Eva Kistrup

So Close and yet so Far

 

Royal Danish Ballet:

“The Hübbery”

March 28, 2019

 

“Cinderella”

Martch 21, 2019

 

Newly Appointed Soloists,

March 29, 2019 

 

“The Hübbery,” Nikolaj Hübbe´s talk and dance show was originally created as a helpline to attract an audience not that keen on ballet by mixing it with popular musicians, standup comedians and intellectuals.

The season´s first installment gave the ballet loving part of the audience a mild chock when the Pas de Sept from Bournonville´s “A Folk´s Tale” was danced by the apprentice group. Five girls and only two boys now danced the Bournonville classic, choreographed for four women and three men.

It send a clear message to the audience that not all is well in The Royal Danish Ballet.

Almost too True to the Material

 

Gregory Dean:

“Cinderella”

Royal Danish Ballet

The Old Stage

March 9^th, 2019

 

The biggest challenge for contemporary choreographers is finding a suitable score for a full evening ballet. Luckily, Sergei Prokofiev have created not only the score to “Romeo and Juliet” but also a score based on the fairy tale of “Cinderella” in 1940.

 An abundance of leading and not so leading choreographers has since created their versions. However, several of them has felt the need to time travelling the story to another era. Rudolph Nureyev moved his version to the 1920 silent movies Hollywood. Matthew Bourne chose to place his version in World War2´s London. A rather clever choice as it united the storyline with the period of Prokofiev´s score.  Vladimir Malachov set his Berlin version in a ballet company frame, himself taking on one of the evil stepsisters in drag as a jealous older ballerina.

They have all been there, Neumeier, Wheeldon, Ratmansky etc. In 2008, Tim Rushton made his version at RDB with a combination of the RDBs classical dancers and his own troop from Danish Dance Theater, which proved that mixing classical and modern dancers deprived both groups of their best shots.

Making the point of Bournonville

Signe Roderik::

 

 

 

For a whole year the Royal Danish Ballet´s  fans at home and abroad have looked forward to what they believed would be the fourth Bournonville festival.A few month ago it became clear that yes, there would be a festival, however, Bournonville was to play a limited part in the festival. Instead the focus for the festival is outreach in order to bring in new audiences. Somehow along the way it has been agreed that there is not enough pulling power in the old master. Instead we will get new ballets choreographed to rock music. It would also be possible to join the RDB for supper following a performance of  Silja Schandorff & Nikolaj Hübbe´s "Swan Lake".  

 

Making the case for Bournonville

Luckily, other forces and other artists are fighting to keep Bournonville alive and kicking.  

Photographer and filmmaker, Signe Roderik followed a group of dancers at the Royal Ballet in 2015 when they performed a Bournonville programme at the The Joyce Theater in New York.

The great enthusiasm from the American audience gave her the idea of creating a film on Bournonville. The movie also includes inputs from reviewers Deborah Jovitt, The Village Voice, Alistair Macauley, The New York Times and Dane Erik Aschengreen, former reviewer at Berlingske Tidende and author of several books on ‘Bournonville and the Royal Danish ballet.

Somehow, the movie project ended up as two films. The first “Bournonville Today” focus on the current generation of dancers and Bournonville´s choreography. It includes three different Bournonville work, and each segment makes a very strong point for the quality and relevance for Bournonville then, now and in the future.

 

The Strengths of Youth

First out is RDB’s young stars, Ida Praetorius & Andreas Kaas in “The Flower Festival in Genzano Pas de Deux”, bringing all their youth and charm, as well as strong dancing skills. It appeared as charming and fresh as when Mette-Ida Kirk and Ib Andersen brought “The Kermis in Bruges” to live at the 1979 Bournonville Festival.   

The athletic and masculine fight by Marcin Kupinski and Sebastian Haynes in the “Jockey Dance” followed.  It looked as fresh as it could have been choreographed this month.

Finally, Sorella Englund and Ulrik Birkkjær performed the central confrontation of Madge and James from “La Sylphide” in practically normal clothes and no stage make up. It was mind blowing. It could have been a scene from an Ingmar Bergman movie.

In all, the three segments, supported by the reviewer´s comments makes the case for Bournonville.    

He is as fresh, as talented and as indispensable as he has ever been.