Interview with Nikolaj Hübbe,
November 22, 2016
This month Nikolaj Hübbe not only appointed a new principal dancer and presented a new production of “Giselle”. He also signed on for another three years as Artistic Director for the Royal Danish Ballet.
Nikolaj Hübbe’s tenure so far at Royal Danish Ballet has been an oeuvre of presenting quality in spite of dwindling budgets and government forced cuts. He remains optimistic for the coming years:
“It looks like we would be able to squeeze in more productions in each season. We are aiming at making our procedures and rehearsals more effective, and that will create enough space to do five instead of four production per half season”.
More productions will also allow Nikolaj Hübbe to cater for the broad talent base in the company:
“As it is now we are challenged both by a less than ideal number of productions and too few performances.”
The recent new production of “Giselle” shares eight performances among three casts. As productions seldom runs two seasons in a row, it means that if a dancer misses performances due to an injury, it could be three or four years before a potential second chance.
Fortunately, it has not hindered the RDB in developing a great talent base, among dancers coming both from the company school and from abroad.
Developing Talents
“We are a small country and yet we continue to develop dancers on a high international level. We do match or in some cases even overmatch big international companies like the Royal Ballet, NYCB and ABT in the percentage of homegrown talents. We are only 5.2 million people. However we must do something right in our education”, says Nikolaj Hübbe.
Not that many years ago, it was only children from Copenhagen who entered the RDB School.
“Over the last twenty year we have developed a system with satellite schools, talent centres and even a boarding school. That makes it possible for us to identify and attract talents outside the greater Copenhagen area. This year we even have a girl from South Sweden. Commuting to the RDB School is much more feasible than joining the Royal Swedish Ballet School far away in Stockholm. Thomas Lund, the director of the school, spends most of the spring visiting centres and private ballet schools all over the country to identify talents.”
In order to attract more children and responding to a request from the ballet dancers union, the academic side of the education has also been raised. The senior education is now three years instead of two and the apprentices now attend senior school and sit exams that qualify them for academic studies along with their ballet education.
“The apprentices used to perform with the corps de ballet. Now they only have limited stage time. Partly to counteract the lack of the apprentices, we have to rely more on foreign intakes”, says Nikolaj Hübbe.
Bring in the Boys
There is another issue regarding the apprentices. Following a period where the RDB School has been raining extremely talented male dancers, there now is a three-year long drought before the next set of boys reaches entry exams.
“It is not a new scenario for us. We are a small country so we cannot expect a steady delivery. They will come. We have signed on a significantly higher number of foreign dancers to counteract this. Luckily, we also have a good track record in attracting talent from outside and develop them to a high level. Many of our intakes have even developed to be able to handle even the key Bournonville roles”.
In all, Nikolaj Hübbe is very satisfied with his company. He told me the corps in his and Silja Schandorff’s recent production of “Giselle” stunned him.
The raised standard of the corps is in many ways the most significant development in Hübbe’s reign. RDB has always had outstanding dancers. The RDB will dance “Jewels” later in the season. This could not have happened without the high quality of the corps de ballet.
Leading Russian companies who plan to expand to 500 dancers in order to perform double productions as well as constant touring stun Nikolaj Hübbe. This is not the way he would like to see RDB develop.
One of the questions, he has been struggling with is whether to put in more layers in the company:
“Today we have three layers: corps, soloists and principals. I have considered putting in a first soloists category, but decided that it would not add real value to the company. One of our core values is that although there is a hierarchy, we do love to mix."
Several of the modern choreographers choose their casts with little reverence for the hierarchy. We all love to perform together in Ohad Naradin’s “Minus Seven", where several of our principal dancers in the cast do not even have a featured role. Still it remains a treat for them.”
It is not all about Bournonville
No doubt, he loves his company, but he does certainly not subscribe to the common conception of RDB as a dramatic company towering all others:
“We are good at dramatic ballets; however, you can also get great dramatic performances in Hamburg, Paris, London and several other places.”
This is in line with his views on Bournonville: A good choreographer who had made great ballets but also several minor and less interesting works.
In 2018, it could be time for the fourth Bournonville Festival, which has taken place every 13th years since the first festival in 1979. Nikolaj Hübbe is not so certain:
“We could consider making a festival, but it would not be an all Bournonville festival. I would rather showcase RDB at their best than Bournonville's less stellar works.”
Nikolaj Hübbe has directed four Bournonville productions, “Napoli” in a Fellini setting, “A Folk’s Tale” moved to a late 18-century setting and two productions of “La Sylphide”, first a traditional version in 2005 and then again last year, he produced a version which although very faithful to Bournonville’s architecture and steps, took a darker route and included a gay Madge who has had a liaison with James.
However, his and Silja Schandorff’s new production of “La Sylphide” sister ballet “Giselle” stays on the conventional route:
“As there is so much drama in “Giselle”, I saw no need to add to the mixture. The historic Old Stage at the Royal Theatre is so perfect for “Giselle”. It is a traditional 19th century theatre so every proportion matches the demands of a romantic ballet. We have tried to make the connection between the room and the ballet stronger by bringing some of the design features from the auditorium on to the stage.”
Bring on the Choreographers
When asked about his priorities for the coming tenure, there is one opportunity Nikolaj Hübbe is especially dedicated to get going:
“We have three dancers who have shown their talents for choreography. My aim is therefore to create more opportunities for them to develop. The three choreographers, Principal Gregory Dean, former RDB Soloist Sebastian Kloborg and young Oliver Starpov give us a strong base to build on, and I am hopeful that they will bring out something of real interest and value to the company.”
Recently Nikolaj Hübbe created headlines when he appointed Soloist Kizzy Matiakis to Principal at the age of 35, which is only five years short of the retirement age.
“When someone reaches the high peak - I do not care at what age – I will grant principal status. RDB does have a few examples of late appointments. Heidi Ryom, whom I danced with a lot in my younger years, was in her late twenties when appointed, and I know that the Royal Ballet, NYCB and Paris Opera Ballet have several late-appointed Principals who continued to dance on very high level many years after the appointment”.
In all, I think it is safe to conclude that although Nikolaj Hübbe with the prolonged tenure will be one of the longest serving Artistic Directors of RDB, he will not be showing us a repetitive repertoire.
Nikolaj Hübbe will continue to challenge set ideas on RDB as well as the Bournonville heritage. He is proud of his ensemble and ambitious for their development. We can expect experiments, some may fail and some will likely open up new venues for the old company. It will be interesting to follow.
Photo Series by Christian Als (Copyright(c) Royal Danish Ballet)
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