Syrene Hvid

Cultural blog kulturkupeen.dk awards the premiere five stars and praises the entire company for honouring the Russian style as well as really entertaining the audience with a story that might be thin at best, but dancing that's large-scale.

Both the Danish cultural blog fyraften.nu and the newspaper Berlingske (giving the performance five out of six stars, even) praise the premiere of Hübbe's Don Quixote with particular warm mention of J'aime Crandall as Kitri, Jón Axel Frasson as Basilio, Ulrik Birkkjær as Espada and Silvia Selvini as Cupid in common.

Now that Ida has been promoted to principal dancer and the repertory for next season has been announced, what could you imagine she'd be given of roles on the other side of summer? She's the header for Swan Lake along with Marcin Kupinski whom she danced with last time, so I think it's safe to assume she'll be dancing Odette/Odile again, most likely even on opening night. Giselle is running simultaneously with Swan Lake, though, so I'm not so sure she'll be given the lead there... Maybe they're saving Giselle for the more seasoned principals, Crandall and Grinder? On the other hand, I know she's performed the second act PDD at a gala, so they might already be instructing her in the role... I don't know, time will tell! I think there's a good chance that she'll get Alice in Alice in Wonderland, both because they're doing so many performances and will need many casts, but also because it's a role that would really suit her strengths and her charisma. I could also imagine that they'll be using her in quite a lot of the Bournonville extracts in the mixed bills and the Romeo and Juliet PDD... I couldn't imagine it wouldn't go to her and Kaas. I'm curious as to whether she'll get the lead in Dangerous Liaisons, since the choreographer has worked with her before in Lolita last year. If nothing else, Ida has been promoted ahead of a season that seems almost tailor-made for her, so that should prove interesting to follow.

Kistrup's thoughts on the premiere yesterday: www.danceviewtimes.typepad.com/eva_kistrup/2016/05/sort-of-entertained.html Since I haven't seen it yet, I can't comment, but generally I tend to disagree with Kistrup on most things anyway, so I'm still very hopeful on my three-cast marathon next week. I'm especially happy that we're finishing with J'aime's cast Sunday. Very excited about guest dancer for Basilio and Holly Dorger as Queen of the Dryads. In the two other casts, I'm especially excited about the leads in the Thursday show (Lena-Maria Gruber + Jonathan Chmelensky) and Holly Dorger as Mercedes, sounds like an exciting role for her. Friday, my queen Susanne Grinder is dancing Mercedes, so that'll be perfect, I know. Also curious about Praetorius' Kitri and Matiakis' Queen of the Dryads. All in all, just extremely excited from my end.

I still need to study my programme book in more detail, but I am so excited for next season's repertory. I honestly think it's the strongest overall repertory I've seen in the 5+ years I've followed the company. The only thing that could possibly have made it better was an added revisit of Lady of the Camellias, but I really liked what I've got. Especially Swan Lake, the new Giselle and Jewels have me stoked. I'm also looking forward to Alice and the new piece by Starpov!

New pictures up of this production, some amazing shots of J'aime as Kitri especially, so excited to get to see her dance this role. Also some fantastic shots of Alba Nadal as the Gypsy Queen and Holly Dorger as the Queen of the Dryads, not to mention Susanne Grinder as Mercedes. My personal favourite, however, is probably the solo shot they took of Lena-Maria Gruber as Kitri, my excitement about catching her in her debut just went through the roof, wow! A couple of nice shots of Chmelensky and Fransson as Basilio, too. All in all, these shots shows a very promising set and some absolutely gorgeous costumes. Should anyone be interested to take a look, you can find the photos here along with the promo video: https://kglteater.dk/det-sker/sason-2015-2016/ballet/don-quixote/#galleri

Cast list has gone up for Don Q, three main couples as I'd predicted, but one surprise, too! On the 7th of May, J'aime Crandall will dance Kitri not opposite Jón Axel Fransson, but opposite guesting dancer Osiel Gouneo from the Norwegian Ballet (though, I could read he's Cuban-trained, must make Chmelensky happy!) I am so excited that I'll get the opportunity to see this! Casting: Kitri: J'aime Crandall/Ida Praetorius/Lena-Maria Gruber Basilio: Jón Axel Fransson/Marcin Kupinski/Jonathan Chmelensky/Osiel Gouneo Don Quixote: Mogens Boesen Sancho Panza: Poul-Erik Hesselkilde Paquilla: Kizzy Matiakis/Alexandra Lo Sardo Juanita: Ida Praetorius/Lena-Maria Gruber Gamache: Sebastian Kloborg/Cédric Lambrette Espada: Ulrik Birkkjær/Gregory Dean/Andreas Kaas Mercedes: Amy Watson/Susanne Grinder/Holly Dorger Gypsy Queen: Josephine Berggreen/Alba Nadal/Christina Michanek Queen of the Dryads: Holly Dorger/Kizzy Matiakis/Caroline Baldwin/Astrid Elbo Cupid: Silvia Selvini/Katerina Plachá I'll be so happy to see Mogens Boesen as Don Q, he's my favourite character dancer with the company and has the perfect aura for the role. Whereas I had kind of expected both Dean and Birkkjær to get the role of Espada, I had not seen Kaas coming and look forward to seeing what he'll do with it, he's not quite as tall as the other two… I am so happy to see both Susanne and Holly dance Mercedes, out of the three cast, only Watson has danced it before, I think. Nadal will be perfect as the Gypsy Queen and I'm really looking forward to seeing Berggreen as well. I knew Holly was dancing Queen of the Dryads, but all the others came as surprises, though Baldwin and Matiakis make sense. Astrid is only dancing it a few times late-run, but I'm so happy she is getting the chance, even if I won't get the chance to see it. Also, Silvia will be the most perfect little Cupid ever. Ever. So excited. Suddenly three trips to the theatre for this production makes a perfect number.

Yes, I'm so excited for that combi. I really hope to catch them, J'aime is a favourite of mine and I think she could really ace Kitri! It also seems Gregory Dean will be dancing Espada. I wonder who else will be cast in that role... And I'm dying to know who will dance the street dancer.

Yes, Hübbe is launching his own production later this month, it's a premiere! Trailer has gone up on the RDB website: http://video.kglteater.dk/don-quixote-slip-din-indre-latino-los Ida Praetorius and Marcin Kupinski in Copenhagen, I love Kupinski's look here! This trailer is a fun one.

Cast lists have still not been published, neither have new stage photos gone up, but there's a lot of rehearsal photos and videos up on Instagram. This week Jonathan Chmelensky has taken over the "kglteater" (Royal Danish Theatre's) official Instagram to document the dancers' work with the ballet. As far as I can tell, Chmelensky will be dancing Basilio along with Marcin Kupinski. Ida Praetorius and Lena-Maria Gruber will definitely be dancing Kitri, I suspect J'aime Crandall is dancing the role as well, the rest I'm not so sure about... I'm still hoping. I'm seeing this performance three times, three days in a row. 5th, 6th and 7th of May. I'm really excited and hope to catch different casts each time. Is anyone else going?

So, about Romeo and Juliet last night... Wow. All reservations I might ever have had about Ida have been swept away, cleanly. What a sublime performance. She was not just an amazing, defining Juliet, she WAS Juliet. I was so glad to be able to see this performance on a big screen with good camera-work, so I could really get a look at that intense face of hers. Yesterday, she wasn't a dancer, she was a first-rate actress and that promotion was fully deserved. I can't really pick just one scene or moment where I thought she was particularly brilliant, because she was brilliant all over with tears and a lot of light-hearted comedy in perfect balance. What really struck me, though, was her chemistry with Andreas Kaas' Romeo, the lightness, speed and emotion they managed to pour into their PDD. This is a golden partnership and I look forward to seeing what awaits them in the future. Of the various PDD, I think the balcony PDD was my favourite. Playful and fun and passionate, all the lifts were executed in stride. I also loved their bedside PDD, but missed some of the profoundness that Dean and J'aime had added to it, maybe age really did play in there? Not that Andreas' and Ida's wasn't amazing, it really was. Their chemistry and their fluid, flowing dancing really made up for that underlying edge I missed otherwise. Andreas was an amazing Romeo, as I knew he would be. He's also a great actor and his adoration for Ida's Juliet was as real as it could get. I thought he wasn't completely synchronised in act one with his group of friends, they were all good individually, but something was lacking in their dancing together, if not in their acting. Luckily this settled itself in act two! Sebastian Haynes as Mercutio. Wow. My beloved Sebastian. What a powerhouse and that intense acting of his! I was just blown away. There was something more serious and less... infuriating about his Mercutio than Jon Axel Fransson's, but I really liked him. His death scene was stellar and kind of stole the entire second act. All in all, act two was my favourite. The Capulets. Susanne was as amazing as I'd expected she'd be as Lady C - along with Ulrik Birkkjær as a more sympathetic Lord C and Sebastian Kloborg suddenly fitting into the constellation as Tybalt, these three were a force to be reckoned with in every scene featuring them. Susanne danced like a dream and her few key scenes, the Dance of the Knights and Tybalt's death, were chilling. Her interaction with Ida's Juliet was also so strong and you could really see their story lines reflected in each other so very clearly. Her interpretation was intelligent and understated. It was very evocative. However, in act two and three, I hope they have some alternate angles they've shot from, if this gets released on DVD as I think it might. Or just if it gets broadcast on DR. Her mourning dance over Tybalt suffered under some unfortunate zooming at first and the same goes for his funeral. That mourning/insanity scene, though. The way she dared to just let the moment be, let the spectator understand the situation on their own, understand the implictions and THEN explode in grief. And she really did explode. How she could kick and move like that in that costume, I have no idea. I had chills. All the scenes with Juliet and Paris were so well captured on film and also here the strong sense of bond between Susanne, Ulrik and Ida became palpable. I loved Ariel Mercuri as Paris and Mette Bødtcher as the Nurse. As for the street performer troupe... My otherwise favourite part of the ballet... Maybe it was because the rest of the cast was so completely haunting, but for the most part they rang more hollow than when I saw them in March. I missed Alexander Stæger as the lead, Marcin Kupinski just fades a bit on stage for me, especially in all the gear he has to wear in this role. However, both Camilla Ruelykke Holst and especially Holly Dorger as Luciana were flawless. Holly's big eyes and wonderfully expressive face served her well with the pantomime like mimicry. She was also very tender and rather amusing in her acting. I loved Silvia Selvini in the role too and however small, I think it might be one of my top-three female roles in the ballet and Holly owned it. So beautiful. All in all, a rather perfect evening and then watching Ida get promoted to principal on screen, on VERSE. So cute. She was really starborn yesterday. Hopefully I'll catch her Kitri in Don Q next month.

Eva Kistrup's comments: http://danceviewtimes.typepad.com/eva_kistrup/2016/04/breaking-news-ida-praetorius-made-principal-dancer.html

After an absolutely sublime performance as Juliet, Ida Praetorius was promoted to principal dancer tonight in front of a full house and 50+ live broadcasting cinemas around the country. With such a performance, it was truly deserved and her teary happiness was very touching. Hübbe promoted her in a self-composed ode. It was sweet, sincere and fitting for the occasion. She received a huge bouquet of dusty pink roses.

Anyone else attending the cinema livestreams tomorrow? I'm going with my girlfriend, best friend and some of my girlfriend's coworkers - a small flock of ballet enthusiasts and I'm weirdly excited about it, we wouldn't be able to do it like this, all together, if our only option of seeing the performance was in the theatre!

Just watched the wings-angle vlog Joy put up of her Gamzatti in the versus Nikiya scene and I was very impressed. I loved her interpretation of the character, I thought her dramatic skills were absolutely spot on for the first time ever when I've seen her and I'd pay good money to see her in that role. If I got to see her perform it in its entirety, I think there's a good chance she would become one of my favourite Gamzattis.

I attended the performance yesterday. Before the performance itself, I was on the offered backstage tour of the Old Stage and it was quite an enlightening experience. Since the Queen was in attendance, the Royal chambers were being prepared for her and the halls backstage were decked with flags and flowers, because it was character dancer Eva Kloborg's (dancing the nurse that night) 50 year anniversary with the RDB. As for the performance itself... This was my first time seeing Neumeier's Romeo and Juliet. However, the ballet only convinced me once again that everything that man touches becomes gold. Lady of the Camellias is my favourite ballet ever. The leads yesterday were second cast J'aime Crandall and Gregory Dean as Juliet and Romeo. Amy Watson and Jonathan Chmelensky as Lady and Lord Capulet. Sebastian Kloborg as Tybalt. Jon Axel Fransson as Mercutio, Tobias Praetorius as Benvolio. Christian Hammeken (?) as Brother Lorenzo. Caroline Baldwin, Lena Maria Gruber and Alexandra Lo Sardo as Juliet's friends. Matteo di Loreto as Paris. Alexander Stæger, Camilla Ruelykke Holst, Silvia Selvini and Liam Redhead as the commedia dell'arte troupe. Overall everyone did a fantastic job and I was crying like a baby at the end, but a couple of specific shout-outs... J'aime was perfection as Juliet. Although Praetorius in the intro interview characterises Juliet as "a girl who's no good, basically" - with J'aime she had grown a certain edge. She WAS good, but she didn't fit into the house to which she had been born, couldn't live up to the demands made of her by her parents and fluctuated between struggling to win her mother's approval and just saying: Screw that, I want to be free! This makes perfect sense as she meets Dean's Romeo. With him she is allowed to be who she is, he loves her for exactly that. At the same time, Dean's Romeo is sort of her opposite and sort of the same. He has lived a carefree life, fooling around with his friends and seduced all the girls, but Dean masterly portrays an underlying yearning for more. Something more that he discovers in Juliet. As such they are two young, lost souls who not only find each other, but themselves in each other. The greatest tragedy is perhaps how the world they lived in wouldn't or couldn't allow them this freedom. This is where Chmelensky as Juliet's father, but especially Watson's Lady Capulet comes into the picture. I'm not usually a big Watson fan, but she nailed Lady C, despite a little bit of technical struggle in the ballroom scene. She was cold as ice, bitter towards Juliet and resentful towards Lord C. Only in her relationship with Tybalt did her emotions seem to warm up. It was heart-breaking, really - how Juliet was so much like her mother, a free spirit who wants something else for herself, but rather than supporting each other, they become estranged and almost hostile. Lady C is trying to push her into a marriage with Paris as she was undoubtedly once forced to marry Lord C. The difference is that Juliet will have Romeo and none other, Romeo or death. In the end, all Lady C's compromises rob her not only of her lover Tybalt, but her daughter too. Watson portrayed this tragedy amazingly well. Especially the way she bound together the amazingly danced mourning choreography at Tybalt's death with Lady C's reaction to finding Juliet dead... I was sold, though I (of course) look forward to seeing Susanne's portrayal on the 6th. Lord C, in comparison, is a relatively small part, but Chmelensky really filled it well. His bald head added a chill to the man and how he focused all his energy on arranging events for the house and such seemed to be a cover for an underlying dissatisfaction with her relationship to his wife and his palpable knowledge of her affair. In this strained relation, it was no wonder J'aime's Juliet had grown up too fast and too fractured. Especially the interaction between Chmelensky and J'aime when they try to force her to marry Paris, Chmelensky soldiered through the cold exterior and man-handled Juliet in such a way that he was being severe out of genuine concern and love of her. I had my concerns about Kloborg as Tybalt to begin with. The first major scene, the dance of the knights, didn't seem to flow very well between him, Watson and Chmelensky, but by the second act in all interaction with Fransson's Mercutio, he had me convinced and the death of both Mercutio and Tybalt was amazing. Kloborg's portrayal of Tybalt as a drunken, angry and frustrated man whose life was under such strain in his house added to the sort of rotten-beneath-the-surface feel of the Capulets. His opposite was Mercutio in Fransson's form. What a trio of merry youths they were, him and Dean and Praetorius as Benvolio. Their dancing was carefree and comic. They functioned well as a unit. Fransson was almost demonic in his portrayal of Mercutio - as if his daring spirit and in your face approach rendered him untouchable. Very much like young men think of themselves. Looking forward to seeing what my favourite Sebastian Haynes does with the role in the other cast. The performing troupe was one of my favourite aspects of the ballet. Lovely to see Stæger in a meaty role again, but last night wasn't the best I've seen him. In contrast, Camilla Ruelykke Holst was amazing as his wife, though Liam Redhead and Silvia Selvini delivered some of the most stellar performances all night as the artists reflecting Romeo and Juliet (can't look up the character names right now, unfortunately). I was mightily impressed with the both of them. In terms of dancing, I didn't particularly like the crowded market scenes, but I imagine having seen the ballet a couple of times would make me feel less overwhelmed. All the PDDs between Dean and J'aime were beautiful and generally looked very fluid and problemfree, though there was one lift that left J'aime looking a little worried. My favourite PDD was the bedroom PDD. Dean was amazing at portraying Romeo's regret at having killed Tybalt and J'aime changed effortlessly between being a Juliet who could tell something was wrong, trying to comfort Romeo and yet not wanting to know what had happened, in turn also seeking comfort from Romeo. It was a deeply moving scene. Another favourite scene of mine was the scene where Lord and Lady C try to get Juliet to marry Paris for the last time. Giving her away again and again despite her protests and sorrow. This scene really affected me deeply. I loved everything about it. Di Lorento was a Paris that I sort of felt bad for, because although he didn't necessarily have a lot of emotions invested in Juliet, he seemed to genuinely want to help her, trying to ease the process as much as possible. Everything that followed that scene was just testimony upon testimony to J'aime Crandall's amazing dramatic talents. She was crying on stage and died in a frenzy of hopeful dilusions and physical pain. Amazing. I can definitely understand why this has been a recurring ballet in the RSB repertory. It's a gem and my first introduction to it will only lead me back for seconds and more.

Tom, I agree 100% with your idea of "beauty in the eyes of the beholder" and this is why I can sometimes get a bit tired of the tone on BA. I love the discussions and reading about other people's experiences, but sometimes there is a tendency to see a subjective opinion as fact and with ballet, as with any art form, opinions are very personal and not necessarily a reflection of how others have experienced a dancer or a performance.

It's such an intelligent interview. She has such a lovely analytical approach to her portrayals and art form.

Wow.

A couple of pics: http://instagram.com/p/BBYErkrAviZ/(Sebastian as Madge) http://instagram.com/p/BCxxlXTOEHc/(Sebastian rehearsing for the RDB's upcoming Don Q)

For me, male beauty in dance and in general is really embodied in my favourite male dancer, the young Sebastian Haynes, still a corps dancer with the RDB. Usually, I am quite biased in favour of the female beauty so associated with ballet as an art form, but whenever Sebastian is on stage, I simply cannot take my eyes off of him, whether or not he's a lead. Most recently this struck me when he dances one of the demi-soloist parts in Theme and Variations and although I was totally bewitched by Holly Dorger as the ballerina, during the crescendo when the males do those amazingly strong jumps, my focus kept returning to Sebastian. He was, to speak honestly, completely gorgeous. He has defined the role of Madge in Hübbe's Sylphide for me where the dandy clothes only enhanced his natural appeal. He was fiery in the male lead in the Chocolate part of Balanchine's Nutcracker in December. Very striking in the modern works I've seen him in as well. Sebastian is a very expressive and touching dancer to watch - traits I always admire in female dancers, but NEED in male dancers to be moved by their performances, however technically perfect they might be. Sebastian is a prime example of perfection in that regard for me. Other male dancers that make me think of them as beautiful are principal dancer with the RDB Gregory Dean and etoile with the POB Stephane Bullion.

I really enjoyed Joy here. She looked much more radiant than I've seen her previously and despite the small stage, the orchestra and an inferior partner, she actually made me really feel her Odile. She had a lot of very nice touches and lovely details. Well done, Joy!

An English review of first cast Romeo and Juliet. Major praise of Praetorius and Kaas, but also lots of praise for Haynes and Susanne Grinder! michellepotter.org/reviews/romeo-and-juliet-the-royal-danish-ballet

Wow, that final PDD... Very moving. I can see that I'll need to prioritise this ballet, should the RDB choose to stage it again sometime... I love how boneless she managed to look in certain moments!

Yes! I love those, too. She has a very distinctive style of manipulation in a lot of her work, especially the Lady posters, but those overhead views of the shades are so pure and crisp in their expression.