Interview with Ida Praetorius
January 29, 2017
The year 2016 became the year where Royal Danish Ballet’s Ida Praetorius, 23 took the step from being the next big thing to being the prima ballerina. Not only did she gain the expected appointment to principal dancer, she took on the leads in seven big productions, including Romeo & Juliet, Swan Lake, Giselle, Alice, Don Quixote and Theme & Variations as well as starred in two cinema & TV-productions.
I meet with her on the first day of her well-deserved Winter break, to learn how she had coped with the big challenges.
A Taste of Balanchine
It might be her winter vacation, but Ida Praetorius is not resting her pointe shoes. Instead she will go abroad with fellow principal Ulrik Birkkjær to perform “Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux” at an international Gala, thereby taking on a totally new role and adding to her, so far rather short Balanchine repertoire.
Unfortunately, as was the case with “Theme & Variations” which she performed with RDB on tours, her local audience will have to wait and hope that it will at one point in time be visible for the home crowd. At least we do have the upcoming production of “Jewels” to look forward to.
The production of “Jewels” will be this season’s big challenge for the RDB Company. The company has danced a significant number of Balanchine and Robbins work, as well as several Peter Martins ballets, but has not taken on a Balanchine work before on this magnitude.
“I love dancing Dew Drop in his “Nutcracker,” says Ida Praetorius and we can easily agree that it is an as equally exciting role as the Sugar Plum Fairy to dance. In a strange twist of fate, Ida Praetorius has never performed the Balanchine Sugar Plum Fairy, yet she has been televised in it twice. First by dancing the solo in a “Dancing with the Stars” special and later the Pas de Deux in the Queen’s Birthday gala in 2015.
Royal Appointment
Ida Praetorius cannot complain of lack of Royal attention. Not only was she invited to the Queen’s ball for Artists and Sports personalities (RDB was also represented by Nikolaj Hübbe, Alban Lendorf and choreographer Esther Lee Wilkinson), she was placed at the Queen’s own table.
“It was a very special evening, I meet so many exciting people. The whole experience was like being in a fairytale.”
March 2016 saw a new run of “John Neumeier’s “Romeo & Juliet”, where Ida Praetorius reprised the role of Juliet, which was her big breakthrough role in 2014. This time around she was paired with classmate, newly appointed soloist Andreas Kaas, her Armand in “Lady of the Camellias” and her partner in several other roles.
The premiere showed how much Ida Praetorius has developed the role since the first time out:
“Dancing Juliet for the second time gave me a new starting point: I didn’t have to learn the choreography, the story. The steps were already in my body. So building on that, I think this time around I had the energy to go deeper with the character.”
The production was live transmitted to cinemas and was also shown on national television on Christmas Eve. Nikolaj Hübbe had decided to use the opportunity to promote Ida Praetorius to Principal Dancer following the curtain calls.
“The promotion really came as a surprise. Nikolaj came on stage and held a speech inspired by the Romeo & Juliet text. I was standing between Sebastian Haynes (Mercutio) and Andreas Kaas (Romeo), two of my childhood friends, and they held my hands tight. I felt paralyzed. Nikolaj almost had to push me towards the audience to take a bow. It is a night I’ll never forget.”
The television camera captures Ida Praetorius’ bewilderment and also the big support and joy from her fellow dancers.
Out of the Comfort Zone
Since her early youth Ida Praetorius has amassed a big and broad repertoire. As one of only two in-house educated Danish female principal dancers, she might have an advantage compared to the several foreign principal dancers who have joined RDB. She is the perfect fit for the large inherited repertoire. She is schooled in Bournonville and has since early childhood taken part in the dramatic ballets.
She has another big advantage. She can dance with every leading man in the company. She is neither too tall or too short to partner anyone. She is also part of a generation, with more than a handful of brilliant male dancers, which assures that Ida Praetorius has partners she can develop with in the future.
Still, Ida Praetorius can find herself in a totally new employ:
“I was at home, when I read the casting of Don Q and I was so happy. Having the opportunity to dance Kitri was kind of a secret dream, that I didn’t believe I would get to do. Somehow, I didn’t see myself as a natural cast. So, naturally I was extremely happy that I got the chance. Kitri is such a technically difficult part to dance, so I feel like I really grew a lot with the work.“
Dancing a role so far from her traditional ingénue employ became much easier:
“When I was younger, I tended to over-prepare and to keep rehearsing the steps over and over again. I have reached a point now, where I trust my work; that I’ve prepared well enough. I trust that I will get through the difficult moments and last through even very long ballets. Instead of rehearsing like a madman, I now try to rehearse intelligently. These days I’m much better at letting go of ballet, taking a break and doing other things”.
“I’m very inspired by other art forms. My boyfriend is an actor, and I learn a lot from his approach to the work. What questions should I ask the character? What are they feeling and thinking – what’s the sub text? Dance is a nonverbal art form, so asking these questions aren’t as natural to us. Many roles have sort of a standard interpretation, a way they are usually portrayed. I’m trying to see if I can find the best way I can do them.”
Dancing in Film, Sort of
Following Don Quixote, Ida Praetorius and a group of her colleagues took on a challenge, which turned out to be very different from anything they had done before. London based, Danish Choreographer Kim Brandstrup arrived to choreograph the ballet “Shaken Mirror.”
It has been a reoccurring theme for Kim Brandstrup to bring a cinematic feel to his work. With designer Bente Lykke Møller and the technical crew, Brandstrup got his wish fulfilled and then some. “Shaken Mirror” became a visual work where the physicality of the dancers mixed with the lighting design.
“It was an interesting concept; we couldn’t experience the full visual aestetic from the stage, so it was hard to understand what we were a part of. It only really came together with the audience and their reaction.”
Ida Praetorius was paired with Sebastian Kloborg in a segment about a troubled relationship.
“I was so lucky to have Sebastian Kloborg as my partner. He is an outstanding dramatic dancer with a strong presence. My younger brother, Tobias danced the leading role, and I love being on stage with him. He is one of my biggest inspirations; he’s a very intelligent dancer with such generosity - a true artist".
Following “Shaken Mirror”, the company went on tour to China with two Bournonville classics and “Theme & Variations.” Following the tour Ida Praetorius and Andreas Kaas took part in Wild Space, a choreographic project in the UK, before returning to Copenhagen where the duo had leading roles in the three mastodont productions planned for the fall season.
Swans, Villies and a childhood Heroine
First out was a reprisal of “Swan Lake”, which Praetorius and Kaas has danced earlier. They were not cast together here, but were paired for both the new production of “Giselle” by Silja Schandorff and Nikolaj Hübbe and the Danish premiere of Christopher Wheeldon’s “Alice”, based on the Lewis Carroll classic.
Praetorius and Kaas were filmed for life cinema transmission and for a later TV-production on the third performance of Giselle.
“Giselle is a wonderful part. I tried to really understand what this girl was going through. The smallest nuances of her descend into madness – and then the transformation into being dead, but still in love. I wanted to see, if I could find some strength under her fragile skin. To make her strong and as brittle as porcelain. When you really want something, you can find the strength – Giselle’s love for Albrecht is so strong it makes her mad, but at the same time it’s the force that makes her able to forgive and rescue him in the end".
Ida Praetorius also enjoyed working with designer Mia Stensgaard, who has earlier designed the RDB productions of “Manon”, “A Folk’s Tale”and “Swan Lake”.
“She has such an original and brilliant take on making costumes. She is able to see both the big picture and the tiniest detail. There’s so much quality and fantasy in her craft. She designs her costumes on the dancer, which is to say, she makes adjustments differently depending on the dancers body, to attain the best possible result.”
Shortly before the premiere of Giselle, RDB marked the final performance of Principal dancer Gudrun Bojesen who had been the leading romantic ballerina in the company. Ida Praetorius danced two segments at the farewell performance and it became very clear that not only the audience but also Gudrun Bojesen herself regarded Ida Praetorius as her heiress. The RDB has a strong heritage repertoire, with a constant need for romantic ballerinas.
Giselle truly confirmed that this link will keep going.
The final production of the year, Christopher Wheeldon’s “Alice” gave Ida Praetorius the challenge of translating national heritage from another country to a Danish audience, which is probably not that well versed in the story. Ida Praetorius and Andreas Kaas were the first cast and as the youngest of the four casts, the one who could best portray the adolescent characters.
“It was an enormous challenge. It is a long and complicated production; I was practically on stage the entire performance.”
Luckily the audience loved it and we can probably expect a return visit in the upcoming year.
Standing Tall
The first program in 2017 gave Ida Praetorius her debut as a Robbins dancer, which proved to be just what the doctor ordered.
“Isabelle Guerin came to RDB and taught us the Pas de Deux. Isabelle was very specific in what she wanted and at the same time expected of us to dance freely and be natural. She taught me a lot: I feel, that she helped me move away from being “Little Ida” towards being a more mature dancer.”
“I feel so happy and privileged that I get the opportunities to dance these dream parts and I’m proud of my work. I look forward to dancing Balanchine’s “Jewels” and Wayne McGregors “Infra” and whatever falls my way this year”.
We did the interview in the café at The Royal Theatre. There were few other guests in the café, and Ida Praetorius was asked by one of them if she would pose with her daughter for a photo. The little girl had just started at the Ballet Garden Nursery, an outreach project to find new intake for the ballet school. Ida Praetorius agreed smilingly and the little girl could not believe her luck to get her picture taken with her great idol, the star from “Alice”. Who knows, maybe we both met a future star of the company. It is all about the linage.
Photos of Ida Praetorius (copyright(c) Royal Danish Ballet)
1.Portrait by Natascha Rydvald
2.Celebrating promotion to Premier Dancer with Nikolaj Hübbe and the Ensemble
3."Don Quixote" with Marcin Kupinski
4."Shaken Mirror" with Sebastian Kloborg by Per Morten Abrahamsen
5.Odette/Odile by Rasmus Weng Karlsen
6. "Giselle" by Costin Radu
7. "Alice" with Andreas Kaas by Costin Radu
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