Silja Schandorff & Nikolaj Hübbe:
”Swan Lake”
May 18, 2018
The Opera Stage
Liam Scarlett:
“Queen of Spades”
May 19, 2018
The Old Stage
“The Hübbery”
May 19, 2018
The Old Stage
It has been a very busy weekend for the Royal Danish Ballet. In addition to two big blockbusters, this year’s second instalment of the “The Hübbery” had its run. There are lot of PR activities for the upcoming festival. Newly minted Principal Andreas Kaas has been on Breakfast Television, and while the company performs the last performance of the smash hit “Queen of Spades”, Nikolaj Hübbe was busy at the department store “Magasin de Nord” judging amateur dancers, who might be part of one of the many outreach projects tied to the upcoming ballet festival.
More Odette than Odile
Friday evening, Wilma Giglio, the Argentinian dancer who has been dancing in Copenhagen for several seasons had her debut as Odette/Odile in the Schandorff/Hübbe “Swan Lake”.
Tall and willowy Giglio is a natural Odette and showed beautiful lines and arm movements. Acting wise, she presented a very timid and sad Odette. It was classical and beautifully danced. However, her Odile became more of a struggle. It did not look like she had an interpretation of Odile, and the Pas de Deux and solos was challenged. She obviously needed more preparation time to really nail the blockbuster role.
She was partnered by Principal Jonathan Chmelensky, himself in his first season as Siegfried. It stills looks like, as Chmelensky has not yet decided which kind of Siegfried, he aims to be. He was up for stiff competition from our golden boys Andreas Kaas as Benno and Jon Axel Fransson as von Rothbart.
Looking at the full picture, it seems as the castings have become more democratic. At the premiere every divertissement was danced by the company’s leading dancers, with attendants physically matching each other. Now, the divertissements are more democratically distributed and where you are used to seeing the ensembles perfectly matched, the tape measure have been thrown out.
“Swan Lake” will be part of the festival. PR-wise, the festival is not called a Bournonville festival; however, there will two evenings and many seminars reserved for Bournonville presentations and talks.
Seeing the outstanding “Queen of Spades” for the fifth time, one still regrets that it will not be part of the festival. It would have been a real novelty and head attraction. One can also wonder why Nikolaj Hübbe is not showing his own production of “Raymonda” which include some very fine dancing by stars and corps.
No Gains for Good Courses
However, The Pas de Dix made it to the season’s second installment of “The Hübbery”, the talk and dance show aimed at attracting a new and broader clientele to the RDB and the art form.
Last night “The Hübbery” was dedicated to supporting good cases. However, it became a failed course.
While Nikolaj Hübbe presented up to five worthy causes, that supports development and better life experience through dance, the good courses was shortselled, as the audience did not get any information at all, how to donate and support the courses. Last season, Morten Hesseldal, then the director of the Royal Theatre decided to cut programs and cast lists for the smaller events and performances.
This leaves “The Hübbery” and its guest performers in a difficult situation. Neither can benefit from the exposure as the audience do not get the names and contacts details if they want to hire or promote them. Alternatively, as in this case support them financially.
Dancing wise “The Hübbery” took the easy road. Save an outtake from "Alexander Ekman´s "Cachti", which had been incuded in almost every summer tour and a badly lit modern solo with Ida Praetorius, which probably will appear in the modern programme in the festival and the “Pas de Dix” from Raymonda, the rest of the evening was filled by performances, talks and videos for the good courses. Unfortunately the audience was left with no way to let their money talk.
Photos:
- "Swan Lake" Photo by Costin Radu (Copyright(c) Royal Danish Ballet)
- Wilma Giglio as Poster Girl for the upcoming summer Tour by Seline Meier (Copyright(c) Royal Danish Ballet)
- "Queen of Spades" Photo by Henrik Stenberg (Copyright(c) Royal Danish Ballet)
- "Raymonda Pas de Dix" by Henrik Stenberg (Copyright(c) Royal Danish Ballet)
Comments