Jane Simpson

Thank you very much for such a long report, Anne - sounds as if I have a couple of really cheerful evenings to look forward to... But I'm seeing different casts and it will be interesting to see how it works without Hubbe himself in it. What was the audience reaction like?

Photographs of the new production have just appeared on the RDB's website: http://kglteater.dk/det-sker/forestillinger/sason-2014-2015/ballet/sylfiden-og-etudes#Billedgalleri

Hubbe lifts the veil, a bit: http://danceviewtimes.typepad.com/eva_kistrup/2014/10/out-of-the-woods.html#more More detail in this new interview with Eva Kistrup than he's disclosed elsewhere...

The list of the dancers taking part has been updated - now looks as if the Etudes dancers will be J'aime Crandall, Alban Lendorf and Jon Axel Fransson.

Diane, the link is http://kglteater.dk/live If you go there on Tuesday it should be live

The Royal Danish Ballet's insight evening about their next programme, a double bill of La Sylphide and Etudes, will be livestreamed on Tuesday, 7th October, starting at 20.00 Danish time - 19.00 in London and 14.00 in NY (I think). Nikolaj Hubbe will talk about his already controversial new production of La Sylphide and Thomas Lund will introduce the Etudes section. From the daners listed, I'd guess that Susanne Grinder and Ulrik Birkkjaer will do Sylphide and Holly Dorger and Marcin Kupinski will do Etudes. It lasts about an hour and some of it will probably be in English. Details here: http://kglteater.dk/det-sker/forestillinger/sason-2014-2015/ballet/ballettens-varksted---sylfiden

The company list on the RDB's website still hasn't been updated from last season, but the current programme book shows three more new hires in the corps de ballet: Coralie Grand Ji Min Hong Silvia Selvini (but not Calista Ruat, from the earlier list) Tobias Praetorius and Oliver Starpov have been promoted from aspirants to corps de ballet, and there are 6 new aspirants - all female. Several dancers have retired from the company and Jodie Thomas has also disappeared from the company list; Charles Andersen is away on leave, dancing with the Hong Kong Ballet.

Good to hear that Praetorius is looking good as (a) I'm going to see her and (b) she's just today been promoted to soloist, after only 2 years in the corps de ballet. That's FAST!

RDB soloist Diana Cuni, well-known particularly as a Bournonville dancer, starts her last season before retirement this month and is turning her attention to teaching. She is running a short course in Paris this weekend and Dansomanie has a long interview with her (in French): http://www.forum-dansomanie.net/pagesdanso/int0066_interview_diana_cuni.html

She wrote on Twitter that she wants to be close to her family and to have "a normal life, with a normal job". 9

No, she has gone home to Australia and stopped dancing.

I also saw him in Coppelia and he had a huge success - he's building up quite a following in London. Also, a new video of him with Alexandra Lo Sardo in a piece made for them by Stephen Delattre has just appeared:

Sasha, this is a real problem for people visiting the RDB from abroad! They generally announce casting very late - a couple of weeks in advance or even less (once, after it had actually happened!). Usually they alternate casts but you can't bet on the sequence especially when there's a week or two between performances. I'd guess they'll have 3 or 4 casts for Swan Lake but the only certainty is that Alban Lendorf will be in there somewhere. (It's not that they do the casting and keep it secret - the dancers themselves don't usually know when they're going to be on till quite near the dates.) When they do announce the casting it's put up on the page about the piece, not on the calendar - not sure if it always makes it to the English version, though.

According to posters elsewhere Guillem did actually do the Appartement pas de deux, it just didn't make it to the transmission.

ENB's WW1 programme, Lest we Forget, has made a great impact over the last few months and one of the pieces, Akram Khan's Dust, was performed yesterday to an audience of around 10,000 people at the Glastonbury Festival. The Guardian has a set of highly atmospheric photographs showing the festival background as well as the piece itself. (Glastonbury is famous for its mud, amongst other things.)

Apparently this year the awards evening was structured as a continuous drama, into which the presentations were slotted: it was called Mit Liv som Træ (My Life as a Tree - is that right, Anne?) and one scene featured Lendorf as a sort of Tarzan character, in leopardskin briefs and a spray tan... Picture here: http://www.b.dk/kultur/de-vandt-ved-aarets-reumert-2014 He changed into a suit to collect his award, though.

Also, is ABT using the new orchestration of the score, by Martin Yates? I heard it for the first time in Copenhagen this season and thought it made a huge difference - for the better - to the ballet.

There's an article here that gives the date of the filming as September 1988.

Obraztsova has just pulled out of her remaining two performances of Bayadere with the RDB (tomorrow and May 17) on the grounds of 'a serious knee injury'. J'aime Crandall replaces her.

The SWRB dancer's name was Kim Reeder

Eva Kistrup already has her take on the new season online, at http://danceviewtimes.typepad.com/eva_kistrup/2014/04/sylphs-and-swans-fly-over-the-royal-danish-ballet-next-season.html#more And if you want an intensive ballet week in Copenhagen, the Royal Ballet (the London one) is appearing at the Tivoli Gardens from Sept 15 to 17, so you could see them and the Hamburg Ballet and the RDB's Camellias all in the same trip . And one more thing: I'm very pleased to see that Mads Blangstrup, who gives his last performance as a solodanser in a couple of weeks, is listed for next season as a Character Dancer.

Next season's programme was announced today. Main stage performances: The Lady of the Camellias (Neumeier) Sept 14 - Oct 31 (14 performances) 3 casts announced (Grinder/Lendorf, Bojesen/Birkkjær, Praetorius/Kaas) La Sylphide/Etudes Oct 25 - Feb 27 (9 performances) A new production of La Sylphide by Hubbe, using a simpler decor Come Fly Away (Twyla Tharp) Nov 8 - 29 (8 performances) A Folk Tale Dec 6 - 21 (15 performances) Swan Lake Mar 13 - May 1 (17 performances) A new production by Hubbe and Silja Schandorff, replacing the Peter Martins version ___________________ Also Dans2Go, the children's ballet Kom Bamse, and various productions on the smaller stages: all details now online at http://kglteater.dk/det-sker/ballet __________________________ There are 8 new dancers in the corps de ballet: Katerina Placha Calista Ruat Beila Ungar Matteo di Loreto Ariel Merkuri Drew Nelson Liam Redhead Samuel Rees as well as any aspirants promoted into the corps de ballet. _______________________ Also guest appearances by the Hamburg Ballet (Neumeier's Death in Venice, Sept 9 -12) and the Paris Opera Ballet (Paquita, May 29 - 31 2015)

Hee Seo has been invited to dance Giselle with the Mariinsky in St Petersburg on April 11th.

Do we assume they will borrow the traditional decor rather than the one currently used for Hübbe's updated version?

The RDB has announced that Evgenia Obraztsova will appear as Nikiya in the run of La Bayadere which opens on April 4. The company hasn't yet given the dates but Obraztsova's website lists them as April 5 and May 7 and 14. Her Solor will be Ulrik Birkkjær.