Eva Kistrup

Bournonville Today and hopefully tomorrow

 

 

Signe Roderik:

”Bournonville Today”

”The Art of Silence”

April 24, 2018

The Cinematek

 

 Is Bournonville still alive? This is a question; one has come very near to asking during the last seasons, where Bournonville has been a rare visitor.

Nikolaj Hübbe’s own Bournonville productions is known for their dare, the time travelling and the change from a Christian base to an agnostic environment. In addition to his own productions, Gudrun Bojesen, Anne Marie Vessel and most impressively Ib Andersen has directed new versions of “La Ventana”, “The Conservatory” and “The Kermes in Bruges”. Neither of these productions has had a long run.

Still the Bournonville affinardos expected a Bournonville festival this year, following the three hosted previously in 1979, 1992 and 2005

There will be a festival in early June. However, Bournonville will not take the leading role. Save a performance of Hübbe’s updated version of “Napoli” set in a Fellini inspired setting and an evening of Pas de Deux´s and small ensemble work, Bournonville will be absent. There is no new productions not even a performance of his most important work “La Sylphide”.

Not that Magical

 

 

 

Joannis Mandafounis & Corpus:

It Finishes When It Finishes

A-Salen

April 20, 2018

 

In the marketing material, Corpus and guest choreographer Joannis Mandafounis promises a great fusion of movements and magic. Well, you have to have a rather broad concept of magic to be satisfied with the result. 

Mandafouris, a former dancer with Nederland’s Dance Theatre II and Forsythe Company, has set up shop in 2009, and has built a strong base with his own company. On that base, one dares to expect a good and coherent performance.

Unfortunately, someone must have mentions the word magic in the process, and that had led to that the actually very skilled Corpus ensemble of six dancers had to be magicians as well as dancing and improvising parts of the choreography.

It is easy enough to throw paper spaghetti at the audience and each other. However, the slightly more advanced standards tricks demands more skills. Although some of the tricks could have worked, in most of them, the audience was made early aware of what we could expect. A chapeau claque hat is more impressive, if it had not already been folded out by mistake before the trick. Etc.

Another trick, making the pianist Alison Smith, fuming smoke out of her dress, was simply demonstrated too many times.

The Great Break Through

 

 

 

Liam Scarlett:

”Queen of Spades”

Royal 0anish Ballet

The Old Stage

April 15, 17 2017

 

Choreographer Liam Scarlett has raised from practically unknown to the favorite choreographer of the Royal Danish Ballet´s audience in less than a week. His “Queen of Spades” has impressed both the younger audience and more established subscribers. In many ways, he has turned the company and its traditional structure upside down.

He uses principal dancers as soloists and soloists as principal dancers. He goes even further by casting corps dancer Tobias Praetorius in two of the leading male roles, including the leading role as Hermann, the young officer turned gambler.

Tobias Praetorius is known for his versatility. He is a strong classical dancer, probably the best modern dancer in the company and an outstanding mime artist. He uses all these skills in “Queen of Spades” but even more impressive, he also shows outstanding leading man qualities. From the moment he enters the stage, he has the audience in his trail. He also showed great partnering skills, one do not necessarily expects from a young and relatively short dancer.

An outstanding performance from the dancer, turning 22 this week.

Seeing this performance, one becomes aware of the potential of the ballet and the role of Hermann.  With “Queen of Spades”, Liam Scarlett has created a blockbuster part for the employ of the leading male. It cannot only catapult a dancer like Tobias Praetorius to the front of the company; it could be an international hit.

King of Spades

 

 

 

Liam Scarlett 
:

”Queen of Spades”

Royal 0anish Ballet

The Old Stage

April 14 2017

 

Liam Scarlett and the Royal Danish Ballet creates a dramatic ballet, that by its form, choreography and outstanding design points towards a new area for story based ballets.

 

One of the strongest cards for a big scale company is the dramatic three act full evening ballet, preferably to a Tchaikovsky score. If the plot cannot be Shakespeare, it should be a story from the Great Russian literature.

However, following the great masters of the three-rigged ballets have proved to be a very difficult journey. Especially, it has been very difficult to locate composers that can deliver a strong dramatic score. When John Cranko created ”Onegin”, he and his musical cooperator, Kurt-Heintz Stoltze decided not to tamper with Tchaikovsky’s  score for the opera, instead Stoltze created a ballet score based on other Tchaikovsky compositions.

Liam Scarlett has chosen a similar strategy for his creation “Queen of Spades” for Royal Danish Ballet.  

31-year-old Liam Scarlett has been one of the in-house choreographers at the British Royal Ballet. For the RB project, all in-house choreographer’s are bound to create a full evening ballet. This demand have resulted in ballets like Wayne McGregor´s “Woolf´s Works”, several contributions by Christopher Wheeldon, and “Frankenstein” by Liam Scarlett.  This specific demand has given Royal Ballet, what any big companies craves,  big scale ballets that can combine lots of meaty roles and draw in the big audience.

Regarding Royal Danish Ballet, there have also been many attempts to get big scale ballets choreographed on the company. It makes a lot of reason as the RDB dancers are known for their strong acting skills. There has been a significant number of works created on the company, including a Hamlet ballet by John Neumeier etc. Probably the best attempt has been “Anna Karenina” by Alexei Ratmansky; still it has not had a rerun.

Signing Liam Scarlett for the job, proved to be a very good decision, and RDB now have a high quality ballet with a strong audience draw and many roles for their stars. However, “Queen of Spades” are more than this.

Longevity

 

 

 

 

Silja Schandorff & Nikolaj Hübbe:

”Swan Lake”

April 7, 2018

RDB

The Opera Stage

 

Last night´s performance of Silja Schandorff and Nikolaj Hübbe´s “Swan Lake” is in its third run since the premiere three years ago. Save “The Nutcracker” and other Christmas runs, this is an unusual high number for any ballet produced under Nikolaj Hübbe’s reign. Schandorff and Hübbe´s production is rich both in presentation values and in number of roles and number of casts. When Wilma Giglio take on Odette/Odile in May, no less than eight ballerinas will have had a go of the leading role. Multiple casts have also danced the supporting roles.