Eva Kistrup

Hübbe's People

 

 

“On the Front Row”
A documentary series on the Royal Danish Ballet
September 27, 2017

Over the last seven weeks, Danish National Television has shown a seven part series on the RDB dancers. It is not unusual for the national TV to produce behind the stages documentaries. I have quite a selection on DVD of what has been done over the years. However, the scale of this project is bigger than anything done before.

In many ways, the series is a continuation of a two part series done during Nikolaj Hübbe’s first year as ballet master. The new series follow six Danish dancers through the spring season. Actually, five of the six dancers was also taking part in the two part series, which followed the aspirant classes they attended.

The New Reality for Corpus

 

 

Martin Forsberg:

“Prefecture”

September 5, 2017

 

A few days ago, I got the press release on Corpus new production, Swedish choreographer Martin Forsberg’s Prefecture. The release was rather short on the ballet, but made much out of two other changes. Corpus now has their own entrance and they have a lounge with a bar. 

Corpus was formed as an in-house company in 2012 to give the RDB dancers an opportunity to try new formats and create their own performances. Corpus, under the helmet of RDB dancers Esther Wilkinson and Tim Matiakis had presented a very wide repertoire, including the smash hit “I Føling” based on Danish war veterans. In this week a law is passed that gives the PTSD suffering war veterans a better treatment and support. More than anything it was "I Føling" that really brought the issue to attention. 

However, over the years, Corpus has developed into a more niche-oriented direction, and instead of in-house choreographers have cooperated with outside choreographers and artists from other fields. The strategy has resulted in some rather obscure ballets and in outstanding works by strong choreographers like Jo Strømgren.