Royal Danish Ballet at Frederiksborg Castle
Summer tour
June 18, 2019
Each year during Nikolaj Hübbe´s reign, the RDB tours the Danish provinces, giving the Danes living to far from Copenhagen a chance to attend the ballet scene and at least a taste of what the company offers.
This year´s summer season consist mainly on take-outs from the 2018-19 seasons plus two recently new pas de deux created by company members Oliver Starpov, who in spite of his youth have a substantial list of creations and Nathan Combiano who is presenting his first work for the company.
The performance I saw last night took place in the gardens of the royal summer castle, Fredensborg, and attended by the ballet loving Queen Margrethe of Denmark. It was a lovely setting that definitely outshined this year’s first performance, which took place outside the Royal Danish Drama House, which unfortunately suffered not only some rain but also an overflow of pedestrians passing through the area, and limiting the audience´s chances of actually seeing the performance. Regarding the take out from John Neumeier’s ”Lady of the Camellias,” a large part of the audience could see either Armand or Marguerite, but hardly the pair together.
Luckily, the Queen could offer a better solution.
High Level Performance
The performance started at the top, with Principal Jon Axel Fransson and Soloist Stephanie Chen-Gundorph in “Pas de Classique.” Fransson is at present not only the strongest male equilibrist in the company but also the finest stylist. He was outstanding. Stephanie Chen-Gundorph do not share Fransson´s experience in virtuoso roles, however, she is getting better and better with each performance. She is growing from the ingénue to the ballerina, beautiful, elegant and stylish.
Chen-Gundorph and year-mate Astrid Elbo were classmates with ballerina Ida Praetorius, who developed very fast and who did leadings roles as an apprentice. With such an outstanding young dancer in front, it did look like her classmates were left behind or lacked the confidence. It was good to see that the teammates also are reaching the front of the company.
Ida Praetorius has had a very busy spring season, as she has been the lead in several big productions, including “Lady of the Camellias”, “Etudes” and several other ballets . Maybe that is the reason why she is only doing one Pas de Deux and a minor part in the Tarantella from “Napoli” in this program.
Setting the Team
As Ida Praetorius´ frequent partner Andreas Kaas is nursing an injured foot, Ida Praetorius needed a new partner for “Lady of the Camellias”, and the young Canadian dancer, Ryan Tomash took the chance and presented himself as fine partner who also could build a character. Off course, Nikolaj Hübbe wanted to present excerpts from “Lady of the Camellias” and this seasons other big production Principal Gregory Dean´s version of “Cinderella”.
However, as Ida Praetorius, Kizzy Matiakis and Alexander Bozinoff all had double duty as the leads in both ballets. Nikolaj Hübbe chose the following solution to let second cast in “Lady of the Camellias”, Kizzy Matiakis and Alexander Bozinoff dance the take out from “The Lady” and paired first cast´s Ida Praetorius with Kizzy Matiakis´ prince Jonathan Chmelensky in “Cinderella”.
Compared to the Copenhagen outdoor performance, the historic castle and beautiful garden created a magical space around Praetorius´ opening solo. The choreographer, Gregory Dean who has frequently partnered Ida Praetorius in ballets like “Romeo & Juliet” has catered for her elegant style and ballerinaship. However, Chmelensky is a dancer who mostly focus on the high jumps, the spins and bravura trick and therefore was not as suitable a partner for Praetorius, as Kaas, Tomash, Bozinoff, Fransson or Dean himself would have been.
Striking the right Balance
On one of the first summer tours, Nikolaj Hübbe presented, included the “Pas de Dix” from “Raymonda”. If my memory don´t fool me, it was a team of teen dancers. This time he is down to a group of six dancers of which some of them has not been part of his own production of the full version of “Raymonda”. It does not give the same impact with six dancers as it does with ten. Newly appointed Soloists Guilherme de Menezes supported the two principal dancers Marcin Kupinski and Gregory Dean. The elegant Wilma Giglio danced the leading female role. The upcoming season will also include “Raymonda 3.act, so I hope that it will be the full version with 10 dancers and not a cut down cast.
Emma Riis-Kofoed has not yet been promoted to Soloist, even though she delivered a very fine performance as the ballerina in Harald Lander´s “Etudes” as well as the role of Myrtha. She is primarily a strong technician and although, RDB dancer Nathan Combiano choreographed the duet “Song without Words” on her it does not highlight her impressive skills. In this choreography, she is used as yet another sweet girl in yet another soft pas de deux.
Where Combiano follows the traditional road, Oliver Starpov again takes us to another universe. This time it is a modern/classical pas de deux for the tall couple Astrid Elbo and Ryan Tomash, targeting each other, flirting but parting ways in the end. It is light, charming and original. Oliver Starpov once again shows us something we have not seen from him before. This time a controlled pas de deux with rather conventional steps mixed cleverly, made the audience constantly faced by new combinations.
Back to the Real Bournonville
Like almost every summer tour, the party ends with the tarantella from “Napoli” and because the group do not include children or character dancers, the tarantella is back to the old traditional setting. Stephanie Chen-Gundorph and Jon Axel Fransson joins yet again as Teresina and Gennaro, which they have danced this season.in Copenhagen. Once again, it is made abundantly clear that this is the way to perform Bournonville.
The summer tours visits cities all over Denmark, and while there is little point is telling audiences in the cities far away from Copenhagen that they can watch the ballets at the Royal Theatre, it would be a different case in Fredensborg, situated a 40-minute drive from Copenhagen. Why did Nikolaj Hübbe not suggest to the audience that they could enjoy the Royal Danish Ballet at home with little effort on their part?
Keeping the Machine Running
Over the two last seasons, the company have lost some of their outstanding dancers as well as several leading dancers have been out with prolonged injuries. Looking at the principal dancers, several key dancers are also close to retirement. It is therefore necessary to develop more dancers to take on the leading roles. Seeing the development of Stephanie Chen-Gundorph and Emma Riis-Kofoed is enlightening.
Ryan Tomash has put himself in contention as a possible leading dancer. However, the large intake of primary foreign male dancers, has given us a solid base, but apparently not that many potential stars. As the school currently produces very few male dancers, of which several has chosen to go abroad, it is an issue that must be dealt with.
Jon Axel Fransson and Andreas Kaas are presently the only homegrown male principals. They have very broad and very high skill sets, yet the company needs more male dancers, preferably on the level of the two homegrown stars.
We are at an all-time low production line. Including a high school degree in the most important part of the education has certainly not helped RDB in developing dancers on the highest level.
There is simply not enough hours in the day for the students to develop both their dancing skills and the academic development. It was an experiment, made for all the best reasons, but the time has come to stop the experiment of a full day academic studies with some dance lessons on top. This program caters more for the apprentencies who would not make it, than it does for the ones who could be professional dancers.
It is not an easy job to be the director of RDB. The company has been hit by several budget cuts and there is almost no room for a failure. Still Nikolaj Hübbe keeps fighting. However, for how long?
I do not know his views on the current dancing/academic education, which clearly limits the quality of the ballet students.
However, I do know that it is time to evaluate the program and ask the important question whether it is not better to prioritize the education of the dancing talents who can develop in the company, instead of prioritizing the academic education of the ones who will not pass the bar? The Danish education system have several good programs that would fit the group.
When enjoying the beautiful dancing in the stunning royal garden, it is easy to overlook the challenges the company is dealing with. It appears like a fairy tale come true. Nevertheless, the realities facing Nikolaj Hübbe and his company are not the stuff that dreams are built of.
Hopefully, this is not the end of the fairy tale in the Queens garden.
Photos:
- Jon Axel Fransson (Etudes) by Henrik Stenberg
- Ida Praetorius (Cinderella) by Henrik Stenberg
- Emma Riis-Kofoed in Dvorak Pas de Deux by Camilla Winther
- Stephanie Chen-Gundorph and Jon Axel Fransson (Napoli) by Henrik Stenberg
Copyrights(c) Royal Danish Ballet
Comments