Effy

Hi a few comments on Hübbes Giselle. Hübbe version is not that close to the Kronstam version, but Kronstams versions was to much a patch on Bruhns in major areas, like the Bathilde/Myrtha doubling. In comparison Hübbe's is a much more original work, though staying within the limits of tradition. Yao Wei and Ulrik Birkkjær did dance as well as could be expected and acted with substantiaily less conviction, but what can you expects from a dancer who had never had a dramatic role? I will write another review for Danceviewtimes, where I will discus the dilemma of creating the best performances and try to develop company and dancers at the same time, which is Hübbe's major challenge. I will post tomorrow. Effy (Eva Kistrup)

Probably just the two, but you must remember that the conservatorie is a reconstruction and it therefore is very likely that this jockey is a paraphase of the other. The other is also reconstructed but is based on the 1890ties Elfelt films

I have seen it danced once before by women, Eva Kloborg and Linda Hindberg. If my memorie is correct they were not as charming as Bojesen and Lindstrøm in the piece. They tried a more masculin approach

Dear autodidicte, When I review Caroline Cavallo as the sylph I view her on the basic of having seen allmost all interpreters of the parts since 1978. and a few earlier Sylphs on video, It is natural that my response will differ from a viewer, who do not have the same experience. Your German balletomane may rightly feel that Cavallo is better than Bojesen or the other Sylphs he has seen. I am certain that I did not write that Cavallo is a bad Sylph. What I write is that I wish that she would try a more definitive interpretation rather than staying in the middle of the spectre and that she could consider more variation in the phrasing (the same way Nicolaj Hubbe suggested to Gudrun Bojesen to receive a more dramatic impact) . When I am sorry that Schandorffs Sylph is not included in the festival, it had to do with the quality of her Sylph and the good dramatic match with Blangstrups James, not with the fact that she is Danish. The question is not whether a dancer is Danish or Foreign but whether the dancer understands and can convey the style and acting needed for Bournonville. Sorella Englund, Lloyd Riggins and indeed Caroline Cavallo are prime examples of foreign dancers who are great Bournonville dancers. I myself loves Caroline Cavallos take on her Napoli 3 act variation. I expects great things from Dawid Kapinsky and others of the never intake. You see Marie Pierre Greve doing the most touching Rosita I have ever seen. But RDB is build on a model where dancers spend the whole career span from child to charecter dancer in the company. Making the company more foreign it can change the company into a more traditional company with lot of staff turnover and it is equally important that the dancers have the same schooling. ABT is to me the bad epytome of a company where no two dancers seems to be from the same scholl. The truly great companies like Kirov, Paris Opera Ballet, RDB and NYCB have this close school/company link and I would be sorry to see that go. On the other hand it looks likes RDB has cracked the code of integrating the foreign dancers, but stability is needed staffwise . Living in Copenhagen present the priviledge of seing all casts and it is clear that casting the festival has been a series of difficult choices. It looks like that Frank Andersen has opted for the democratic solution and giving everybody (save Kenneth Greve) at least one meaty part. The flipsite is of course that certain ballets are not performed by the strongest casts. La Conservatorie misses the Lund/Bojesen magic. I could have wished for everyone to see Mads Blangstrups Gennaro.The Hesselkilde celebration meant no Ryberg in two parts and so on. Maybe people take the roles as Bournonville ambassadors too seriusly if they tell a guest that there are other great interpretations not shown this week, but I think if it is done it is done from love of the company. It may also be need to clarify certain aspects for our guests. Looking at the festival, Kenneth Greve comes up as the servant to Thomas Lunds master. That is certainly not the picture of the last seasons. You are perfectly right. No one should obstain from their own view and differ to any reviewer. Unlike the audience the reviewer should be able to analyse and argument their conclusions. It is not a question whether you like so and so dancer, but why you like them. How does their interpretation and skills influence the ballet. One thing I have learn during my tenure as a balletomane is that casting is one of th key - if not the key - ingridience in making a ballet work and shine. Therefore casting is an important issue to follow and discus. And yes the Queen was absolutely right Nina A is a great sylph and likewise have other foreign dancers shown talents for Bournonville. But as this week has shown us Bournonville is a long commitment

According to the press office the Volkava dedication happened in May

So far Volkovas has only been mentioned once or twice when suurering the rDB story. I will check today with the press office

the royal theatre has done what tey usually do, ask a wellknown modern painter to design a poster and as usully it ends up neither being art nor being a good marketing tool that can draw people in. I have seen so often that I am almost going blind to the whole issue

In Natalia and several other reviews Thomas Lund is rightly praised and the reviewers assume that he is the dominent male dancer in RDB. This is I have to say far from the truth. Save the Bournonville repetoire, Thomas Lund is underutilised in the repetoire. Save Bournonville this year has seen him in the second s casts of In the Night and Fancy Free and the not very advanced Nutcracker (for the fourth year running). Next year will show a predominately modern reportoire, with the big ballets being the two Neumeier ballet Mermaid and Romeo& Juliet and Manon, in which he has a small role. Kernneth Greve on the the other hand has been busy and brilliant in everything but Bournonville. In the festival he will only do Junker Ove. Greve is a tall handsome dancer with lot of charisma, who could have been used in works like the Lifeguards and others. It is unfair that he is not featured more in the festival, but it is of even greater consequence that Lund (and Eggert) is underused in the general repetoire. I Mads Blangstrup is rightly cast as the second most important dancer both in the general repetoire (alternating mosts parts with Greve) and in Bournonville (aleernating with Lund) and is the "winner" on average. At least he gets to be used the whole season.

It is the Carey back in use, but ohh those costumes

The changes of Riggins include new modern coreography for the circus troupe, not including a clown, the jester is gone. The lead slowanka dancers does his functions. There is one nobleman less in the fighting scene, the monks are gone from last scene and the black diva has lost her color. The housekeeper has been glorified as Vermers girl with the pearl earring

As promised by Lloyd Riggins at the introduction matinee, his take on The Kermesse in Brugge has passed through the John Neumeier grinder for updating a balllet. And indeed the first act especially was full of Neumeierisque effect like turning the slovanka dancers into a band of jesters, but still using a verfremdung technique - we re all dancers in modern time, eg the women keeping their modern haistyles. As preparation Riggins has spend time in Brugge trying to capture the feeling of the ciy to bring into his version, but apperantly no one had explained to him, that Bounonville had no relation to Brügge, neither had he any intention of creating a piece about Brügge. What Bournonville wanted was to use the scenery of Flemish paintings as backdrop for a light comedy. Riggins is wery well aware of the great 1978 version by Hans Brenaa with costumes by Lars Juhl, He had danced the role of Carelis as a hand me down from Ib Andersen, Brenaas original Carelis. The Brenaa version was the toast of the first Bournonville festival,an elegant, vitty and extreamly wellcast ballet with Ib Andersen, Mette-Ida Kirk, Niels Kehlet and Kirsten Simone leading a perfect cast. It maybe matched but it could not be bettered. But after the original cast outgrow their parts it became difficult for the company to maintain the high level and suddenly the ballet lost its sparcle. An attempt to change the ballet but keep the costumes failed. It was build on an effort to bring out the darker and deeper content of the work. So enter Riggins and Rikke Juhllund. Like the last attemp he tries to downplay the comedy. He tries to simplify the glamour, a fine teory but seems to forget that Kermesse do not deliver substance, but style and details, and when you cut down on those, there is little left. It may be that research showns that velvet was not worn by the middle class in 16th century Brügge, but chosing wollen beige, crimpy textiles do not really help present classical dancing and the pale colours makes it difficuly for the main caracters to register, especially in contract to the noicy red slovanka dancers. Neither does pale dressed noblemen register when hidding in the back wings. From the best intentions Riggins deals his cast a very difficult hand. In the catalog to the current exhibiton on Bournonville costumes, Anne Marie Vessel is likewise critical on the opulence of the 978 Brenaa/Juul production, but the steps demands volume, like when Trutje parades her daughters down stage. You need three full skirts to build the figure, but now you have a small long shirt and two 1950 styles suits and it does not register, neither helps the dancer to make standout characters. I cannot help compare Riggins strategy to Nicolaij Hubbes. Hubbe respects the tradition and builds on tradition, Riggins want to challenge the tradition, but has little to offer, rather than turning the ballet into a copycat Neumeier approach. La Ventana was well danced, but allthough the decor was striking I could not help noticing that the title prop of the ballet La Ventana (the Window) was strangely missing. In short I must conclude that Bournonville made two ballet inspired by respectively Spanish dancing and Flemish painting - RDB has just presented the two pieces as inspired by Spanish painting and Flemish dancing.

Seeing the Greves in this work it was difficult to imagine anyone else, but someone had to do it and it became Susanne Grinder and Mads Blangstrups lot to dances parts that were so tailormade ffor someone else. Blangstrup is actually quite good in the part. Grinder almost a debut is in much deeper water. She is not really suited to the part - but definately to other lead roles - she dances the steps but you see the mechanics in them, whereas MP Greve conveyed the feeling and wonder. In the last scene the decoration did not come down and the mermaid and HC Andersen lost the starry light for their immortality sccene. It was a poignent metaphor. With this cast mortality is never left.

Izabela Sokolowska is born in 1984 and educated in her nativ Gdansk. You can read biografies with pictures in Danish on www.kgl-teater.dk click ballet click cvs, Here you can choose solodansere (principal) karakterdanser (mimes), soloists, Korps damer (corps ladies) Corps Herrer (corps men) aspirants

Isabella Sokolowska has been with the company for a nuber of years. Hailed originally as a great talent and a great beauty in The Lesson (doubling Bojesen), but have been away much, premumed injured. This season she has gotten a number of roles, mainly Bournonville, including the dominant farming girl and Eliza in La Conservatorie and one of the girls in Fancy Free. I myself is not too impressed, she seems to have gone a bit stale and she did not look like ballerina material as eliza. You could not tell the soloist apar from the corps. Maybe it is a similar case to dancers like Niels Balle and Sasha Haugland, talented youth who because of injuries never catches the train. One of the reason for my admiration of the great Mette-Ida Kirk, an immense talented but often injured dancer was her ability to come back after each injury on top of her game. But few seems to have that ability

The Little Mermaid is not the worst ballet John Neumeier has made - nor is it his masterpiece. It has the distinct characteristics of being a commisioned work rather than a labour of love and commitment. But cut down approx. 30 minutes and you would have a ballet with some lasting qualities. John Neumeier based the ballet on the now famous "gay" interpretation of the fairytale by Danish literate Johan de Mylius,which sees the story as an allergy of Andersen unrequitted love for Edward Collin, the son of his benefactor, but Neumeiers nevertheless managed some original touches, especially at the end where the immortality of the Mermaid and the immortality of the poet are woven together - one would not be immortal without the other. The ballet really uses and overuses the qualities of Marie Pierre Greve and Kenneth Greve - to the result that it is difficult to imagine other dancers in the parts. MPG is very flexible and this is used to form the key movements of the mermaid. and Kenneth Greve lines and even his abilities as a golfer (his father is a golf pro) is put into play. I am certain that someone will pronounce it the part of a lifetime of MPG who really dominated the scene, even though in heavy "japanese" makeup. The strong part is the mermaids dancing under vater and the saving of the prince. At lot is done dramatically with Verfremdung effects and you cannot help feeling that there are cut a few corners here and there to make the story fit. Never the less he uses the material well and it is amazing how well dancers, who in the younger years was known as non-acting dancers like Kenneth Greve and Mogens Boesen has matured into fine dance actors. Espicially Greve, although it is a difficult role as the prince who never discovers the true love of his life. Gudrun Bojesen as the princess is so well cast dramatically but is subject to the same unfortunate destiny as in Anna Karenina, where she was ideally cast in a secondary role of not much stagetime. But she will get her dues during the Bournonville week. The stage functions well but it is really really big and therefore diffucult to fill out with corps.

judging from photos on the RDB home site she will almost with a mask or rather heavy make up. I must say that MP Greve is a dancer that have grown on me over the last few years, and I do think that she and Mads Blangstrup is a very fine couple in romantic ballets. For a long period she was well bland. Blessed with a beautifull proportions dancers body and a dramatic face - she could not really project, but Anna, In the Night and Rosita shows a new exiting phase. Silja was the star of Neumeiers last enterprise Odysseus, but I can see why she is not in the Mermaid, she is neither the shy mermaid, nor the pretty princess. Silja can do so much on a stage, she has such a commanding presense, but for certain parts it can work against her, like in Caroline Mathilde where in one scene she should be bullied by the childlike mad king and his friend, but it look like she could punch them instead. Reading the Andersen tale it is clear that allthough it need magic it cannot contain Silja magic. It is a sentimental story, not fit for her qualities. But do enjoy her in Lifeguard and if possible in the Night - sheer majesty. Re. Cavallo she could possibly have danced the princess, but the part is probably not that big and she has a big repetoire anyway.

In 1951 Lander got "fired" as ballet master and Vera Volkova arrived as teacher/coach. Those two event swas probably the most important event regarding RDBs history in never times and it is significant that Erik Aschengreens Mester and Alexander Meinertz Vera Volkova is published almost simultaniously. Without Vera Volkova RDB would not have received it status as a world class company and without Harald Lander it would definately have lost ground in Denmark. For better and for worst he dominated the company for twenty years, trying to modernise the company with a number of wanna-be Massine works and his master piece Etudes. A large group of dancers wanted to get rid of Lander, in whom they say a despot, a philanderer who used his position to get involved with young female dancers and who lacked understanding of their needs to explore other choreographers work. It was the moral issues that swayed the minister and Lander fled to Paris and to 12 hard years tying to be part of POB management. Back in Denmark a group of primarily politicians, dance critics and civil servants tried to reestablish Lander and the whole Lander issue more or less dominated the following 25 years of danish ballet. Erik Aschengreen gives a detailed account of Landers life and career, but you cannot help feel that he end up a bit disappointed re. Landers personality vision and "genius". Lander was no Balanchine (except in the ladies department) and Etudes a lucky shoot rather than the brilliant example of a brilliant choreographer. I will say less re. the Volkova book as I have been too involved with the creation of the book to comment on it. rather than read it for yourself and find out what a gem RDB had and how important she was in keeping and recreating RDB as well as forming some of our greatest dancers, Kronstam, Simone, Hønningen, Villumsen and Kirk not t mention Erik Bruhn, Nureyev and Fontayn. The book has a prolog by John Neumeier whose career also was influenced by Volkova

Due to varoius injuries Kristoffer Sakurai had had a lot of dancing lately, and it is so becoming. He is really coming in to his own now and look poised for stardom. For several season ha has been in-between/promising, but now he is flourishing. His dancing has allways had a fine phycicality, he really dances in three dimentions, but now his presense and technique is blossoming. As Gennaro his is sweet and timid (could be more agressive) but everything he does registers. He partnered Tina Højlund, who is a fine dramatic Teresina, lucky to have her back on the stage again. We got the full star treatment in the pas de six whichlived up to my two rules. Cast tall dancers and cast stars. Thhe pas de six countreract all ideas about Bournonville not being suited for tall dancers. It look best on a tall cast. And the greater dancers the more regal the piece it. With a cast of Schandorff, Lindstrøm, Cavallo and Bojesen (no solo) and Bowman and Blangstrup (no solo) it looked like a royal visit and they all danced beautiful. Cavollo was wery impressive in first solo (which is often hander to lesser dancers) and proved what a gem it really is when danced well. Schandorff danced one of her best performances of the last solo. She was so good that we instinctly bought tickets for La Conservatoria and Life Guard to enjoy her Louise - and enjoyed we did. I do not know what is the matter with Massot, because he is on stage, but he only dancews fragments of his role, leaving the pas de trois to Sakurai. Together with the pas de trois in lifeguard, he got his dancecard full, but was brilliant and more virtuoso than ever seen before. Id he keeps up this trend and stays free of injury he could and should become principal soon.

Thank you Estelle for your compassion. The most annoying fact is that these choices are not artistic but made from the believe that in order to attract new viewers you should present as little ballet as possible.

Not in my brightest mood today since reading about next season repetoire. Very little Bournonville (La Ventana Kermesse), practically no classical ballet (Ratmantsky Nutcracker the closest thing), no Etudes, no Balanchine, two Neumeiers The Mermaid and Romeo and Juliets, Manon and four evenings modern and newly choreographs ballets (Tvyla Tharp, Angelin Prejocin and Nils Cristie and a full evening ballet by Tim Rushton) . It is like Frank Andrensens moves in themes, last year Bournonville, this year Modern and Nordic. At the moment we have strong classical dancers and corps. tudes have never been danced better, so why not build on the current strenght instead of vending into to totally new teratory? I agree with his overall vision that RDB should be the leading storytelling ballet company but I am not sur that this years repetoire will confirm the top5 position that he wants so badly?

Next years repetoire will be announced tomorrow. Check www.kgl-teater.dk for the press release

It is difficult to describe a typical Lander ballets, as there is none that has been performed for over 25 years. Wannabe Massine is probably the closest allergy. A Lander ballet would likely include some mixture of modern everyday life, mytologic contents, Spanish or other type of folk dances. He had made ballets called Football and Benzin (Petrol). Re. the pas de deux, no television footage were providet just the dancing, and that looked great. There has not been any editorial coverage re. the galla, but a few months back reviews and articles o Erik Ashengreens book. May I also use the opertunity to say that the programme handed out free with an article by Erik Ashengreen was very biased re. the Lander Scandal. In Aschensgreens word the issue was a bourgeois traditional moral as a opposed to a free artistic moral. But Aschengreen seems to forget that Lander was an omnipotent ruler who controlled every aspect of the dancers career, so the term sexual chicane was probably an appropriate term to decribe the situation. According to Aschengreens book, Lander ad a least twived dated members of the corps under the age of 18 at a time he was still married to his third wife. According to Aschengeens book, the dancer chose the moral issue as a tactical choice to get rid of the ballet master. Realising that artictic reasons woyld no move politicials mind (they were probably right in their analysis), but what Aschenreen do not discus i the wiseness of Lander o leave himself open to the moral accusations.

During his reign as ballet master Harald Lander decided to skip the second part of The Conservatory and only do the dancing school as a divertissement. A few years ago in the wave of reconstructing Bournonville, the full Conservatory was reinstated and everyone could see how wise Lander decision has been. There is nothing in the full performance worth keeping, no divertissements, nor drama nor comedy, and as the performance is dressed almost more Biedermeier than Biedermeier, there is very little dancing to enjoy. You cannot see either steps or dancers in the getup and with a predominently dark stage, you can;t see the faces and expressions very well. So even though you cast a quartet of our finest dancers -- Lindström, Bojesen, Lund and Eggert -- it does not really signify. The full Conservatorie was chosen as the first part of the Harald Lander 100 year anniverary, and fully pointed out two significant facts. Firstly, that although he's called the most important ballet master in the 20th century, there was not the willingness to produce an whole evening with Lander choreography and that he was so wise in cutting the Conservatory. One half into the evening it looked like the galla was a perfect miss. The dull and overlong Conservatorie follow by a speech by Frank Andersen, where he did not mention the Lander Scandal, nor was able to pinpoint Landers importance beyond the uncharacteristic Etudes. But suddenly the mood and the evening changed, when we were given first a Grand Pas De Deux, choreographed by Lander in 1969 for Danish Television for Toni Lander and Bruce Marks, now gloriously danced by Mads Blangstrup and Caroline Cavallo. It was a pas de deux with a slavic feel, some reminicence of Zigane, and a great hit with the audience. I guess we will see that one again. It was followed by some videos of Lander himself, and then by Bojesen and Lund in Landers Fest Polonaise, which they also danced at the summer performance at Kastellet, and it was much better done this time. The last part of the evening was given to Etudes, the untypical Lander ballet and his only lasting success, this time with Agnes Letutsu, Jose Martinez and Jean Guillaume Bart from the Paris Opera as the soloist trio. It was a very elegant trio, but somewhat monotone in their rendering of the solos. Everything was done the same way, we are used to much accents from the home team. The mazurka danced by Martinez had line and flow, but no panache, nor use of gravity. And the same approach was used by the other two, So Letusu was not a sylph and a russian ballerina, but an elegant French ballerina all the way though. The corps did excellently and I think we must get used to a high performance level in Etudes. And I can easily get used to that. I would only wish that the current Ballet Master, who probably would call himself the most important ballet master in this century, as he has been almost the only one so far, would have followed Landers trend and gut the Conservatory and instead given a few more snippets from Landers repetetoire.

My house rule is better move a balcony up, rather than a row back. You see very well from the first three rows, surprisingly well from the back rows in the stalls, and from the "corners" of the balconies. If you are short you can bring a cushion or grab one of the childrens seats available. I have been to the opera in Stockholm twice and that is a significantly smaller auditorium.

The touring programme of RT has been pubsliched and Manon is part of the programme. We might therefore assume that it will also be part of next years season. I hope that Lindstrøm and Bojesen can get a shot of the title role