Eva Kistrup

The Game Changer

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

 

Interview with Jón Axel Fransson

November 19, 2018

 

The Game Changer

 

In many ways, Jón Axel Fransson is the most important dancer at the Royal Danish Ballet. Although he has not yet been promoted to principal dancer, reviewers and audiences are eagerly awaiting his much deserved promotion.

 

Fransson has a range that few male dancers can match. He is the danseur noble,  demi-character, mime, comic, equilibrist, modern dancer, partner, bad guy and the clown. He feels naturally at home in works by Balanchine, Bournonville, Petipa, Lander, Neumeier, Scarlett, Wheeldon, Marston and Ekman. In the recent production of Nikolaj Hübbe’s “Napoli” he once again showed the audience his versatility in a company classic, almost believed to be lost.

 

Our Very Best

 

Silja Schandorff & Nikolaj Hübbe:

”Giselle”

Royal Danish Ballet

November 17, 2018

 

The Old Stage

 

Since Silja Schandorff and Nikolaj Hübbe presented their version of “Giselle” two years ago, their first cast Ida Praetorius and Andreas Kaas had only three performances, including a recording for television. Up to this week, they have not had any chance to revisit their great hit.

This month they were awarded two performances, of which I saw the last.

“Giselle” will tour the Danish provinces later in the season. Seeing “Giselle” again with the first cast not only confirmed how good the production is, but also how much the two stars have matured and developed over the last years.

 

Ms. Bødtcher´s New Career

 

 

 

 

Interview with Mette Bødtcher

November 19, 2019 

 

It is difficult to imagine a more successful start of a career in ballet than Royal Danish Ballet´s Mette Bødtcher. Picked as a very young dancer by John Neumeier as his Ophelia for his Hamlet created on the Royal Danish Ballet, it looked like a dream career in the making. However, that was not her only break; she was also the focus point for a documentary series on the Royal Danish Ballet School.

What the television series showed was that ballet was not her only talent. She proved to be a natural for television and media. So maybe it is not so strange that the ballerina has used her talent and communication skills in promoting RDB and help her company in reaching new audiences.

 

Early Stardom

It was every young dancer´s dream that happened for Mette Bødtcher getting the starring role in the first production on the renovated historic Old Stage. Every newspaper wanted to interview her. She became early a household name. Following the premiere, John Neumeier invited his young staring couple to join his own company in Hamburg:

“It is one of my life blessings to have worked with John Neumeier. I spent four years in his company, and luckily, RDB has been able to present several of his great ballets. We are all looking forward to the third run of his “Lady of the Camellias” later this season.”

 

Is Bournonville Still Alive

 

Is Bournonville Still Alive?

Interview with Alexander Meinertz

Alexander Meinertz is probably best known for his biographies of Erik Bruhn and Vera Volkova. However, he is also culture editor of the Danish online media POV and reviews ballet for the Danish newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad. In his review this week, he argued that Nikolaj Hübbe and Bournonville are artistically incompatible. I met him to hear more about how he views Bournonville – now and in the future.

“I’m a huge admirer of Bournonville’s work. In fact, I would argue that Bournonville was not just a great choreographer in the sense that he really knew how to move dancers to music in really delightful and exciting ways. In his day he was called a “ballet poet”, and I think that’s accurate: his storylines and stagings are second to none and stand out to this day for their complexity and detail. For some reason and contrary to all logic, Danes are the ones who seem to appreciate this the least: he’s generally viewed with affection but as perhaps a bit naïve and definitely old-fashioned. We know that Balanchine and Fokine, who both worked in Copenhagen at the beginning of the 20^th Century, saw his worth; it’s even said that Balanchine considered staging “A Folk Tale” at NYCB towards the end of his life. I find the idea endlessly fascinating and wish more of Balanchine’s thoughts on Bournonville had been documented. Perhaps then we would have listened. As it is, I don’t think Bournonville’s really seen for his true worth in this country, definitely not today”, says Alexander Meinertz.

A Pair of Aces

 

 

Nikolaj Hübbe´s version of

August Bournonville´s

“Napoli”

Royal Danish Ballet

The Old Stage

November 11, 2018

 

Dance2go

Royal Danish Ballet

The Old Stage

November 9, 2018

 When I wrote a review of “Napoli” last week, I felt that Nikolaj Hübbe´s production was far away from Bournonville. Seeing yesterday´s performance where a new cast really brought out the magic of the material created a very different experience. I was not only seeing Bournonville, I saw a

performance on a very high level. How was that possible?

 

Losing my Religion

 

  

Nikolaj Hübbe´s version of

August Bournonville´s

“Napoli”

Royal Danish Ballet

The Old Stage

November 3, 2018

 

Nikolaj Hübbe made his first Bournonville production, “La Sylphide” in 2003 before taking over as Artistic Director of the company. It was a fine, traditional production, where the only controversial change was the interpretation that only James was able to see the Sylph. In the older productions, James´rival Gurn, is also able to see her. This production made the RDB audience and reviewers certain that when Nikolaj Hübbe would take over as artistic director, Bournonville would be in very safe hands.

That was what it looked like for the first years of Nikolaj Hübbe’s tenure. Together with Thomas Lund, he created “Bournonville Variations”, an all-male compilation of Bournonville´s solo and divertissement, followed by a second set "Bournonville Fantasy", featuring the female variations. 2011 saw his production of ”A Folk´s Tale” and in 2014, he presented his most controversial Bournonville production “La Sylphide” , where he introduced Madge as a man and a former lover of James.

During Hübbe´s tenure, Ib Andersen has created a fine production of “Kermes in Bruges” which had only seven performances in tandem with Gudrun Bojesen´s “La Ventana”. Most of the Bournonville legacy has not been performed since the 2005 festival. The dancing School from “The Conservatoire” has had two short runs, the last danced in practice cloths. Clearly, Hübbe has gone of Bournonville. Luckily, Bournonville is still a key issue at the RDB School.

However, it came as a surprise for the Danish ballet community, that the festival earlier this year was so void of Bournonville productions.  Only “Napoli” were performed in full length at the festival.