jorgen

The programme for the 3rd Bournonville Festival June 3 – 11 2005 was presented today: Friday 3 June 2005 Premiere: La Ventana and The Kermesse in Bruges Saturday 4 June 2005 Napoli Monday 6 June 2005 La Ventana and La Sylphide Tuesday 7 June 2005 Abdallah Onsdag 8 June 2005 Le Conservatoire and Far from Denmark Thursday 9 June 2005 The King's Volunteers on Amager and La Sylphide Friday 10 June 2005 A Folk Tale Saturday 11 June 2005 Bournonvilleana - Gala Official site: http://www.bournonvillefestival.dk

I was lucky to see Maria Eichwald and Alen Bottaini in their guest appearance in Copenhagen last Wednesday, April 9th. They were a wonderful couple. Maria was superb with subtle hands and arms, beautiful feet, great technique and a special fluidity of movement. I really enjoyed it. Now I hope we can have Lisa-Maree Cullum visiting next time. I hope you enjoy Femke Molbach Slot and Andrew Bowman. I have seen Femke twice as Olga, but since Alina Cojocaru was dancing Tatiana my eyes were on her only. ;)

A long awaited biography of the Russian ballet teacher Vera Volkova is to be released in 2004. Author Alexander Meinertz. There is now a very fine web site about the project: www.volkova.net Vera Volkova was of enormous importance for Danish ballet and I am really looking forward to this book. I hope it will be a good follow up to Alexandra's Kronstam work.

There is also an article about the new season in "Berlingske" (Danish only): http://www.berlingske.dk/kultur/artikel:aid=306164/#

The Royal Danish Ballet reportoire for next season is now official. The most interesting: "La Sylphide" - new staging by Nikolaj Hübbe. Premiere September 20, 2003. "Ballet Evening". One new ballet by Peter Martins. Also two Balanchine ballets: "Serenade" and "Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto no.2". Premiere November 14, 2003 "Anna Karenina" - choreography by Alexei Ratmansky. Premiere April 2, 2004. "Abdallah" - the Bournonville ballet that was reconstructed in 1986. Staged by Sorella Englund, Flemming Ryberg and Bruce Marks. Repremiere May 7, 2004. Among the rest are repremieres of this season's Manon, Etudes, Oddysey, Napoli, A Folk Tale and Nutcracker. Read more; www.kgl-teater.dk (only published in the Danish language section)

A good link for Scandinavian (incl. Danish above mentioned) antiquarian booksellers is: http://www.antikvariat.net/

Alexandra, it's not really a new book. It was published in 1999, but I just found out about it. There are also some Ryom photos on dancer Martin James homepage, including a very good Tatiana photo: http://users.cybercity.dk/~dsl30361/gallery2.htm It's said she also did a wonderful Juliet with Nikolaj Hübbe in 1987 (Neumeier's Romeo and Juliet).

There is a book about the great Royal Danish Ballet ballerina Heidi Ryom and her farewell performance celebrating her twentyfifth anniversary in 1997 "En aften jeg aldrig glemmer" (An Evening I shall never forget). Pictures from this last night by Tine Harden from her last Swan Lake with Nikolaj Hübbe. Text by Erik Aschengreen, Peter Bo Bendixen, Nikolaj Hübbe, Peter Martins and others. 120 pages. Photos throughout. Text in both English and Danish. ISBN 87-90724-14-3 Can be ordered online from: http://www.arnoldbusck.dk

Royal Danish Ballet dancer Fernando Mora was promoted soloist on December 17th. From www.kgl-teater.dk Fernando Mora, was born in 1974 and trained at the National Ballet School in Mexico City. In 1993 Fernando Mora became member of the Royal Danish Ballet, where among other roles he has danced the Prince in Nutcracker, Prince in Etudes, the Prince of Mongolia and Pas de Six in The Sleeping Beauty, Espada in Napoli, Lærtes in Hamlet, and soloist roles in Suite en Blanc, Return of a Strange Land, Napoli, A Folk Tale, The Wish, Gaité Parisienne, and Jazz. Fernando Mora was awarded the prizes Prix de Jury of Conceurs International de Danse de Paris in 1992 and the Professional Prize Prix de Lausanne in 1993, and the Statoil Grant.

Danish title: HVOR DANSER DEN KONGELIGE BALLET HEN? Interview med danserne om Bournonville traditionen English title: DIVERSIONS OF THE ROYAL DANISH BALLET Interviews with the dancers about the Bournonville tradition Written by Anne Middelboe Christensen 2002. 261 pages including a 43 page English summary. A constructive debate book for everybody interested in the Bournonville tradition and the Royal Danish Ballet. It is written in Danish, but since there is long summary in English it can be of interest for non Danish-speaking readers too. Dance critic Anne Middelboe Christensen has interviewed 56 past and present dancers from the Royal Danish Ballet about the company's situation and the Bournonville tradition. One part of the book are those interviews presented in the form a quote mosaic. The second part is a Bournonville Guide, with the reportoire and artistic directors. The third part is the essay "Can Bournonville be saved?" (fully translated into English). This is an analysis of the company's history and problems of the last decades, a summary of the Bournonville repertoire and short biographies of directors, instructors, dancers and others who has contributed to the Bournonville style and tradition. A big question is how the upcoming 2005 Bournonville Festival will turn out. Can be ordered from the publisher at http://www.schoenbergske.dk

Review from the first night, without Hübbe on Nov 15, in Berlingske Tidende: http://www.berlingske.dk/kultur/artikel:aid=231784/ In Danish only.

Those more or less macaber rumours and stories about Olga Spessivtzeva were frequent in Russian emigré circles in the West. Her frequent journeys in and out Soviet Russia made the emigrés very suspicious of her. She was called a bolshevist and even a Soviet spy. She left Russia in 1924, for good as it turned out, with a proper permission from the authorities to reside abroad. All this spiteful gossip probably added up to her nervous breakdown later.

Vladimir, if she will come with the Estonian Ballet on their tour to Malmoe, Sweden, in December I will be able to see her in their Nutcracker.

Estelle, you can also see Anna Polikarpova on the new DVD with John Neumeier's "Illussions like Swan Lake" danced by the Hamburg Ballet. It's an extremely well done production and I think yet only available from Amazon Germany. Regarding the great ballerina club I would say Alina Cojocaru will certainly soon join it.

Some official photos from last season's Onegin can be found here: http://www.ballerinagallery.com/rdb/onegin.htm

Alexandra, You have to click on the link of respective date under "Rollebesætning for:" and word document with the casting will open. It does for me anyway... ;) /jorgen

Nicolai Hübbe will guest the RDB on November 16, 20 and 22. He will dance in Flemming Flindt's "Enetime" (The Lesson). Three Danish masterpieces are presented: The Conservatory by August Bournonville The Lesson by Flemming Flindt Etudes by Harald Lander RDB: http://www.kgl-teater.dk/ /jorgen www.ballerinagallery.com

To see the casting lists of RDB you must look at the Danish language pages, they are not included in the English translation. See for example on the Onegin page, right side column. Enter here: http://www.kgl-teater.dk/ Regarding reviews you can see all ballet articles in B.T. here: http://www.berlingske.dk/soeg?s=ballet /jorgen

I was at both performances on 17th and 18th. I have admired Alina Cojocaru for long so it was a dream come true to finally see her live. She was as lovely and perfect as I had hoped. Her dancing is great and she is really acting the role in every detail. The bedroom pas-de-deux and the last scene pas-de-deux being the highlights. According to others, much more initiated than me, her partnering with Johan Kobborg was more perfected on the second night. A curious detail was that on the second night she dropped the book in first act when handing it over to Onegin. It was a mistake but it could well have been in the choreography showing Tatiana timid and nervous in front of Onegin. On the first night Queen Margarethe II was present and the audience enthusiastic. Less so, for some reason, on the second night. Alina as Tatiana, Johan Kobborg as Onegin, Thomas Lund as Lenskij and Femke Mølbach Slot from the corps as Olga all got great reviews in "Berlingske Tidende" by Erik Aschengren. If you can read some Danish the link is here: http://www.berlingske.dk/kultur/artikel:aid=215088/ Alina must be the most exciting dancer there is today. Being only 21-22 years old one wonders what will be of her the next 10-20 years. /Jorgen

Alina Cojacaru and Johan Kobborg will make guest appearances as Tatiana and Onegin in John Cranko's Onegin with the Royal Danish Ballet on September 17-18 2002!!! http://www.kgl-teater.dk/dkt2002/ballet/re...ire/Bonegin.htm I will be there!

Recently added ballerinas: Viviana Durante Galina Mezentseva Nina Semizorova Toni Lander www.ballerinagallery.com

Gelsey Kirkland is there now. The Ballerina Gallery