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Jane Simpson

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Posts posted by Jane Simpson

  1. 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?

  2. 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

  3. 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.

    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.

  4. 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:

  5. 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.

  6. 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.)

  7. 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.

  8. 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.

  9. 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.

  10. 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)

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