Presentation of Royal Danish Ballet 2020-2021
May 12, 2020
Although Denmark is almost through the Corona scare, we are still being cautious, so the presentation of RDB´s next season is now a Facebook event. However, caution is also defining the 2020-2021 season.
The repertoire consist of predominantly safe and well-known productions. Many of which I love to bits. However, both the audience and I could benefit from being exposed to at least some new big style ballets.
For example, we are getting George Balanchine´s “Nutcracker” for the Christmas Run every other season since 2011. I would prefer other Balanchine miracles instead of yet another “Nutcracker”. Luckily, “Serenade” will be part of “Giant Steps” together with Harald Lander´s “Etudes” and a new creation by Finnish choreographer Jorma Elo´s to “Sibelius Fourth Symphony” made for the male dancers.
Principal Gregory Dean will see a new run for his productions of “Cinderella”, “Blixen” and the children´s ballet: “The Lost Children”. Tobias Praetorius will also deliver a children´s ballet “Princess and the Pea, a Pixie ballet” which will run for only two performances, starring former RDB stars Mads Blangstrup and Femke Mølbach Slot.
Nikolaj Hübbe will present his third production of “La Sylphide”, following his first more traditional and his second controversial production that included a relationship between James and Madge, the later as a male figure. His versions of “Napoli” and “La Bayadere” will also be on the rooster. I am particularly interested in seeing “Bayadere” that has not been performed since 2014. Nikolaj Hübbe will also host another season of “The Hübbery”, his outreach talk and dance show.
Back on the Shelves
John Neumeier has been a popular contributor to the Royal Danish Ballet. The 2020 season was supposed to present his big scale “Gustav Mahler’s Third Symphony”. However, Corona interfered and the productions was cancelled few day before the planned premiere.
I must admit that I feared that the Gustav Mahler ballet would not be part of the following season for the following reasons. The Royal Theatre depends on long time planning and as the Mahler ballet was scheduled for not only performing on the large Opera stage, but also would demand the big royal orchestra unfortunately my predictions came true.
However, we will still get our dose of Neumeier, as “Romeo & Juliet” will have yet another run, as will John Neumeier´s “Persistent Persuasion” created for ballerina Ida Praetorius in a celebration to the 100 year of reuniting the southern part of Jutland with the rest of Denmark.
“Persistent Persuasion” will be performed under the label “Dance2Go” together with Sebastian Kloborg´s “Already Night”, Peter Martins´ Zakouski” and Horst Shechters´ ”Uprising”.
Twyla Tharp´s “Come Fly Away” was scheduled for the 2020 season, but got cancelled together with “A Folk´s Tale” and the Neumeier “Mahler ballet”. “Come Fly Away” gets a run in the upcoming season, whereas the two other ballets will have to wait at least one season to be performed.
Focusing on the Real Talent
Surprisingly there has been no space available for our own very talented choreographer Oliver Starpov, who has created several impressive ballets over the last seasons.
Instead, Corpus, the independent small in-house company will perform a significant number of new productions. Corpus has now been around for several seasons. There have been some good works; however, the strategy of starting from shratz in each production hinders the very small ensemble in reaching a higher level.
It is time to review this experience. If the financial reality is that RDB cannot afford to give a very talented choreographer the space and resources to develop and create, it should be considered to call off the Corpus experience. The focus should be on the outstanding talents.
When and Where
The RDB season 2020-2021 will present the ballets on the dates listed below:
“Come Fly Away” September 5 – October 3 2020, Old Stage
“Cinderella” September 19 - November 10 2020 Old Stage
“The Forgotten Children” October 7 – October 12 2020 Old Stage
“La Sylphide” October 24 – November 25 2020 Old Stage
“Dance 2 Go” November 7 – February 20 2020 Old Stage
“The Nutcracker” November 11 – December 20 Old Stage
“Romeo & Juliet” January 21 – March 27 Old Stage
“The Hübbery 1” February 5 – February 6 Old Stage
“Giant Steps/Etudes” March 6 – April 16 2021 Old Stage
“Blixen” April 11 –May 9, 2021 Old Stage
“Napoli” April 17 - May 8 2021
“La Bayadere” May 19 – June 4 2021 opera Stage
“The Hubbery 2” May 27 – May 30, Drama House
Corpus Seasons:
Corpus Episode #1 September 9 – September 12, ASalen
Us and Everything Else” November 6 – November21 ASalen
Shuffle Play March 12 – March 27 ASalen
Corpus Episode Home May 11 – May 15 2021 Roskilde Festival
Photos:
- George Balanchine: "The Nutcracker" by Henrik Stenberg " Copyright Royal Danish Ballet
- Ida Praetorius in "Etudes"by Henrik Stenberg Copyright(c) Royal Danish Ballet
- Alexandra lo Sardo in "Come Fly Away" by Costin Radu Copyright (c) Royal Danish Ballet
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