess.
To my mind, Kizzy Matiakis well deserves her new "solodanserinde" status, she has a great scenic presence and you can always be sure to get a veritable image of the personage she impersonates! Congratulations, Kizzy!
Posted by: Elena Kelly | October 09, 2016 at 07:41 AM