Effy

No RDB is back in business after Nutcracker and US-tour. At last nights Balanchine & Martins programmed it was clear that the tour had had some casualties, because several dancers had to do double duty. On the other hand dancers who had been injured are now back. Kenneth Greve danced Piono concerto with Gudrun Bojesen, a bit tentative but otherwise fine and she is very good in this ballet, which I cannot rank as the best Balanchine I have seen. it is like everything is good is done even better in Serenade, so the decisition to use them both in one programme is not 100% good. In Serenade, which was danced by a combined team from the two casts plus Andrew Bowman in the final scene, Diana Cuni really did a marvelous performance as the Russian girl. She has mostly danced demicaracter and modern roles. she is a tiny, bouncy dancer like Heii Ryom, and maybe sje is just on the brink to a late bloom like Heidi Ryom, who was pushing 27 before she was promoted principal. Gitte Lindström and Marie Pierre Greve were both good without being outstanding. In Oktot Thomas Lund finally had his debut in the ballet created on him. He was good, naturally a very professional delivery of a not to interesting work. In the central Pas De Deux Gitte Lindstrøm and Bowman was good, but neither has the gifts of say Silja Schandorff and Mads Blangstrup to impress even in a mediocre work. Silja is somehow a parallel phenonomen to actors, who are claimed to could be reading out of the phone book and it would still be interesting. The corps looked fine, save the odd placing of dancers out oof shape on the front line and fit elegant partners like Kristoffer Sakurai on the back. This has always been a special feature of the RDB. They cannot dress a corps to the best advantages. They never could - and why should I expect different on a cold wednesday night in February

It is not the ballerina who are short, it is the segment, sorry

Yes it is the Hip Hop Nutcracker with one very short guest ballerina from RDB. It was quite well received the first time around, but it lacks the quality (read classical dancing) that makes repeat viewing from affinados and it is not good enough either to make certain that the general public returns. There are also strong competition from other family Christmas shows. The hip hop sold well last Cristmas but there are a big difference between filling 200 seats and 1200.

Yes Tina Højlund has had a bit of an on/off career, often considered the modern dancer among the classical ones and the classical one among the modern. She have also had her share of injurys. As far as the modern/classical issue she has done one of the best Rubies I ever seen in RDB and I understand that she is very good in Serenade as well - but they are also great modern ballets as well! She is very good in Bournonville, again making it her own and she is truly a musical dancer. I am particulary grateful that she has been so well received in the US, because if there is one thing that RDB management respects, it is the American Public and viewers

next year will be the last year under the four year co-production agrreement with TIVOLI which has included 30 performances of The Nutcracker in TiVOLI. It was published yesterday that RDB will only perform untill December 15, whereafter the alternative production Nutcracker froom Aveny T will fill out the remaining schedule. Halleluja!!! The reason could be, I assume, tepid box office. As you might know from this forum The production is not popular with the regular RDB audience. It allows very little dancing and take up so much company time

I miss Arne Villumsen too!!! You can buy the full Napoli with Arne Villumsen on video, but Arne Villumsens speed and threedimentiinal dancing cannot be 100% captured on video. Thank you for a very fine report. I saw the Apollo with Hubbe a few months back and also concluded allthough he is past his prime he make a marveoullous performance. I have seen his first Apollon with RDB, but his mature Apollon is much more interesting. From your report I cannot tell who danced Tersiphore. If it was Silja Schandorff you would have had a very fine performance as it is one of her best roles. Her hair is now darker blond. She is very tall and with a one-in-a-million face. If the dancer was slighter build with very dark hair and large eyes it could have been Marie Pierre Greve. Gitte Lindstrøm may also be an option (thin with a face like a cat). AsIi stated earlier it is so interesting for us Dane to get your reviews and view of our dancers. We may sometimes be a bit to partial as we see the dancers all the time and sometimes say As she is so good in this , she is also good in that. I am particularty pleased with the fine reports on Tina Højlund, who is a very gifted and unusual dancer. She do not fit into catagories or types,she is truly and allways herself. The choreographer Tim Rushton has done several pieces with Tina and sha had a period of leave recently to work with his company.

You are absolutely right about the ladies in Napoli III. They are not putting the strongest cast out there - Nor are they putting a unison cast on. I expect not unison in the terms one would ask for in a corps, buy unison in that the whole line-up are in tune on how to dance and present Bournonville. It can be done. I have seen it done, but not lately. The great thing about Hubbe Sylph is that he has a very clear vision on how Bournonville shuld be dnced, and he hasmanaged to present it tothe dancers and it lifts the performance. The reel in my view is the more joyous dancing I know and a very clever piece of choreography and it can take some speed.

i mean spot talents not stop them . sorry

Thank you for the reviews. who are very well written. I can sense from the reviews that what you have found in the performances are very resonant with what the Copenhagen audience experience in regular performances. It also reflects the incapability of the RDB management to "top" a performance. What you have been getting are the regular casts, even including the younger inexperienced casts as well. Nothing have been done to show the company in the strongest position. A sympathetic decision - but maybe not the wisest decision. In the 60ties when RDB toured the team was often opted by guest stars like Erik Bruhn and in the 70ties casting reflected a wish to show the company at its strongest, using principals for soloist and divertissements, which in regular performances would be danced by younger or lower level dancers. Napoli III act as the best example. For the last 10 or 15 yeasr the company have done nothing to strenghen the cast, they have even gamble by touring performances, that have been out of repetoire or rusty. La Sylphide has been performed regulary this year but Napoli has not been performed for a longer period and some of the cast in Napoli III act have had less than 3 outings. It is unbelivable that the Management do not think it shows

Store Balletskole dag is an annual performance where the private ballet schools pupils gets a chance to perform at the Royal Theatre. It has been done 4 -5 years now. I think the interest of RDB is to stop talents and to keep good communications line to the private schools which are often the suppliers of talent

It is very interesting for us Danes to hear your perception of the ballets and the dancers. I am a bit surprised that Gudrun Bojesen and Silja Schandorff is perceived as almost identical, because in Denmark we tend to view them as very different dancers. It could also look like Schandorff has modified her original reading of the Sylph as almost demonic to a sweeter sylph (which she also presented at her first performance in the Hubbe version). I am glad thar Thomas Lund has done so well. He is a great Bournonville dancer, allthough he may not fit the type as James and Gennaro as well as Mads Blangstrup. Unfortunately you are missing our greatest dancer - in more sense than one - Kenneth Greve, who is just recovered from injury and one of our great performances Manon. Re. Etudes I think the casting reflects policy rather than a strong urge to present the best casts. Cavallo is also casts as the Sylph and Teresina in Napoli and as she is the most steedy performer on the home front, putting her and Massot (who is also perforning as Gennaro) in the Etudes looks bit like a comfort price. Andrew Bowman has also covered a lot of performances when Greve, Blangstrup and Lund was out with injuries. He is not cast as James or Gennero, but as a leading dancer he rightfully may expect to dance leading roles on an important tour. When the three dancers in questionspremiered in Etudes the reveiws were not 100% favorable and the management should not really be that surpriced when the American reviews matches the local. Due to injury, maternaty leaves and double duty the best casts was not available, so maybe it would have been better to present another ballet, which could been danced better. RDB does a very fine In the middle somewhat Elevated and a fine Serenade.

Allthough the Ralov production certainly hads it flaws it was superior to the present production. The Queens contribution are not good but you may be able to live with them if the staging was otherwise good- but it is bad on all accounts. The comedy segments are drawn to low farce, the pas de sept is killed by making it longer and more "democratic" instead of star turns it it now an ensemble piece. Casting is downgraded, so major stars do not take part in the production (unless there are recovering from injuries and need light stage practise) the mimes are bad and/or cast in the wrong roles. But as it is the production of Frank Andersen himself I fear we may wait long for a production that can restore the full glory of the production.

My 2003 hight are mostly similar with Jörgens Manon, beautifull scenography beautiful dancing and acting by primarily Silja Schandorff and Kenneth Greve Schandorff and Greve finally really performing together and not just dancing The rise and rise of Gudrun Bojesen La Sylphide, more good than bad) an exellent Serenade Mads Blangstrup as James and in Thaikowsky piano concerto Kenneth Greve as leading man and an impressive Odyddeus in a not to impressive performance Gitte Lindström back in business Kristoffer Sakurai finally showing how good he is A strong In the middle somewath elevated special mention Marie Pierre Greve Christina Olsson returning for a fine Etudes A motivated corps doing great in Serenade and new choreography

Peter Schaufuss has announced that he will make a ballet called Harald focusing on Harald Lander and the Lander Scandal in the 50ties. After Elvis and Diana he has now come to this juicy subject of which none of us really knows the truth and neither will we from this production, butit will probably bring the story out once more. It will guest on Royal Theatre

Agree. Chaconne would be great. Somehow I cannot imagine a Neumeier Mermaid

New casts announced: Isabelle Sokolowska - Julien Ringdahl Caroline Cavallo - JL Massot Gudrun Bojesen Kenneth Greve This probably means that Greve is back from the injury list and Thoma Lund is' nt

I love La Sonambule and I think Mads Blangstrup would be great in the part. Itwas last seen with Yuri possokov and Lloyd Riggins with Lis Jeppesen, Mette-Ida Kirk and Silja Schandorff. A HC Andersen ballet version of the little mermaid is said to be part of the HC Andersen festival in 2005 as well as an Austrialian guest production of The Wild Swans (Bruce Marks or ????) Frank Andeersen commissioned a score and ballet by Heinz Sporli to The Mud Kings Daugher (Dyndkongens Datter), but the poduction never reach the stage 8a huge scandal) instead we got Onegin. I hope we can get something else than The Little Mermaid. HCAndersen do not really suit the ballet format (to little boy and girl contact to last an evening)

I would probably chose the Balanchine/Martins programme without any Martins, but maybe a Robbins instead: How about: Divertimento nr 15 Mozartiana Thaikovsky pas de deux Who Cares Or Fancy Free Glas Pieces Symphony in C

Adding to the list: Allegro Brilliante, Symphony in C, Divertimento nr 15, Stravinsky Violin Concerto, The Sonambule, Rubies, Bouree Fantastique, (1963), Donizetti Variantion (1968) , Duo Consertante (at gallas, never in repetoire) and off cause The Legend of Joseph and some earlier ballet in 1932 (?) when Balanchine spend one year as ballet master in Copenhagen

How do we Danes prefer our Balanchine? Unfortunately we have only had the older Balanchine works. I do not think we have had anything newer than Stravinsky Violin Concerto, so we are feed on a diet of works mainly from the 40ties and 50ties. We do get NYCB here at regular intervals, so we can compare the styles. The RDB dances seems to bring a dramatic flavour to the ballets which i think is becoming to most works, even Agon. As one critic pointed out when Mette-Ida Kirks danced the pas de deux - It may be abstract, but it is not without meaning. And at one of the high arabesque done with the front towards the audience, you did not look at her extension which was a perfect 6 O'clock and as high as Silja Schandorff or any NYCB ballerina - You looked at her face. We have allways has very fine soloist for Balanchine, but getting a strong and unison corps have been a problem - due to to few actually dancing members of the corps and also due to the fact that RDB do not have a standard height for dancers like RB, but it looks judged from the very fine Serenade performance that we now seem to get there. A factor is also than in order to dance good Balanchine you should dance Balanchine often, and we have had a few year with none or very few productions

A late reply to Anna. I am sorry that I haves missed this thread over the last couple of days. I have been following the Royal Danish Ballet for more than 20 years and I do not know about the prestigeus Bournonville Award. I know of The Bournonville Legat, which is one of several internal awards within the RDB. In Denmark the higest awards for a dancer would be either the The Theatre Pokal, The Reumert Dancer of the year award or Niels Mathiasens Memory award but in general the are few awards for dancers and we are not an awardtuned nation. I do not question that Cavallo is a dancer of a high caliber and a strong and steady performer. I have rooted for her when she got her first opportunities in Serenade many years ago and I have rooted a lot since. Yes she has been in a lot of productions but the RDB usually over the period of approx. 3 years each production are kept in repetoire allows 3 -5 dancers for each part. For Martins Swan Lake the premiere was danced by Silja Schandorf with Kenneth Greve, Heidi Ryom as a farewell performance with Hubbe, Cavallo with Massot and Gitte Lindstrom with Mads Blangstrup (then very young and the cast I was told was Martins "invention" and favorate cast). ForSleeping beauty some years back four casts was scheduled Gad/possorov, Cavallo,Riggins, Schandorff.Greve (who later got the television version) and Olsson/Thordahl Christensen). Re. that production I was told that Helgi Tomasson wanted Cavallo for the premiere, but this not get his wish fullfilled. Why? I have always believed that it was consided a bad political move for the RDB at that time to give the premiere to a totally foreign cast of a very expensive production. It would be like admitting publically that the RDB school was not doing it job. So some you loose and some you win. I have no problem with accepting Helgi Tomassons choice because he was the author of this performance, but I sometimes as in the case of Manon find myself that a certain casts would not really be McMillans choice and in experience I can tell that there is often a great difference between the casting done by the choreographer and by apoointed dicertors and caretakers. Often a choreographer will make a bolder choice and often a choice based on dramatic abilities or personality. Cavallo is in my view a dancer who may have benefitted by the fact that we get very few original choreographers visiting RDB today, but a lot of appointed directors. When John Neumeier is working himself with the company, he casts Kenneth Greve/Martin James, Silha Schandorff/Rose Gad as well as very young dancers like Sarah van Patten and second tier dancers like Francisco Nappa and Marie Pierre Greve in leading roles. As I accept his freedom as choreographer I may also accept his choices,even though they may not be in tune with my own viewpoints. I once read an article by Arlene Croce re. NYCB ballerinas where she concluded that some dancers got more parts than what their talents deserved because any ballet master will eventually start to prefer the dancers who are good workers, who are reliable and less prune to injuries over the greater but more fragile talent . This may have been the reason that Heidi Ryom ended up with such a large repetoire ompared to her conteperaryes Mette-Ida Kirk, Lis Jeppesen and Linda Hindberg whos talents were recognised decades before Ryom and who had all ben made principal dances 5 -8 years before her. The reliability of Cavallo and her eagerness to put in the hours may be a factor. With Cavallo you know what you get, but it is somestimes more exiting to watch a dancer who can give you what you did not expect.

That is great news! Onegin has been the most succesful productions of RDB for a very long time. Looking forward to read eviews on the RDB dancers in Stockholm

Will Massot be able to dance Onegin on the 9Th. He is on the injury list in Copenhagen, but maybee he is recoverd by the 9th. I am envious of the Rose decor. We had a bad Finnish decor and costumes last time around. Luckyly It was leased and nought bought. RDB has a full set of Rose costumes but not the decor

I must admit, that how a dancer can dance is of vital importance to me. That is probably why I have never been a big fan of Lis Jeppesen. Her technical level was simply not high enough for my taste. But having said that much I also prefer the dancer to do more than just dance. Muciallity, phrasing, charisma, drama, line and looks are also part of the package - and as important as teqnique. If we look at the male wing, I will mostly always prefer Mads Blangstrup to Andrew Bowman, even though Bowman may be somewhat sharper than Blangstrup in the steps he lacks the drama and allure, you always get from Mads Blangstrup. If the toss is between Blangstrup and Kenneth Greve, I will often prefer Greve as his lines are more beautiful and his intuition in tone with my taste. Unless i it is a very dramatic role, then Blangstrup may be slightly better. It would be fare to say that the dancers I unconsiously measures against is Arne Villumsen, who probably is the most complete male leading dancer, The RDB has had since Henning Kronstam. Handsome, impeccable line, strong - yet technically sublime, dramatic flair, strong and attentive partner and one of the most musical dancers I have ever experienced. The demi-caracter dancers I probably compare to a mix of Ib Andersen and my early memories of Niels Kehlet. I am aware that I should be comparing and I try not to. But when so much of the repetoire is legacy it is difficult not to and it is very difficulty for th egoods dancers who compares less with the standard types like Johan Kobborg. For the female dancers what tricks me is a combination of tecnique, line, mucicality, drama, personality and style. Re. Gudrun Bojesens late revival. It was i beleive not due to lack of recognition but forced by multibly injuries. We have more or less been waiting for her for 3 year, knowning that she was recognised (especially by Maina Guildguid) but never made it to the stage.

RDB will have a number of performances in the new Opera house, but is expected to dance primarily on the Old stage at Kgns. Nytorv. I expect we will see a splitz equal to the use of the Paris Opera and the Bastille. Bournonville will be primarily danced at Kongens Nytorv. Both Opera and ballet is supposed to ad. an additional 40 performances per year when the new building is in place. There have been some additional funding, bu is beliieved that they will have more performances of the same ballets and prolong a ballet lifespand from say 2 to 3 years