Copenhagen: The view from summer - Vancouver Ballet Society
By Anne-Marie Elmby
Once more, summer offered opportunity to stay in touch with dance while also enjoying the outdoors through Verdensballetten (World Ballet). The company opened its 15th tour around Denmark on July 12, in the garden of Sølyst, a 20-minute drive north of Copenhagen.
Steven McRae, a principal dancer with London’s Royal Ballet, again gathered a summer dancer family for the seasonal Verdensballetten. As choreographer for the occasion, his Back to the Barre had two dancers’ voice-overs reveal witty comments about their bodies and partner. More humour prevailed in his Grand Pas de Quatre for two couples, with the men teasing each other, at one point leaving McRae with a woman on each shoulder. McRae also delivered a fiery tap Czardas driven by Niklas Walentin and Alexander McKenzie’s violin and piano accompaniment.
Eric Gauthier’s duet Les Adieux, a premiere for Ukrainian Iana Salenko and her husband Marian Walter, both principals from Berlin State Ballet, radiated a strong feeling of love through a series of lifts and embraces in two farewell scenarios. The first comes as the soldier goes to war, and the second when his lifeless body is covered by a dark shroud, the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag discreetly on the reverse. In a later performance in Århus, proceeds went towards the work of the Red Cross in Ukraine.
Xander Parish, who left his principal position at the Mariinsky Ballet after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, is presently dancing with Norwegian National Ballet. He and Reece Clarke (Royal Ballet), clad in sporty white polo shirts and red shorts, openly enjoyed the street-like style of the duet Vulfpeck by Dutch choreographer and Royal Ballet First Artist Joshua Junker. Vulfpeck is an American funk band, whose music set off Junker’s creativity.
The classical repertoire was represented by beloved returning items: Sleeping Beauty’s Rose Adagio for Salenko and four male dancers, and Swan Lake’s White Swan pas de deux, on this occasion delightfully danced by Royal Danish Ballet soloist Astrid Elbo partnered by Clarke.
British choreographer Gemma Bond presented another of the Verdensballetten premieres: Sonnet Dance for Elbo, set to Camille Saint-Saëns. A trip in June fulfilled Elbo’s wish to work with New York-based Bond, who shaped her dance to Elbo’s special talents. In a red flush of tulle, she embodied and recited a poem by Lady Mary Wroth (born 1587). Her movements convincingly mirrored the voice of a woman who searches for a way out of the labyrinth of love.
Kammerballetten (The Chamber Ballet) was founded in 2018 by Danish presenter Trio Vitruvi, who was inspired by love for the intensity and intimacy between live chamber music and dance. As the company’s co-directors, pianist Alexander McKenzie and Royal Danish Ballet dancer Emma McKenzie commission new works for annual shows in August at Takkelloftet, a black-box stage in Copenhagen, and on international tours.
This year a quartet of works was featured, opening with Milk Teeth, in which Ella Rothschild (a dancer with Crystal Pite’s Kidd Pivot company) looked back to her childhood home in Tel-Aviv. Three dancers, representing different generations, were accompanied by Franz Schubert songs empathically interpreted by Royal Danish Opera bass-baritone Simon Duus. Rothschild also cast Royal Danish Theatre actress Kirsten Olesen in the piece, as a grandmother whose monologue about her children’s lack of patience for her stories was unmistakably reflected in their facial reactions. Both singer and actress were also involved in the dance.
Tobias Praetorius found inspiration for his Tori in 16th-century Hasegawa Tōhaku’s painting Birds and Flowers. Two couples danced in meandering patterns, the women’s floating silk dresses enhancing their movements to the flow of McKenzie’s newly composed trio for piano and strings. One man strewed dark confetti-like ashes over another man’s torso, and the dusty shade on the women’s ivory and golden skirts suggested a darker story underlying the poetic beauty of the ballet.
French Laura Arend, who founded Laboration Art Company in 2016, contributed a duet, Mary, a declaration of love to the modern ballerina. Two women swirled round each other and met in affectionate embraces, while their long transparent dresses formed white tulle clouds.
Paul Lightfoot premiered Suffer the Children. The work, inspired by the many tragic school shootings of our times, became a universal expression of sorrow, loss, and caring embodied by the five dancers to Johan Sebastian Bach’s music. At the end, one by one dancers and musicians left the stage, placing their shoes in spotlights and leaving only Niklas Walentin’s delicate violin to finish the piece.
Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens, the world’s second-oldest amusement park, celebrate their 180th anniversary this year. The pantomime tradition is an important part of their offerings, with British-born Tim Rushton, who has worked in Denmark since 1987, creating a new pantomime for the Tivoli dancers. During rehearsals for Home Sweet Home, Rushton conferred with the expert artists to keep within the local conventions of the form, succeeding in creating a charming story featuring Columbine and her father Kassander, penniless Harlequin, and faithful servant Pierrot. The scenario allowed for diverse dances by girls at the beach, sailors, circus artists, and conjurors, in humorous situations familiar to the tradition. It was presented at the Gardens’ Peacock Theatre, built in 1874, where all machinery is still worked by hand.
Finally, Alban Lendorf’s brilliant career as principal with the Royal Danish Ballet and then for four years with American Ballet Theatre was cut short by an injury in 2019. His forced farewell to the grand classical parts he had excelled in led him to concentrate on developing his dramatic talent along the acting path instead. Back in Denmark, he landed some film roles and also danced in musicals: Love is All You Need in 2022 and, in July, as Johnny Castle, the leading male character in Dirty Dancing.
For the Bellevue Summer Ballet in August — at the same theatre where Lendorf played Jean in August Strindberg’s Miss Julie in 2021 — he felt ready to take on the title role in Jean Cocteau and Roland Petit’s iconic 1946 ballet, Le Jeune Homme et la Mort. The first ever Danish performance of this 18-minute masterpiece was staged by Luigi Bonino, who had worked closely with Petit.
There was no hesitancy in Lendorf’s flying jumps as he soared over the stage. Even more impressive was the intensity with which he embodied the desperate young artist, who meets his fate through a sophisticated, alluring figure who taunts and plays with his feelings, portrayed here by ABT principal Cassandra Trenary. It will be exciting to follow 34-year-old Lendorf’s career, which will hopefully continue to offer opportunities for his unique talents as both actor and dancer.
