Eva Kistrup

Revisiting Cinderella

Gregory Dean:

”Cinderella”

Royal Danish Ballet

October 19, 2020

The Old Stage

 

 

 

When Gregory Dean presented his first full-length ballet, “Cinderella” in 2019, it was an almost hit.

Like any production of “Cinderella”, it has to conquer not only a beautiful - but also a very difficult score, as well as finding a way to avoid being a weaker competitor of “Sleeping Beauty”.  

Jon Morell, who also created costumes and décor for RDB´s productions of Liam Scarlett´s “Queen of Spades”, luckily blessed Gregory Dean with an outstanding décor and set of costumes.

 Although Gregory Dean stayed on the cautious road, he took several chances. For instance, instead of casting established character dancers as the evil stepsisters, he decided that his Cinderella´s also should also should take on the roles of the ugly stepsisters.

It must be said, that it was not every Cinderella that could nail this other challenge. For this second run, he cast more experienced character dancers like Soloists Camilla Ruelykke Holst and Wilma Giglio. The pivotal role of the ugly stepmother was likewise performed very well by Christina Michanek.

 

Tobias Praetorius promoted to Soloist

 

September 5th, 2020

Today the RDB is starting a new season with the Ballet & Brunch programme. However, there was a significantly better piece of news available. During the school on stage, Nikolaj Hübbe used the opportunity to promote 24 year old Tobias Praetorius to soloist.

Nikolaj Hübbe motivated the promotion as follows:

“When coreographers are in the process of creating, they dream about a dancer like Tobias Praetorius. He always commit himself 150% and that is why Tobias Praetorius gets the promotion today.”

Most ballet fans and reviewers had looked forward for several years to this promotion.  Tobias Praetorius is probably the male dancer with the widest range in the company. Following a strong streak of character roles as the troll Viderik in August Bournonville´s “A Folks Tale”, Benvolio in “Romeo & Juliet”, etc, he has  moved on to many demanding roles, several of these uses his humor and skills. Others his qualities as classic dancer, modern dancer or dance actor.

 

Come Fly Again

 

T wyla Tharp:

“Come Fly Away”

Royal Danish Ballet,

The Old Stage

September 5^th, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

When Twyla Tharp´s ”Come Fly Away” had its first run with Royal Danish Ballet in 2013, it was not a hit with the ballet reviewers. It was primary viewed as a commercial enterprise rather than a work of art.

However, “Come Fly Away” had one very strong point on its side. It became a giant hit with Frank Sinatra fans, an audiences who historically did not attend ballet. It thereby helped Nikolaj Hübbe is reaching one of his set goals, which was to bring in a broader audience to ballet.

Another Opening - Another Show

September 4, 2020

Royal Danish Ballet will open the 2020-21 season in the upcoming week. Looking at the play list, RDB will present some of their best loved productions, including a new production of “La Sylphide”, the Balanchine “Nutcracker” , the Neumeier “Romeo & Juliet”, Twyla Tharp´s "Come Fly Away" a triple evening of “Serenade”, “Etudes” and Jotme Elo’s “Sibelius Furth Symphony.”

There will also be reruns of Gregory Dean´s “Cinderella and “Blixen” and several other ballets including the Neumeier “Mahler 3. Symphony” that was cancelled last season when the Covid19 hit Denmark few days before the Copenhagen premiere.

Now RDB is lining up for the new season, which will make significant changes for the ballet company and their followers. To keep Covid-19 out, the house will only allow 50% of the normal attenders, who must arrive early and follow the strict rules. I am pleased to tell that the ticket office has already sold a significant number of tickets. However if Covid-19 makes a second visit, we will all have to go home, put on our DVDs and wait patiently for the next season.

New Soloist at Royal Danish Ballet

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September 1st, 2020

Earlier today, Nikolaj Hübbe appointed Camilla Ruelykke Host to soloist.

36 year old Camilla Ruelykke Holst has been a strong force in the company for a long time and have danced a significant number of soloists and principal roles, like Babe in “Come Fly Away”, Gamzetti in “La Bayadere”, and Effy in “La Sylphide”. She is also known for being a dedicated mentor for the young dancers.

This season Nikolaj Hübbe will lose some of the leading principal ballerinas, including Amy Watson and Kizzy Matiakis who will both retire, at a time when the RDB school does not create that many female stars and only few girls joins the corps from the ballet school.

The company will also have another challenge as a significant number of dancers have decided to leave the company for new challenges either in other companies or in other employs.

Having such a dedicated and experienced force like Camilla Ruelykke Holst will help the company to regroup and refind the high level of female dancers as we are used to.

It is not only the female wing who has lost strong dancers. The male wing has also lost significant talent and several leading dancers are approaching retirement age. Luckily, the company has strong leading talent in Principals Andreas Kaas and Jon-Axel Fransson.

However the company school has not been able to develop many upcoming talents from its own school and Nikolaj Hübbe seems very cautious when it comes to appoint the talent available. High level dancers like Tobias Praetorius are still waiting for a much deserved appointment based on his outstanding performance as Hermann in “Queen of Spades” and other significant roles.  

The Danish audience is unfortunately used to lose some of our best male dancers to other companies. Promoting a dedicated dancer and role model as Camilla Ruelykke Holst is good housekeeping.

Hopefully Nikolaj Hübbe will not wait long before outstanding male talent will get their due and the promotions.

Photo: Camilla Ruelykke Holst in "Swan Lake"

Photo By Costin Radu

Copyright(c) Royal Danish Ballet