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.
Coming Back
The production was rehearsed outside the RDB facilities. When I interviewed RDB stalwart, Eva Kloborg, who participated in the production, she remembered the TV production:
"Towards us Harald Lander was kind, funny and pleasing. Yes, he was also demanding and knew exactly what he wanted from us. It was a great experience to work with him and I am sure that the success of the TV production let to "Etudes" returning to its rightful place in RDB repertoire ", says Eva Kloborg.
“Etudes” returned to RDB in 1961 and “Etudes” has since been performed regularly. However, when RDB presented a Harald Lander celebration in 2005, it was not possible to fill an evening with Harald Lander choreography.
For this Lander-dedicated Hübbery, Nikolaj Hübbe has faced the same challenge. He reuses Lander’s “Dvorak Pas de Deux” originally made for television from the 2005 event. This time Hübbe present it as a rehearsal with Soloist Jon Axel Fransson and first year dancer Emma Riis-Kofoed. The choreography mixes the sublime with the odd. Still it is a vital documentation of Lander’s unfortunately very small remaining legacy.
Nikolaj Hübbe is reaching back to Lander’s early period and has given Tobias Praetorius the opportunity to recreate and adding his own choreography to “Qarrtsiluni”, Lander´s homage to the Eskimo culture from 1942.
In Lander´s own production the Sharman is surrounded by his tribe, this time Tobias Praetorius is alone on the stage and creates the magic from his own core. He is an outstanding dancer and the best modern dancer in the company. I hope that he will soon get his great break though. He should be considered as a key factor in the RDB future, especially if the Bournonville repertoire should have a fighting chance.
The White Company
The rest of the dancing part of the Hübbery focused on the white ballets, “La Sylphide”, “Swan Lake” and “Etudes”. Of the three ballets only ”Swan Lake” and “Etudes” will be part of the festival repertoire, a decision which must come as a chok for the international audience and reviewers. Nikolaj Hübbe´s second version of “La Sylphide” is controversial, bur can we conclude that he has lost the faith in his own production?
Unfortunately not performing a company classic like “La Sylphide” harm the brilliant young stars of RDB, who actually has to go abroad to get a chance on the national key heritage. Luckily, Jon Axel Fransson has been invited to a Galla in Canada and Mariinsky has invited and Andreas Kaas to dance James in respectively a segment and the full production.
The Hübbery presented a downgraded version of the Sylphide divertissement with J`aime Crandall and Andres Kaas with three supporting dancers. Crandall was also in the romantic part of “Etudes” with Jonathan Chmelensky, who also collaborated with Wilma Giglio in an excerpt from “Swan Lake”. Giglio will dance her first Odette/Odile in May. The except confirmed that she has the perfect lines for Odette, and will be interesting to see whether she can handle the duality in the role.
A Small Street
The Hübbery also included some interviews regarding Harald Lander and his career. The most interesting was the contribution from Lise Lander, Harald Lander´s widow and former RDB star Sorella Englund.
The same day a part of a street very close to the Royal Theatre was renamed after Harald Lander. A fine recognition. However, it is a very short street. In some ways, it underlines the fact, that the Lander heritage at RDB, save “Etudes” is almost nonexistent.
Photos:
Copyright(c) Royal Danish Ballet.
- 1. Alban Lendorf,J´aime Crandall and Jon Axel Fransson in "Etudes" by Costin Radu
- 2. Nikolaj Hübbe and Jon Axel Fransson by Christian Als
3. Tobias Praetorius by Costin Radu
4. J´aime Crandall by Costin Radu
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