Back on Stage
October 2021
Royal Danish Ballet:
Tobias Praetorius:
“Dance Fever”
Performed by the Ballet School´s students
It is not unusual that the Royal Danish Ballet stage a small ballet for the younger pupils at the school. However “Dance Fewer” choreographed by Soloist Tobias Praetorius proved to be an extra bonus shared by the quality of the choreography, the number of pupils on stage and the quality of stage designs and costumes.
Probably, the high professional stage work is partly due to the Danish Television DR, who is a co-partner with The Royal Ballet School and who created the tv-series, “Dance Fewer” is build on.
The story line of the ballet is based on a story of a young boy who would rather dance than play football. Luckily, he reaches his target and the successful conclusion. The cast include 89 ballet students, which in its self tells us that the Royal Danish Ballet may have a strong future ahead.
Tobias Praetorius and his staffs has created a children´s ballet that is fresh and appealing and help the young dancers to find their ways on the stage and hopefully a great future.
“Come Fly Away – Again”
October 12, 2021
Royal Danish Ballet
Twyla Tharp:
“Come Fly Away”
In 2013, Nikolaj Hübbe took the chance to book Twyla Tharp´s “Come Fly Away” based on Frank Sinatra´s voice and music. It became a big hit, although Nikolaj Hübbe learned the lesson, that while “Come Fly Away” filled the seats with a big audience of newcomers, they did not return to the Royal Danish Ballet as a staying audience. However, another turn this year certainly brought them back and “Come Fly Away” could muster a number of full houses.
At the first runs in 2013, the cast was then filled with mainly leading dancers in two sets. This time around there are an even broader cast in action.
The Copenhagen run proved that the Royal Danish Ballet could attract a broader audience, whom had previous little interest for ballet. Since then, “Come Fly Away” has been performed several times at the Copenhagen Scene.
“Come Fly Away” had a run last year, however with limited seats due to the Cowid crises. Now the production is back – and so is the audience.
Sitting in the audience a few months back, I realized that the performances seams less than previous other performances, may also be found in the fact that this run was now based on three different casts, a rather unusual practice at Royal Danish Ballet, whom hardly uses tree casts or sometimes even two. In this case, the talents was spread too thin.
Luckily, there were outstanding performance by my second round. Mostly when upcoming soloist Emma Riis-Kofoed took on the leading female road as Kate, and showed us new sides of her skills. She is definitely going forward. Alexander Bozinoff also made a fine performance as Chanos, the person who is left by his girlfriend.
The good side of performing “Come Fly Away” is to give more dancers more chances. However, as the past shows us that the new audiences may not be the consistent crowd.
Nikolaj Hübbe have brought a high number of dancers from abroad to participate in “Come Fly Away”. I hope that this group has talent enough to join the RDB. As it is Principal Ida Praetorius will spend a year abroad. As several good female dancers has retired, RDB needs to develop more female dancers. Luckily, there are soloists like Emma Riis-Kofoed and Stephanie Chen Gundorph. Use their skills more and the RDB will continue as a premier company with special and important skills.
Comments