Eva Kistrup

The Away Game

 

 

 

Interview with Andreas Kaas 

March 26,2018

The dream scenario in every dance or sports movie is when the young talented dancer or player are asked to cover a starring role; he has never done with practically no preparation.

Well, it can happen in real life. It certainly happened to Royal Danish Ballet Soloist Andreas Kaas, when he were asked to visit Mariinsky Ballet to perform James in August Bournonville’s “La Sylphide”. There was just a little hitch. He had never danced the role on the Copenhagen stage or elsewhere:

“Nikolaj Hübbe asked if I were game. Of course, I said yes! I have been in the RDB version since childhood and I was Gurn in Nikolaj Hübbe’s latest version. However, I have never danced James and we had only a few days to prepare, but I stayed confident”.

A Guest from the Past

 

 

The Hübbery

Royal Danish Ballet

March 27, 2018

 

When the Peter Martins allegations took place, I am sure that I was not the only Danish balletomane, who felt that it had happened before.

In 1951 the then Artistic Director of the Royal Danish Ballet, Harald Lander was like Peter Martins accused for accosting young female dancers and for artistic short comings.

Harald Lander left the country for a post at The Paris Opera. Several years later, Harald Lander was cleared from the accusations by the Danish High court. However, the relationship with Royal Danish Ballet was beyond repair. There were several attempts to bring Harald Lander back to create or review some of his earlier creations for the company, but only a few productions made it to the stage.

Instead, Harald Lander formed an alliance with Danish National Television which produced a series of minor works and a studio production of his key attribution to Danish and international ballet “Etudes” in1969.

 

No longer Far from Denmark

 

Interview with Wilma Giglio

March 23, 2018

 

 

As a ballet child, Argentinian Wilma Giglio longed to go to Europe and dance at the prestigious Lausanne ballet competition. However, it was not financially possible for her family to send her to Europe. Instead, she qualified for a place at the Canadian State Ballet School:

“I was in my sixth year at the school, when I learned that the Royal Danish Ballet were looking for female dancers. I decided to go for it as I still had the dream of dancing in Europe. Luckily, I was accepted together with a group of other girls. The Canadian Ballet has close ties to the RDB through exchanges of ballet students and teachers, so although I was the only Argentinian, there were RDB dancers, I already knew from the Canadian School”.

The Miracle at the Museum

 

 

Royal Danish Ballet Dancers at SMK

Oliver Marcus Starpov:

"Untitled"

February – March 2018

 

At present RDB is rolling out a charm offensive to broaden the audience. A great deal of the activities is linked to the planned ballet festival in June.

In order to boost the festival Nikolaj Hübbe appears on Facebook in films where his visit football clubs and boxing parlors etc. to spread the message that ballet is for everyone.

On the commercial side, RDB is also entering new territory. The RDB dancers are appearing in the spring catalog of a leading department store.

The program for the festival do also include several outreach activities, including live streaming a new ballet that will include popular Danish singers to a nearby museum, where there will be an outdoor party.

The big question are, will this campaign bring in a new audience?