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    The Chamber Ballet: Music, dance and theatre in full chiaroscuro

    Alexander Meinertz

    Ballet reviews, essays & interviews

    August 18, 2026
    REVIEW – The Chamber Ballet and Concerto Copenhagen's ambitious co-production draws lines from the rich musical world of the Baroque via the court ballet and on to Samuel Beckett's absurdist theater.

    ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5 out of 6 stars)
    Kristeligt Dagblad August 19
    The Chamber Ballet, Alexander and Emma McKenzie's project-based artistic ensemble, has this year become the Concert Hall Ballet in collaboration with Concerto Copenhagen. The performances have moved from Takkelloftet's intimate blackbox theatre to the Music Conservatory's venerable, historic concert hall on Rosenørns Allé in Frederiksberg, and the musical accompaniment is no longer just chamber music, but also orchestral music under the direction of Emmanuel Frankenberg, more specifically Concerto Copenhagen's specialty: baroque music.
    The first ballet of the evening, Tobias Praetorius' "Armonico Tributo", takes its title from the orchestra's 2022 CD release of the same name with music by German composer Georg Muffat. Praetorius combines three movements by Muffat with two pieces by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber into a suite of dances characterized by brilliant dynamics and energetic drive.
    Here he pays homage to the Baroque with a thematic use of the curtsy, the formal Baroque court bow, where the right leg is brought forward in a stretched position with the foot facing outwards and the toe extended towards the floor, while the body weight is placed on the back leg, which is slightly bent at the knee to lower the body slightly.
    One must imagine the nobleman bowing deeply from the hip with a straight back, while he takes off his hat and carries it in a large, sweeping arc. With the same “schwung” Praetorius has drawn his elegantly structured choreography as an image of the music’s golden tones, complex canons and virtuoso variations. Not least, he ends each movement with brilliant groupings that express the sublime longing and the spiritual and physical ecstasy we associate with Baroque sculpture.
    "Armonico Tributo" is thus on paper an abstract work, but seen in a sharper light it is also a self-portrait or at least a very personal work, in which Praetorius pays homage to many of the ballets he himself has danced in and the masters he stands on the shoulders of, including Bournonville, Balanchine, Christopher Wheeldon and Alexei Ratmansky.
    This is most clearly seen in the bold use of the tarantella from August Bournonville's "Napoli" in the finale. Perhaps most poignant is the echo of his own ballet "Chorale Dances" from 2019, which is here connected to Alexei Ratmansky's masterpiece from 2025, "The Art of the Fugue", in which Praetorius danced the role of the protagonist. In the final scene, he is lifted up - here it is Liam Redhead, who also danced "Chorale Dances" - so that with his arms and legs outstretched he forms the outline of an X, floating vertically under the stars. A reference to Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, homo vitruvianus , and man as a microcosm in a reflection of the universe, macrocosm. An expression of the worldview of coherence and logical order that is a fundamental principle in classical ballet.
    “Kaleidoscope” is the name of the program, which also offers a reunion with Paul Lightfoot's emotionally gripping “Self-Portrait” from 2021. But “Chiaroscuro”, the artistic technique we know from Baroque painting, which uses strong contrasts between light and dark, would probably be a more apt title for the development towards the evening's final work.
    Sebastian Kloborg's somber, melancholic "Live on Tape" seems to be an improvisation based on the location and the Vilhelm Lauritzen building's original function as a radio station. The term is used for a time-shifted broadcast of an event that is recorded in real time.

    In his staging, Kloborg connects the concept with Samuel Beckett's "Krapp's Last Tape", a monologue from 1958 about old age, loneliness and lost life opportunities, where an older man – like the actor Simon Kongsted here – sits at a table with a reel-to-reel tape recorder and listens to recordings of his own younger self.
    In “Live on Tape,” the tall, awkward Kongsted, who is wearing a light shirt jacket and gray-blue pants and has glasses and greasy hair, clinches with a white-made-up, manic and bruised Alban Lendorf, perhaps as an alter ego, about a lame caterpillar: Maria Kochetkova.
    Kloborg pairs Lendorf's and Kochetkova's talents for character drawing with Kongsted's impressive physical acting and at the same time involves Concerto Copenhagen's musicians as participants in the piece, which is more physical theater than dance performance.
    Behind the gags and the alternation between the players' stomping, shouting and groaning, time and silence are stretched out, so that you can both hear a pin drop to the ground and a deeper story about time and death emerge in the musical soundscape that the orchestra and countertenor Nicholas Tamagna create: from Vivaldi's aria "Sovente il sole" about the comfort that is offered to someone who cannot see his salvation, via the variation on Thomas Tallis' "In manus tuas", Jesus' last words on the cross, to the first movement of Vivaldi's "Sinfonia al Santo Sepolcro", "Symphony in front of Christ's tomb".
    Does it make sense? Should it make sense? With a clever borrowing from yet another English-language playwright, none other than William Shakespeare, Kloborg finally has Nicholas Tamagna sing “With the Hey Ho” from “Twelfth Night.” The song is the epilogue of Feste the Fool, in which the actor, perhaps resigned, perhaps disillusioned, steps out of his role and announces that the play is over and that the troupe will play again tomorrow.
    Chamber Ballet and Concerto Copenhagen: “Kaleidoscope”. Choreography by Tobias Praetorius, Paul Lightfoot and Sebastian Kloborg. Music by Alexander McKenzie, Georg Muffat, HIF Biber and Antonio Vivaldi, among others. Conservatory Concert Hall. August 14, 2026.

    Photo 1: Tobias Praetorius' "Armonico Tributo" pays homage to the Baroque with images of sublime longing or spiritual and physical ecstasy. Photographer: Tom McKenzie.

    Photo 2: Actor Simon Kongsted clinches with a white-made-up, manic and bruised Alban Lendorf about a lame caterpillar, Maria Kochetkova, in Sebastian Kloborg's "Live on Tape". Photographer: Tom McKenzie.

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    Lady Macbeth

    Star Choreographer Akram Khan Reimagines Lady Macbeth
    for the Royal Danish Ballet.

    The Royal Danish Ballet

    English

    Akram Khan knows how to tell a story! Therefore: Throw away your programs, sit back and envelop yourself in his tale of love, power, ultimate destruction, and rebirth in a language of movement, sound, images, and soul searching deep elemental emotions, shaking heaven and earth in a sweeping fresco telling of truths shared by all in a cathartic inevitable end, striking a path to a new beginning.
    If this is too pleonastic for you then go back to the beginning for all endeavors are a tautology, and so is his tale which thus unfolds: From the very start of his tale Khan introduces a pas de deux, of Lady Macbeth danced by Astrid Elbo dancing with Macbeth, danced by Sebastian Pico Haynes, exploiting his Liet motif of love wherein the human being has been created with love in order to love. A 13th century Sufi mystic and poet, Mevlâna Jalâluddîn Rumi says, "All loves are a bridge to Divine love.”
    A clever magician, Khan, contrasts love with destruction by illustrating the great destroyer Power and the seekers after that Power who annihilate all who stand in the way of the quest of the acquisition of its magic.
    The instruments of Khan’s deeply religious mystery play are dancers of the Danish Royal Ballet: some divinely whiling always towards the left arm, performing the Sema, a form of physically active meditation wherein while whirling, the arms are open: the right arm is directed to the sky, ready to receive god's beneficence; the left hand, upon which eyes are fastened, is turned toward the earth. This ritual is the semazen (meaning listening, from Arabic, and zan, meaning doer, from Persian) which conveys god's spiritual gift to those who are witnessing the Sema. Revolving from right to left around the heart, the semazen embraces all humanity with love.
    Some of those dancers, who Khan has placed on pointe, are the divine Seekers listening to a god who reaffirms the matriarchal origins of humanity thus placing Lady Macbeth danced by Astrid Elbo at the very centre of Khan’s morality play.
    It is tempting to go on extoling the wonders of Khan’s creation: the marvelous music, the excellent costumes, the foreboding omnipotent décor, the perfect dancers, the superb lighting but it is impossible for this reviewer to continue without mentioning the manifest lack of EMPATHY from his otherwise excellent work. There is an underlaying fault in his work, perhaps the essential clue is in his name which means in Arabic “Greatest King of all Kings.” Khan does not seem to be able to distil the essence of common humanity in his relational expositions: humor, simple tenderness, caring are lacking; all is blustery and hubris, despite the best efforts of a sympathetic companion in the creative process, the reviewer finds it impossible to shed a tear, a simple heart throb or a chuckle anywhere in Khan’s opus. Therefore, we shall end with a cast list giving names to the marvelous artists in a seriously flawed work:

    Française

    Akram Khan sait raconter une histoire ! Donc : jetez vos programmes, installez-vous confortablement et enveloppez-vous dans son récit d'amour, de puissance, de destruction ultime et de renaissance dans un langage de mouvement, de son, d'images et d'émotions profondes et profondes, secouant ciel et terre dans une fresque vaste racontant des vérités partagées par tous dans une fin cathartique et inévitable, traçant un chemin vers un nouveau départ.
    Si cela vous semble trop pléonastique, revenez au début, car toutes les entreprises sont une tautologie, tout comme son récit qui se déroule ainsi :
    Dès le début de son récit, Khan introduit un pas de deux, représentant Lady Macbeth dansé par Astrid Elbo dansant avec Macbeth, dansé par Sebastian Pico Haynes, exploitant son motif Liet d'amour où l'être humain a été créé avec l'amour pour aimer. Mystique et poète soufie du XIIIe siècle, Mevlâna Jalâluddîn Rumi, dit : « Tous les amours sont un pont vers l'amour divin. »
    Un magicien habile, Khan, oppose l'amour à la destruction en illustrant le grand destructeur Power et les chercheurs de ce Power qui anéantissent tous ceux qui se dressent sur le chemin de la quête de l'acquisition de sa magie.
    Les instruments de la pièce de mystère profondément religieuse de Khan sont des danseurs du Ballet Royal Danois : certains se tournant divinement toujours vers le bras gauche, exécutant le Sema, une forme de méditation physique active où, en tournant, les bras sont ouverts : le bras droit est dirigé vers le ciel, prêt à recevoir la bienveillance divine ; la main gauche, sur laquelle les yeux sont fixés, est tournée vers la terre. Ce rituel est le semazen (signifiant écouter, de l'arabe, et zan, signifiant faisant, du persan) qui transmet le don spirituel de Dieu à ceux qui assistent au Sema. Tournant de droite à gauche autour du cœur, le semazen embrasse toute l'humanité avec amour.
    Certains de ces danseurs, que Khan a placés sur pointes, sont les divins Chercheurs écoutant un dieu qui réaffirme les origines matriarcales de l'humanité, plaçant ainsi Lady Macbeth, dansée par Astrid Elbo, au cœur même de la pièce morale de Khan.
    Il est tentant de continuer à vanter les merveilles de la création de Khan : la musique merveilleuse, les costumes excellents, le décor omnipotent et menaçant, les danseurs parfaits, l'éclairage superbe, mais il est impossible pour ce critique de continuer sans mentionner le manque manifeste d'EMPATHIE de son œuvre par ailleurs excellente. Il y a un défaut sous-jacent dans son œuvre, peut-être que l'indice essentiel réside dans son nom qui signifie en arabe « Plus Grand Roi de tous les rois ». Khan ne semble pas capable de distiller l'essence de l'humanité commune dans ses expositions relationnelles : l'humour, la tendresse simple, la bienveillance font défaut ; tout est de la ventouse et de l'orgueil, malgré les meilleurs efforts d'un compagnon compatissant dans le processus créatif, le critique trouve impossible de verser une larme, un simple battement de cœur ou un petit rire dans l'œuvre de Khan. Nous terminerons donc par une liste de la distribution donnant les noms des artistes merveilleux dans une œuvre sérieusement imparfaite :

    Cast List

    Lady Macbeth
    Choreography and staging.: Production: Akram Khan
    Original music and sound design: Vincenzo Lamagna
    Musical arrangement and orchestration: Vincenzo Lamagna and Mathias Friis-Hansen
    Set design and costume design: Tim Yip. associated with Jin Yau
    Lighting design: Michael Hulls and Ryan Joseph Stafford
    Dramaturgy: Yuko lnoue Khan, Akram Khan and Sunila Galappatti
    Direction: Mavin Khoo (main director) and Fernanda Oliveira and Nicola Wills
    (director). assisted by Jared Angle and Tim Matîakis
    Other contributors to the choreographic material: Astrid Elbo, Stephanie Chen Gundorph, Emma Riis-Kofoed, Meirambek Nazargozhayev, Liam Redhead. Sebastian Pico Haynes, Sebastian Suhr. Nicola Wills, Fernanda Oliveira and Tim Matiakis
    Conductor: Vello Pahn
    Orchestra: The Royal Danish Orchestra
    Lady Macbeth: Astrid Elbo
    Macbeth. her husband, General in King Duncan's hcar: Sebastian Pico Haynes
    First seeker/Lady Macduff: Emma Rîis-Kofoed Banquo, General in King Duncan's Army: Liam Redhead Fleance, Banquo's daughter: Alyssa Douglass
    Second viewer: Tomoka Kawazoe
    Third seeker: Ji Min Hong
    Macduff. Scottish nobleman: Oliver Marcus Starpov, King Duncan, King of Scotland: Ludwig of Rosenberg Malcolm, son of King Duncan: Sebastian Suhr
    Seekers:
    Beatriz Domingues, Joana Senra. Eukene Sagues, Lania Atkins, Wilma Li, Caroline lversen. Daniela De Pompeis. Blanche Charlot. Penelope Phelan, Clara Adrian, Grace Curry, Katherine Stevens. Ditte Baltzer and Agnes Rosendahl
    Soldiers:
    Jimmy Coleman. Baltazar Sénat, Emerson Moose, Mathieu Rouaux. Nico Janssen, Joseph Aumeer. Alexander Staeger, Philip Duclos, Sylvester J0nson, Lorien Ramo Ruiz, Marcus Steenberg. Alexander Larsson. Tobias J0rgensen, Macis-Cornelius Ravn, Celine Olsen, Stephanie Sahlgren, Sophie Andersen, Joscelyn Dolson, Isabella Walsh. Isabella Carroll, Petra Love. Elvira Thomsen, Hannaê Miquel, Lydia Bevan, Fiona Lee and Josephine Henriksen
    Nobles:
    Jimmy Coleman, Balthazar Sénat, Emerson Moose, Mathieu Rouaux. Nice Janssen, Joseph Aumeer, Alexander Staeger, Philip Duclos, Sophie Andersen, Petra Love, Fiona Lee, Lydia Bevan, Elvira Thomsen. Isabella Walsh, Isabella Carroll and Joscelyn Dolson

    LIEU - THE ROYAL DANISH THEATRE

    Review by: Patrick Kevin O'Hara

    Date line: Tuesday the 5th of May, 2026

    Lady Macbeth / Interview with Akram Kahn - Video

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    Portrait: Jonathan Chmelensky

    Shinning in Swan Lake

    Jonathan Chmelensky

    After the long run of The Nutcracker (fifteen performances) presented last December by the Danish Royal Ballet, the company offered its loyal audience an equal number of performances of Swan Lake between February and March, in the new and modern Opera House, which features a spacious stage ideally suited for staging the great ballets of the classical repertoire.
    The Ballet Director and Choreographer, Nikolaj Hübbe, created a lavish and highly successful personal interpretation. He enriched the roles of Benno (Prince Siegfried’s friend), the tutor Von Rothbart, and the jester with numerous dances—variations of great technical value that undoubtedly gave the dancers even greater motivation to perform these roles, which are present and active in the first and third acts.
    As has often been the case for more than a quarter of a century in many productions, the first and second acts (as well as the third and fourth) are combined into one, with only a brief pause of three or four minutes.
    First Act:
    The artistic performances of both dancers earned numerous rounds of applause.
    Second Act:
    In the first scene, Jonathan Chmelensky, a Principal Dancer who continues to establish himself as a solid pillar of the company—an excellent technician and a sensitive artist—delivered a beautiful and successful adagio that perfectly conveys the pressure he suffers as a victim of the intrigues of the court.
    In the second scene, Odette appears, interpreted by Emma Riis-Kofoed, recently promoted to Principal, in her first experience in this demanding role. A beautiful woman with clear and precise technique, she is supported by the experienced arms of Jonathan Chmelensky; their adagio is full of tenderness and refinement. The remarkable artistic qualities of both dancers earned them great applause.
    After the interval comes the next act. In the first scene, we return to the palace, where the arrival of the princesses—potential brides—and their delegations is celebrated. Siegfried must choose one of them to marry.
    Hungarian, Russian, Spanish, and Italian dances reveal the qualities and character of each princess and offer four of the ballet’s soloists the opportunity to showcase their work. With an important intervention by Von Rothbart comes the much-anticipated Black Swan pas de deux, undoubtedly one of the most difficult “showpieces” among the best-known choreographic creations, and indispensable for major companies. Emma Riis-Kofoed and Jonathan Chmelensky electrified the audience! Outstanding actors and exceptional dancers, their presence is a guarantee of quality.
    In this version of the story, the Prince chooses the evil Odile and swears before all the nobles to marry her. This ending, so different from the traditional one, is quite surprising. Meanwhile, the sorrowful figure of Odette disappears into the distance.
    In the second and final scene, Siegfried searches for Odette at the lake. But Von Rothbart takes the princess away and appears at court with Odile. The Prince has sworn to marry her before all the nobles—and he must fulfil his oath.
    It is worth noting that the theatre was sold out for every performance. Congratulations to the artists and to Nikolaj Hübbe for the magnificent work accomplished.
    Contributing to the excellence of this production were the grand sets by Mikki Kunttu and the luxurious costumes by Mia Stensgaard. We must also mention the Royal Danish Orchestra, conducted by the exceptional Vello Pähn.

    Emma Riis-Kofoed & Jonathan Chmelensky - Video

    LIEU - Opera House

    Review by: Margarita Medina Morales

    Date line: APRIL, 2023

    Portrait : Jonathan Chmelensky, soliste à Det Kongelige Teatret - Video

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    Alexander Meinertz

    Ballet reviews, essays & interviews

    Amy Watson: Reclaiming the Bournonville Legacy

    Photographer Adam Amsinck captured this portrait of Amy Watson in the historic Ballet Master’s seat at the Royal Theatre’s Gamle Scene in December 2025. By then, Watson had effectively been serving as “Balletchef” - a newly coined title - since the summer of 2024, following the abrupt departure of Nikolaj Hübbe, who was had been Ballet Master.
    Shortly after her formal appointment as artistic director, Watson announced that she was working on a "Bournonville Strategy."

    31. marts 2026

    On December 2, 2025, I sat down with Amy Watson, the Artistic Director of the Royal Danish Ballet, to discuss her “Bournonville Strategy.”
    For nearly two centuries, the Royal Danish Ballet has been defined by the works of August Bournonville. Yet, in recent years, that identity has reached a precarious threshold. Bournonville has all but disappeared from training and repertory. With a majority of the company’s dancers now recruited and trained abroad, many arrive in Copenhagen with little to no exposure to the specific physicality and mime traditions of the Danish style.
    As Dinna Bjørn has poignantly noted, staging a Bournonville ballet at the Royal Theatre today has become indistinguishable from setting it on a foreign company with no prior knowledge of the heritage.
    This conversation explores how Amy Watson intends to bridge this widening gap and revive the heritage. Watson also discusses her unique position as an American-born director with Danish values and her specific roadmap for the future.
    Key themes of our discussion include:
    Her selection of two key stagers – Rose Gad, and Alexander Stæger – and two choreographers – Tobias Praetorius, Sebastian Kloborg – to carry the tradition forward.
    Evaluating the coaching of characters like James in La Sylphide and exploring “Reconstructions” for the contemporary stage. The Question of Ownership: How far can you go with Bournonville – before it’s no longer Bournonville?
    The 2031 Vision: Her long-term goal of staging a full Bournonville Festival.
    Can the Royal Danish Ballet truly become a “Bournonville company” once again?

    A Clear Framework

    Alexander: Why do we need a Bournonville strategy?

    Amy Watson: In my final years as a dancer and throughout my transition to rehearsal director and now artistic director, I could feel the vulnerability of the generation currently passing on the material and the legacy. They are all wonderful, each with different strengths and ways of teaching, but I could feel a fragility there. It made me nervous on a couple of levels – both as an artistic leader and as an artist in the room thinking: How am I going to pass this on? What do I need to do?
    When I became rehearsal director, I was very vocal about this. How are we – my generation, the generation above me, and the one below – going to get the opportunity to teach, coach, and discuss new ways of renewing the style? I felt really passionate about that path, but I realized that while we had the answers, we didn’t have a plan. The task felt too significant to lack a formal strategy. I knew we needed to get moving.
    At the same time – and I think we share this observation – the Danes may feel they know Bournonville, or perhaps they view him as less important than he is perceived internationally. Even after being here for 25 years, that still surprises me. How is he not a household name in the same way as Hans Christian Andersen, Hammershøi, or Karen Blixen?
    That question inspired me to think about strategy in terms of branding, rebranding, and marketing. We need to expand our reach to children and to those who don’t necessarily see “fine culture” as ballet on the Gamle Scene, but who go to Tivoli. Should we do a ride? Should we do something like that to broaden his appeal?
    That is why we need this strategy.

    Alexander: In other companies, in connection with the New York City Ballet for example, you have the Balanchine Foundation. There is also the Ashton Foundation, which isn’t affiliated with the Royal Ballet. In other words, you have companies that perform the repertory, but you also have organizations whose purpose is to safeguard standards and quality: deciding who can coach what and conducting research.
    Here, people have often asked: shouldn’t there be something similar? Because there is no copyright on Bournonville, it can quickly become a personal interest that gets confused with the subject itself, without fixed commitments or set goals. So, you aren’t talking about a Bournonville Foundation, but a strategy at least sets a clearer framework and a commitment.

    Amy Watson: Yes, a clearer framework. Once we start building, I think we create a safer model across generations of teachers, instructors, and stagers – starting at the school level and moving into the company – which we can then market internationally. That opens the floodgates.
    It becomes a situation where if American Ballet Theatre wants to do a new La Sylphide, they know we have a team ready. They call Denmark. We can send people to stage it; we have the definitive versions and can lead the discussion around them. Similar to the Balanchine Trust, we should be the ones people call. I think that is an important message to send to the world. However, we also have to be sustainable enough to actually do it, which has been tricky in the past. We haven’t always had the reinforcements. I want to build it so we can offer clear options of qualified stagers to the global community.

    “You have to embody it, you have to live it”

    Alexander: Who devised the Bournonville strategy?

    Amy Watson: I had a partner to spar with, Alexander Stæger. It was my idea and my vision, and then I built what I’d call a dual strategy. One part is about renewing and revising Bournonville’s works, and the other is about preservation. Within that, I set out three points. The first is “Our Bournonville” – the idea that it is all of our responsibility. The second is “Bournonville’s Power of Storytelling.” And the third is “The Bournonville Next Generation,” which focuses on stagers, coaches, schooling, and how we actually achieve that. Alex and I went through the dual strategy and these three points together to build the final plan.
    When you got the job as artistic director, was that part of what the board required, something they asked you to deliver?

    Amy Watson: I honestly don’t remember. It was a very stressful period, being interim for three months while applying for the job. What I do remember is that there was a renewed focus on it. There were questions like: “What about Bournonville? How are you going to work with Bournonville? What is your vision?” They clearly wanted an emphasis and a discussion about why it matters. But I had already built my own personal strategy around it. I knew I wanted a communications plan and a formal framework. We have to lift up that whole heritage, alongside the other work of the Royal Danish Ballet.

    Alexander: Obviously there are several pillars. Maybe you should outline what they are? How big a role should Bournonville play in the company today?

    Amy Watson: Bournonville should play an almost daily role. I don’t mean we have to train in his technique or style every single day, but there needs to be an understanding across all employees at Det Kongelige Teater – not just Den Kongelige Ballet – that we have survived, thrived, and held an important place in the ballet world specifically because of him. That is a rarity.
    Think of Balanchine or Petipa; we can argue about Ashton, MacMillan, and others, but it is rare for a company’s legacy to be so directly tied to one person. In Denmark, Bournonville isn’t always branded alongside household names like Blixen or Ibsen. I believe it is our responsibility to change that. Once you are an employee here at the Royal Theatre, ballet or non – ballet, you should know who he is.
    It should simply be: “I’m part of the Royal Danish Ballet; Bournonville is in my blood because I’m here.” I know who he was, I know the essence of his ballets, and I understand why I am in this institution. We are all in that shared responsibility together. That is the “daily” part.
    The other aspect is the embodiment of his style and technique as a living tradition. Storytelling aside, mastering this style takes months and years. I was in Hamburg recently watching Frank Andersen and Eva Kloborg stage La Sylphide. It was beautifully done, but it was a sobering reminder of how difficult it is to teach this technique when you are outside these walls.
    You can be a fabulous dancer and still not grasp the technique unless you do it again and again – building the muscle memory, understanding the weight changes, and mastering the musicality. It was a healthy reminder that we face a serious uphill climb when we stage a new Napoli or prepare a Pas de Six.
    To address this, we are putting Bournonville classes back on a weekly basis and ensuring our teachers are in a constant dialogue with the dancers. I recently watched Henriette Muus teach the company, and dancers were raising their hands to ask, “Why are we doing this? Why do we do it this way?” It was great because it became a conversation rather than just a rote instruction. You have to embody it; you have to live it. Whenever we do special galas, like Princess Isabella’s birthday recently, we have an opportunity to put Bournonville on the map and say: “This matters.”
    It’s vital that we are actively dancing the repertoire. That is a major part of rebranding him: figuring out how we do it and how we get everyone on board, because this is our signature.
    I would also like to shift the mentality of the dancers. A dancer might feel it is wonderful and exciting to dance the Swan Queen, but I want to help them feel that it is equally wonderful and exciting to dance the Sylph or Teresina. That shift may take time, but it comes down to communication: talking, being proud of your history, and truly feeling that legacy in your body.

    Alexander: It’s a crucial point. It used to work exactly that way; everyone knew the third act of Napoli because it was so frequently presented as a standalone piece at galas.
    However, during Nikolaj Hübbe’s tenure, that practice stopped, and there are fewer galas now in general. The times have changed in that sense, too: In the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, there was a state visit every year, and Napoli Act III was always on the program. That kept the work in the repertory and in the public eye. I think the confluence of those factors meant it stayed in the national awareness.
    If you go back two generations, there was a completely different level of awareness, largely due to those televised galas. Everybody watched them; when I was growing up, we only had one channel, so if there was a gala, you watched it. Even recently, though, the Princess Isabella gala showed that these events can still capture a huge audience, including a younger one. So, you’re right.

    Amy Watson: And I think we can get there. It may just take new ways of reshaping him.
    I was very privileged; I went with the King and Queen on their state visit to France, to Paris, in March–April. And they asked me, “What do you want to bring?” Of course, we had discussions with the ministry and we ended up… I’m very passionate about a young choreographer named Sebastian Kloborg, and I think he has enormous talent, so he’ll have an important role with me.
    But he and I talked it through.
    If we weren’t bringing traditional Bournonville, because that wasn’t really on the cards, what do we do? We said: okay, let’s take La Sylphide and try to curate something different.
    So that’s what we did. We took a male dancer from here, and we brought in Florence Clerc from the Paris Opéra. There were moments where she was almost herself, and moments where she became almost a witch. We had voiceovers and spoken text at the same time, alongside an electronic band, Den Sorte Skole, and with the dancers we curated something new and reflective, but with a lot of Bournonville in mind.
    So there are ways we can play with it for different audiences. I think that’s interesting, as long as we’re not canceling what we already have. We have to balance.

    The Pillars of the Bournonville Strategy

    Alexander: Yeah. In practical terms, the pillars of the strategy are? Repertory, training…

    Amy Watson: Yes, repertory and training. That’s a big one. Koreorama – our education program side of it – they will have a module, whether it’s on mime, dramaturgy, or storytelling, where I would like them to focus on how Bournonville’s mime was so musical, how it was so clear. At the same time, if we have young choreographers that want to explore the style like Eliabe D’Abadia did last year, or someone wants to take some of the training classes and flip them and put them onto different music, that’s the second part of it. So that’s another model.
    Bournonville salons – initiating those at least two times a year, hopefully four times a year. Trying to build our mentoring program for my generation, and generations below me. How can we pass it on?
    I’m trying to build a summer school teaching program for the future and for the international people that come and say, “Hey, I want to teach Bournonville, can you help me do that?” We have a lot of outreach programs that we’re trying to build right now, together with the Plus department at Det Kongelige Teater.
    If we always open the season with Bournonville, which is my plan from now on, we open with our tradition. When you come to the Royal Danish Theatre for the opening of the season, you’re always going to get Bournonville. I think that’s a beautiful way to honor him and to communicate how he’s important – making an emphasis on that and creating the red thread of the season from that, and our inspiration as a company of storytellers in ballet. I think – maybe I’m biased – but I think we’re the best storytellers in the ballet world, and I want to somehow link the inspiration from him to a new Eukene Sagues ballet, a new Oliver Starpov ballet, a new Sebastian Kloborg ballet. So that’s a lot of the groundwork.

    Alexander: Should the Royal Danish Ballet be a Bournonville company, and what does that mean to you? What will it take to create a company that’s well-versed and masters the technique, the musicality, and the mime? It’s very specialized, and for many Danes it’s also a question of cultural heritage and identity. So it’s something that’s both subtle and obvious.
    I think it was in Marina Harss’s article in the New York Times that Dinna Bjørn said that for a while it had been like when a Bournonville ballet was put on, it was like learning any other ballet. It could just as well be any other classical ballet from the international repertoire. It was not really part of who the company was.

    Amy Watson: I think she’s exactly right there. I think that’s the key. Because like every other international company, we’re always in search of time for the process and, again, with our capabilities, I think it’s important that… if we always open the season with Bournonville, there’s a very short time frame.
    You also know when you’re coming back from vacation as a dancer, the responsibility you have when you go out there – physically, mentally, emotionally, artistically – everything has to be ready for opening night. To do Bournonville is not easy. There’s so many levels to it. If we’re talking about the technique, your calves are up to your ears, your upper body has to be supple and strong, your storytelling has to be top-notch, and you have to research your characters. You have to understand those complexities of your character.
    All of that should become easier for us if we’re more engaged in it, if we’re more excited about it, and if we have it more daily in our routine. So that we’ll be able to say, “Yeah, of course, we can put on Napoli right now. Of course.”
    So I hope that will inspire it to be something that’s like water off a duck’s back. And so, of course, we should be a Bournonville company. It’s not even a question in my head.

    Alexander: You’ve mentioned Rose Gad and Alexander Stæger as Bournonville ambassadors. Who will be teaching Bournonville, and how often?

    Amy Watson: I’ll say that my aim is to do it weekly. I’ve also changed it from there being a lot of different versions. I think what I’ve realized over the years is that the first thing is for the artistic director to voice why you’re doing this – why I would encourage you to do this. So now everyone knows: I encourage you to do this. This is why I’m scheduling Bournonville classes. I think it’s important because ABC…
    Normally we try to do it Wednesdays or Thursdays and as a “fælles skole” because I really would like to focus on community, “samfund,” Bournonville, and everything else.
    You’re not separating the internationals, who haven’t done it before; they can watch the Danes, and the Danes can learn from the internationals – all of that dialogue. I was very specific in who I asked to teach, especially this first season. Right now, we’re in the midst of trying new things, and I’m going to get all the feedback and the reactions. There are going to be waves, but I asked Thomas Lund and I asked Henriette Muus. They switch based on their schedules: Thomas travels, and Henriette has the school.
    I also think the two of them are a good match because, for me, they’re on two ends of the spectrum. Henriette teaches a very playful class with a twinkle in her eye and a sense of humor. And she speaks like a sailor! Thomas is more of the historian, steeped in research; he’s the ballet technical nerd. We’ll be able to talk about all those things together.
    I think those two switching on and off for the company means that they’ll never get bored, they’ll always have two different voices, and I think it’s time for fresh blood. Those are the two that are on my shoulders right now.

    The Bournonville Repertory - video

    Alexander: No repertory without training. The Bournonville repertory was cut by Harald Lander in the first half of the 20th century. There were ballets that he thought simply didn’t stand the test of time.
    What’s your feeling about the repertory now, if we set 2005 as the benchmark and say that was the status and the repertory that carried into the 21st century?
    Can that full repertory be brought back, and should it?

    Amy Watson: I think it’s a challenging question on different levels. There’s the practical and economical side we have to face. I think we also have to face the side of audience demand; right now, rebranding is really important for that – whether it’s rebranding him outside these walls, rebranding him for children, or rebranding him for the dancers. When I onboard people now, there has to be a certain buzz and a sense of responsibility to want to upkeep Bournonville together.
    We have to look into how we are going to do this if we want to build some of those ballets that – let’s call them lost, or haven’t survived – or if we want to research them. That takes time, money, energy, and effort. I would love to do that and see if we can.
    I think placing them at certain times is important for the reflection of society, with question marks. I’m very aware of our current geopolitical climate and what we put on stage matters. As best I can, with the wonderful resources that we have, I’m acutely aware that it’s important who comes in to see theater, how they spend their money, and why they’re coming to see us – whether it’s for escapism, entertainment, or because they want to learn or develop something. I think that’s really key.
    When we put on a new Napoli, why are we doing it? What does it look like? How will people feel when they leave the theater? That really matters.
    If we’re putting on, let’s say, Far from Denmark – which we will do – why are we putting it on? We’re putting it on to pay homage to a wonderful ballet filled with wonderful steps. But can we look at it differently now? Can we maybe do a sequel? For instance: her husband maybe left Denmark, and she goes looking for him through all these different colonies.
    Can we do that and keep some of the wonderful parts of it and integrate them? There are a lot of questions, but I think it’s important that we don’t completely say “no.” I’m open to having those ballets, but we have to know why we’re putting them on.

    Alexander: Marina Harss was asking that question a lot, actually, when she was here in connection with Alexei Ratmansky’s The Art of the Fugue: how many Bournonville ballets are there?

    Amy Watson: It’s not an easy question to answer, and what was interesting for me at the salon confirmed something I had in my head already. Also, speaking in Hamburg with a few colleagues, people have different thoughts and opinions on whether it’s the libretto that’s most important, or the steps, the music, or the style and technique. Everyone is on a different page.
    So perhaps we look at the ballet again. If we’re thinking about doing Abdallah, what is it about Abdallah that we want to do, and why, in this climate?
    Let’s think about: what is it for me? If someone asked me, it’s the steps right now with that ballet. In Abdallah, the steps are absolutely genius for dancers. Someone else might disagree with me.
    So how do we have those discussions that are very important and relevant?

    The Question of Ownership – and Religion

    Alexander: That brings me to another question: what is the responsibility to Bournonville himself? One of the questions we keep coming back to, since Nikolaj Hübbe removed the Christian elements from Bournonville’s ballet, is religion. It was also mentioned at the first Bournonville Salon. People suddenly seem very afraid of Christianity and religion, they don’t really want to touch it, but is it still his work if that’s not there, or does it suddenly become yours?
    If you read the libretto, it’s there, and if you ask me, if you take it out, it’s not the same ballet because it’s such a core element. And Bournonville was, as we know, a firm believer.

    Amy Watson: I think, first of all, going into anything with fear is something that’s going to hold you back as an artist, whatever it is. If you’re going into an artistic space – whether you’re the artist on stage performing the role, the stager, or someone rewriting the music – if there’s an element of fear, you won’t reach your full potential. That’s how I would guide that.
    I don’t know why there is a fear around religion. I understand it on a cerebral level – religion has, by some accounts, caused disruption in the world – but let’s set that aside and just focus on: okay, what is it about the religious aspect that’s important to the story? Why was it important to him and of the time? So, are we doing it in that time, or are we moving it forward? What does religion look like in 2025?

    Alexander: It’s funny because I’ve also been studying Søren Kierkegaard quite a lot parallel to Bournonville, and there are many similarities; obviously they knew each other. Nobody has any problem talking about religion in the case of the philosophy of Kierkegaard, and they’re exact contemporaries. His thinking and his art actually reflect many of the same ideas; in fact, Kierkegaard was inspired by several of Bournonville’s ballets in his writings, and maybe vice versa. So it’s just strange that in the intellectual and academic world it’s not an issue, but in the arts world it is.

    Amy Watson: I wonder why it is. Is it because we, as artists, don’t want to conform to something that is not our art, because art is our religion? Is that why?

    Alexander: Maybe it’s because Kierkegaard is open to interpretation. But the word is there, and you can’t change it. It’s very easy to change a ballet. Also, an interpretation of Kierkegaard is really just a commentary, whereas in the case of Bournonville, the ballet is only alive when it’s performed.

    Amy Watson: I don’t know why – I find it strange myself – but still, to this day, I can have discussions with academics who can study religion, like you’re saying, but also not be religious.
    So that’s how I feel about putting it in a ballet: I can understand it, and I’m not fearing it. I don’t have to agree with it.

    Alexander: No, but it’s also a thing of this time, that people identify so closely with art as individuals that sometimes it becomes problematic in these cases of historical works, where you have to ask yourself: is it about me, or is it about the work?

    Amy Watson: So if we go back to what I was saying about what we put on stage nowadays, I think it is vastly important because of the world around us. When you put something on stage – whether it makes people uncomfortable or comfortable, or causes them to question something, or if they notice the religious aspect of it – what you write in the program is very important. How you speak about it to the press is very important. How you as an artist, if you’re on social media or if you’re inhabiting the role, do your research and understand it – you have to have that.
    I think there’s no reason why, if we do Far from Denmark or Abdallah or something else, I shouldn’t speak to an expert. Of course, I should let people advise me and give me their thoughts.
    In the end, it’s my head on the platter, but of course you should be open to: “Okay, what is this culture thinking, why, and all of that?” I think it’s more about opening up and having those discussions, and then boiling it down to: “Okay, what is the most important thing that we’re doing here?”
    Are we renewing it? Are we preserving it? Are we going to have a discussion about what it is? And that applies to each of his ballets. I think that’s the fun time and energy we get to spend before we get down on stage.

    Alexander: I think the question really is: are we reviving it, and how are we reviving it? Because it has been dormant for a while and there has been a break in the tradition, as it were. So it’s really a question of revival. How are we reviving it? How much of it is going to be renewal, and how much is going to be reconstruction?

    Amy Watson: Yeah, exactly. But I think each one will have a different case. Each one – again, based on practicality such as finances, time, the team around it, and the subject matter of the ballet – will have to be completely specified. It won’t be the same recipe for all.

    The Next Generation - Video

    Alexander: : You’re entrusting the very important task of bringing back Bournonville to Rose Gad, Alexander Stæger, yourself, and Sebastian Kloborg; Marina Harss also mentions Tobias Praetorius as one of your collaborators in her New York Times piece.
    So the last two, Kloborg and Praetorius, have experience as choreographers. But there are people who will be asking: why can’t Frank Andersen bring back La Sylphide? He staged it in Hamburg in December. What about Johan Kobborg? He’s the most experienced stager of Bournonville working today, and his productions are recognized as being of a high standard.
    You have a fresh view, but these people have a lot of experience. Is this about generational change, artistic taste, or institutional politics?

    Amy Watson: It’s all of the above. I’m not closed to the idea of those names you mentioned staging. It’s just that, again, there are practicalities. Right now, I inherited one and a half seasons. Let’s say this season I inherited, I made changes to Giant Steps, and next season is half me, half Nikolaj. The season after that – from ’27 forward – begins all of my work. So I also have to think about how many years, how much forward – planning, and which productions are important to me and why.
    So Rose, for me, was the obvious choice. I didn’t know it was going to happen because she had her wonderful place at the school, but I’ve always dreamed of working with her and collaborating with her. I think not only pedagogically is she extremely gifted and a forward thinker, she’s a sensational coach and an amazing storyteller. I didn’t know if she had the ability to pass it on in terms of storytelling, but I can now see that she does.
    I want her to also be mentored by Dinna, by Sorella, by Frank, and by other people. She traveled with me to Hamburg and studied Frank and Eva for eight days, questioned them, and got their feedback. It’s really important to me for her to feel safe moving forward and to get all the knowledge from as many people as possible.
    And then Alexander Stæger, as you know, is someone I admire and respect deeply. He’s retiring this season. I knew when he retired that I wanted him to be on my team. We have to do this together.
    Him and Rose are of two different generations. They have two very different strengths. Alex is learning the ropes in terms of technique and other things, because he hasn’t been a rehearsal director before, but he’s thinking outside the box. I need that, and he brings that to the table so we can spar and discuss. It’s a really good objective to have him on the team.
    Then Tobias – I’m just a huge admirer of him in many, many ways. I think he’s on the very beginning journey of his choreography life. I see potential; it’s not there completely, he’s not “done and delivered.” He’s been wonderful in exploring his own style, but I can see in his style – it’s a lot of movement, a lot of waltz – that there’s something with Bournonville in there. I knew that if I approached him and said, “Do you want to do a new second act of Napoli?” I mean, he was terrified, I think – if I can speak on his behalf – but I know he can do it. I know he can take the underwater world and have it inspired by Bournonville’s technique and style, but also have his own – that “Toby” can be in there as an element with his sensational sense of musicality. Again, he’s a team player, so we can have wonderful discussions of how to do this together as a team.
    And then Sebastian is a whole other ballgame. He’s the wild card for the ballets; we’re going to go very far out and radicalize. He’s the one who knows how we can flip them on their head.
    What do we do? How do we do this? Do we do a sequel? Do we do a prequel? But Sebastian and I share the same belief: we’re not taking down the statue. We’re keeping the statue, and we’re going to show the audience the statue and discuss why it’s important. But we’re going to build a new statue too, right next to it. So that was very easy for me to say: “Far from Denmark; you!”
    And then Frank and Johan, whom I have huge respect for – though I’ve never worked with Johan directly because I was doing Etudes when he staged his ballets here. But I know him and we’ve always had a good camaraderie, so I’m not closed to the idea. I just haven’t gotten to that in the planning yet, what that could be.
    Frank, I’ve grown up with for most of my career, and that’s why it was important for me to see him stage La Sylphide now, because I’ve seen Napoli. I’ve been in Napoli; I’ve done Napoli with him. I think I know what he would say to me about it, and if not, I’ll call him up and say, “Can you come give me advice?”
    He was very generous. He came in for three or four days for La Ventana and Kermesse. We sat in this office twice, an hour each time, and he gave me, Alex, and Rose feedback. He sparred with us. He sat down with us and said, “This works, and I don’t think this works. What about this? What about that?” – both technical and artistic. So, I know he’s a phone call away. I have a thought about doing something with him, but again, there are practicalities now, so I need to think about how and when – and if – it’s possible.
    But yeah, I see him as a mentor for myself in one way.

    Alexander: What about Nikolaj Hübbe?

    Amy Watson: I see him as another mentor. He’s someone I can always call and say, “We’re doing your La Sylphide; remind me of your thoughts. What do you think? How do you do this?”
    Right now, Rose will have the task of setting it up. I will come in and help her, and Sorella will mentor her, because she was also around when Nikolaj was building it. But there are questions now with, for example, Madge. Historically, it’s been man, woman, man, woman. With this version and Mia Stensgaard’s costumes, should we do a man? Should we not do a man? Why shouldn’t we do a man? How is that going to be? Rose and I had a lot of interesting discussions about how we coach these characters differently now. Who is James?
    Lloyd Riggins and I had a discussion, Frank Andersen and I had a discussion – and Lloyd and I were on one side and Frank was on the other. It was a little bit like we both respect each other, but respectfully, we don’t agree on who James is. And then I know Nikolaj is on another one.
    So how you coach matters too, and how you see it in who you cast – all of those are important factors. But as for Nikolaj, I of course see him as a mentor; however, I think right now my plans with Nikolaj are to stay on the Balanchine. We’re doing Apollo and then Jewels next year.

    Ballet Evolved - August Bournonville 1805-1879 - Video

    Amy Watson’s Role

    Alexander: Can I ask you respectfully about how you see your own role and your qualifications as a Bournonville stager compared with some of these experienced people we’ve just talked about?
    When I interviewed you last year, you expressed some frustration with regards to the Danish issue. “When is one Danish enough?” you said. You have Danish citizenship. You’re married to a Danish man. You have two children who were born here.
    Is nationality important to the question of Bournonville? And by that, I’m also asking if “Danishness” is part of Bournonville as cultural heritage.

    Amy Watson: I think yes and no. I feel more Danish than American in my values, in terms of my way of life, and in terms of how I view art and live my life. So I think it’s very easy for me to go into it, if I’m staging a ballet, and think Danish. I don’t think that’s even a question.
    That would be a question for someone who doesn’t know me, I think. All the people that I surround myself with – and all those wonderful generations above me – know that my values are the same, even though I wasn’t born here. I have the same beliefs, and I feel a great deal of responsibility towards this.
    I don’t take this lightly, simply taking over the directorship. I feel that responsibility heavily, and I know the role model I have to set – being a foreigner and a female in this role – matters. It matters for all sorts of reasons: for the next woman who sits here, for the next international who sits here, whoever that may be and whenever that may be.
    I think in regards to staging Bournonville ballets, I’m extremely capable in the ballets I know. I will stick to what I know for now. I think the great Kevin Haigen and John Neumeier said to me once, “Never teach what you don’t understand.” So that’s enough for me.

    Amy Watson: I understand La Sylphide. I understand Napoli. I understand Abdallah to an extent because I was immersed in the role of Irma for so many years, and I can understand the physicality. Now, if I’m to stage the full thing, I need a mentor. I need some help and some background. For the other ballets, like Kermesse in Bruges and La Ventana – no. Far from Denmark – no. So I’m trying to tread lightly, but also to understand that it shouldn’t be me doing all those ballets. I think that would be a disservice to everyone else.
    I think there are many former dancers who could stage Bournonville. There also has to be the interest from the other people as well.
    But the ones I have hand-picked – Tobias Praetorius, Sebastian Kloborg, Rose Gad, and Alexander Stæger – those are four that I see potential for right now. I want to invest in them, and then I’m open to others. These four are the first four, and then we see what grows from there.

    Reconstructions - Video

    Alexander: I already asked you about the Bournonville Foundation, and we touched briefly on reconstructions, but I’d like to ask, how you feel about reconstructions and by that I mean “Reconstructions”.
    It’s been done, but rarely successfully. Abdallah has probably been the most successful. The Lay of Thrym was a complete flop – Konservatoriet didn’t really work. Then there’s been a couple of others… Pontemolle, which I haven’t seen, and also From Siberia to Moscow.
    But I think generally we can say they haven’t worked so well. In Russia, they can pull off something like Fille du Pharaon, which a completely insane story and aesthetic that is as unlikely and as unsuited to ballet – seen with contemporary eyes – as Bournonville’s Nordic ballets, Valdemar or Valkyrien for instance.
    So “Reconstructions”, do you believe that’s possible for Bournonville?

    Amy Watson: I will explore them again, if it’s the libretto or if it’s the steps? What is it that we’re going for? We have to understand… If it’s the steps… we can do that in a way that maybe doesn’t look like the original, somehow, but if we extract some parts and take them in either as divertissements or we connect them to something else. That I’m interested in.
    I think, if we use Konservatoriet as an example, I’ve thought a lot about that because I love “The Dancing School”, it’s something I’ve already placed in the repertoire for now, for 27-28 as part of a triple bill. It’s so pure. It’s so clean. It is a gift to have in the company.

    Alexander: You should do it every year as the Danish equivalent of the Défilé of the Paris Opera Ballet.

    Amy Watson: It’s absolutely a gift. I have thought about placing as the start of each season as a tradition, but I’m not quite there yet. But I’ve placed it in 27-28 at the end for a certain reason, but with the first act of Konservatoriet, I think we could modernize it, maybe? I’m not quite sure yet, I have been exploring the idea of doing something with social media somehow. But what I don’t want to do is lessen or water down the beautiful school. I have such respect for that act. So the first act has to be equally sublime. So I would like to get my hands on it, but I’m not sure how yet.

    Alexander Are you getting new sets or will they be the old ones?

    Amy Watson: Right, we’re looking into it. I know that we have them, but the condition of them is questionable. We will be doing the original, we will be doing what it looks, you know with the whole studio, the Degas…

    Alexander: But the thing is that that’s really a misunderstanding because it was not Degas, you know, it’s much earlier. So actually it should look a little bit different, if you want it to be historically accurate. Bournonville set it in a specific year, and Degas is much later, 60 years later, so the look should be different. It could be very beautiful. It doesn’t have to be unbeautiful, I think, it’s just because in the 1970s somebody thought, ah Degas could be nice. And then it’s forgotten that is actually something else.

    Amy Watson: It’s the same with La Sylphide, right. Like, if we look at some of the sylphs from the past, it’s so different from what I now think of as La Sylphide, or traditionally as La Sylphide, so I’m wondering like way down the line, if we could explore something with that.
    Rose and I – now I’m going off subject – but it was so interesting, we were talking about La Sylphide in Hamburg, Rose, Lloyd Riggins and I, about how, at that time, dancing on pointe was almost not really on pointe, more demi – pointe, but the look of it has to look like you’re hovering above the floor.
    How to coach that and how to teach that: you should be flying, you should be hovering. All of this. I think it’s because it is hard technically, it’s become so much about the technical feat of it, that you forget what the first quality or the quality and the essence of it was, and at the time, what a ballerina was trying to do. So I’d love to try and explore how can we coach more like that.

    Sylphide_-Marie_Taglioni_-1832

    La Sylphide - Ballet by August Bournonville - Video

    Is There An Audience for Bournonville?

    Alexander: Is there an audience for Bournonville? And how did you think Kermesse in Bruges resonated with the dancers, but also with the audience? Did it sell?

    Amy Watson: It could have sold better. It didn’t sell terrible, it didn’t sell amazing. It could have sold better. I think the dancers resonated with both La Ventana and Kermesse really well.
    I have to say, it was a wonderful moment for me and for the company. After we closed on opening night, and actually when we closed on the final performance, everyone seemed to genuinely have a good time and a good experience and learn something. So I thought okay, wow, okay, we can do this. This is great.
    I think, if we’re to do Kermesse again, I would like to make it more condensed in sense of the timings of when the scenes change, the music sometimes, the score. It’s not that I want to trim some of the dancing, but I’m questioning the divertissement, if it needs to be there, even though I love it as an artist.
    But I do think the humor is actually timeless. The sense of timing, the humorous timing of those characters. Again casting it’s very important, and I think how it’s coached is just as important. So I think it’s something we need to continuously do.
    I believe there is an audience for it, yes. We can be better at marketing, and we can be better at maybe making the performance more condensed.
    We had our wonderful New York City Ballet colleagues here that were performing at Tivoli at that time, and they came and they came to the opening night and said, “Oh my god, I wish we could do that. That’s so great. And it looks so fun and blah blah blah.”
    It was wonderful to get a praise from you know, former colleagues and people from the outside.

    Alexander: I thought maybe the evening as a whole had a bit of a problem, that maybe if Kermesse had been paired with something else and La Ventana with something else, maybe it would have been a more complete experience for contemporary audiences.

    Amy Watson: I think you’re right on that. I think in the future, if we’re to program it and if it’s two pieces and not Napoli or A Folk Tale, it needs to be very thought through. Again, since we’re opening with it, we have to ask why and what we’re doing and what is relevant.

    Alexander: So my last question is about the Bournonville Festival. What are the objectives of staging a festival?

    Amy Watson: We’re looking into the festival, with all the practicalities, but my goal is – if we can find the potential funding – to build enough new productions, whether it’s reviving or renewing between now and then? Then we can put a festival on.
    I think, I need to question if that time, if we don’t and we need to take what we have in repertoire, we need to make sure… If we’re having people come here, we have to question what we’re putting on stage again, why are we putting it on stage?
    So right now the festival for me is the goal, but I can’t promise it yet. That’s my big wish.
    It’s spring 2031. It should be June 2031 because of the 13 – year mark, that what Bournonville said it takes to make a dancer, from student to company. So let’s say 2005, 2018, 2031. And also to give myself some time.

    Alexander: And are you planning like a whole week like before or something smaller?

    Amy Watson: If I have my dreams come true, a week. I would love a week and like a really I think a week, it was a wonderful experience. Because we had a year to build up doing all those ballets throughout the season, and then we finished with a wonderful week of celebrating and doing all those ballets. Every night was a different experience.

    Photographer Adam Amsinck

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    Alexander Meinertz

    Ballet reviews, essays & interviews

    The Art of the Fugue: Alexei Ratmansky's Choreographic Creed

    The cruciform silhouettes of the floating bodies point towards the sacred in the ballet's moving final scene. Photographer: Camilla Winther.

    REVIEW – Alexei Ratmansky has created a masterpiece for the Royal Danish Ballet that is both universal and deeply personal.
    Christian Daily Newspaper November 4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
    Alexei Ratmansky reaches for eternity in the masterpiece “The Art of the Fugue,” which premiered at the Royal Danish Theatre on Saturday. The ballet to Johann Sebastian Bach’s “The Art of the Fugue” – a collection of fifteen fugues, four canons and an unfinished movement – primarily reflects the mathematical equations of music but also redeems both its spirituality and a worldview where order prevails over chaos.
    After a long and varied career as a choreographer in Ukraine, Denmark, Russia and since 2006 in the United States, “The Art of the Fugue” stands as a defining highlight in his exploration of the expressive breadth of his art form and in his search for its true essence.
    Ratmansky’s artistic oeuvre ranges from reconstructions of “Swan Lake” and “Sleeping Beauty” to reimaginings of Soviet propaganda ballets and choreographic interpretations of Plato’s “Symposium” and Kandinsky’s theory of color. But in a conversation, I had with Ratmansky last week, he said that this ballet — while he is an advocate for Ukraine’s cause — is not political and is not about the Russian invasion of his homeland. He called “The Art of the Fugue” his “most abstract work”: The dancers were supposed to “commit” to the steps.
    It is true that in the first part of the ballet – Contrapunctus 1–7 – he takes an abstract approach with an introduction of steps, positions and phrases that closely follow Bach's polyphonic piece of music, so that the four dancers repeat the lines of the choreography in staggered order.
    It is the ideal of the almost theoretical, pure dance according to George Balanchine – where the body and movement in space do not illustrate, but connect with the melody – that Ratmansky unfolds in changing constellations, culminating in a movement for one gentleman and three ladies and a final position that refers to Balanchine's key work from 1928, “Apollon Musagetes”.
    Visually, set designer Moritz Junge, with a background of sparkling gold leaf and baroque golden costumes, also points to the historic first edition of “Apollon”, just as in the ballet's second part – Contrapunctus 8–14 – he uses full-body suits colored in a gradient from magenta to cobalt to time a surprising dynamic shift to Balanchine's and Jerome Robbins' neoclassical, high-energy ballet from the second half of the 20th century.
    Here, Bach's fugues sound like Stravinsky, while 13 men, a lead couple and the protagonist of “The Art of the Fugue” chase across the stage to the sound of thumping, pulsating brass instruments in choreographic races under a neon-cold contour light, where the soloist in a flash hits another signature: Standing on his heels and with his arms out to the side, he creates the outline of an X. A reference both to Balanchine's “Stravinsky Violin Concerto,” but not least also to Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, Homo Vitruvianus; an analogy of the human body in the universal context, which is a fundamental principle in classical ballet.
    A cosmografia del minor mondo – a worldview of microcosm – that captures the great idea of the connection between eternal truths and human dignity in a demonstration of the golden ratio in the proportions of human physics.
    In principle, a dancer's movement universe reflects this very idea. When a ballet dancer almost ritually moves his or her legs, feet, and arms between the five basic positions of the classical step language, he or she draws geometric shapes along the floor and in the air that resemble the orbits of circling planets.

    Emma Riis Kofoed and Sylvester Jønson in the ballet's sacred, lamenting 4th Part, where Ratmansky weaves romantic and neoclassical ballet together in a timeless expression. Photographer: Camilla Winther.

    This is the core of Ratmansky's understanding of choreography and ballet, which becomes almost sacred in the fourth and fifth parts of “The Art of the Fugue,” where the scenography and choreography also refer to other periods in ballet history. Among them, Ratmansky pays tribute to August Bournonville with a beautiful gesture in the opening of the devotional final scene, where the dancers step in staggered with a characteristic step sequence from the pure Bournonville school, where the body's weight is simply shifted from one leg to the other.
    First of all, the 5th movement to Contrapunctus 14 (unfinished), sung by Musica Ficta, realizes another of the great ideas of the Renaissance: the concept of the “music of the spheres.” The notion that stars and planets created celestial music as they traveled through space, and the mystical connection between mathematics and music, which had a parallel in the rhythms and perfect geometric form of dance, which connected it to creation itself and the divine.
    There can be no doubt that the soloist – the ballet’s recurring figure – represents the Artist, that is, Ratmansky himself. It is well known that in “The Art of Fugue,” Bach interweaves the notes B, A, C, H as a new theme in the work’s final, unfinished fugue. Ratmansky’s signature is also found in the lead dancer’s choreography, not least in the ballet’s final scene, where Bach’s music in Harry van der Kamp’s arrangement of “Frem for din trone træder jeg hermed” abruptly ends with the words: “Hear me.”
    “See what I believe in,” Ratmansky seems to say, as the lead dancer stands in silence at the center of the stage. Only the sounds of the dancers’ breathing are heard as they repeat and vary, in a picture of sublime and moving beauty, the steps, positions, figures and forms that in his reality are a humanistic statement of meaning, coherence and civilization, and thus allow “The Art of the Fugue” to grow from pure choreography to a work of ideas and personal confession.

    Tobias Praetorius as the soloist, representing the Artist - perhaps Ratmansky himself - in the ballet's poignant final scene. Photographer: Camilla Winther.

    “The Art of the Fugue.” Choreography: Alexei Ratmansky. Music: JS Bach. Set and costume design: Moritz Junge. Lighting design: Brandon Stirling Baker. The Royal Theatre, Old Stage. Playing until November 18.

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    Alexander Meinertz

    Ballet reviews, essays & interviews

    The Art of the Fugue

    Alexei Ratmansky on ‘The Art of the Fugue’: “It’s the most abstract thing I’ve ever done.”

    26. October 2025
    The following are selected, edited excerpts from a transcript of the talk with Alexei Ratmansky that I moderated for Ballettens Venner (the Danish Ballet Society) in connection with the upcoming premiere of Ratmansky’s new work, The Art of the Fugue.
    The talk, which also included Ratmansky’s biographer Marina Harss and Royal Danish Ballet soloist Philip Duclos, took place on Wednesday, October 22, at Operaen in Copenhagen.
    Set to Bach’s incomplete musical work of the same name, The Art of the Fugue is a full-length ballet which Ratmansky began at the Bolshoi Ballet in 2022. Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, he left Moscow with the ballet unfinished.
    Since August 2025 he has been re-creating and completing the work for the Royal Danish Ballet, which will premiere it on Saturday, November 1.
    Ratmansky shares his thoughts on the new work and on how Russia’s war of aggression has reshaped his view of his time in Moscow, severed ties with former colleagues and friends, clarified questions of identity, and affected his choreography.
    I also ask whether ballet is dying, about the inspiration he draws from his studies of antiquity, and about his years dancing in Copenhagen, 1997–2003.

    About August Bournonville and the Royal Danish Ballet

    Alexei Ratmansky was a principal dancer with the Royal Danish Ballet, 1997–2003 (ed.).
    “Bournonville… That was a reason for me to come to Denmark: to learn the style. Because this is a classical style that’s not French, not Russian—different. Another part of our genre, of our art, that I was anxious to learn.
    “I don’t think foreigners were allowed to step into the repertoire that easily. We had to spend time learning the style, taking classes. We had special classes for foreigners every week. And all these wonderful old teachers were very pleased with my wife Tatiana’s and my desire to learn at their hands. Flemming Ryberg and Mia Vessel taught us—mostly them.
    “I don’t think the Danish dancers were obliged to take those classes, but foreigners had to. Maybe eight or ten dancers.
    “People joined the company for different reasons, but I think it was absolutely correct to invite dancers from abroad to look closely into the style. That’s the DNA of the company.
    “It’s really, really difficult for a foreigner to get this stuff right. I tried so hard. And I remember being corrected all the time: ‘Relax, relax, relax. Yes—this way. Not that way. This way.’
    “We saw the Napoli bridge (in a video excerpt; ed.). In Denmark, you stand on that bridge from when you’re six or eight, growing up watching the dancers of the Royal Danish Ballet and then doing all those enchaînements that Bournonville created and his pupils wrote down.
    “Then you get this right, because the trick is to be very strong but so relaxed you show no effort. For me, that was the hardest thing. I tried really hard, but I don’t feel I got it.
    “Still, it was a great time. I started with Tarantella and little variations, and then I got to dance James in La Sylphide, which was huge.”

    About his Relationship with Russia

    “I think I need to explain. Russian music and Russian art history were very much part of my mind—of how I understood what I wanted to do as a choreographer. I was proud to be in the line of Russian choreographers abroad. When I arrived in New York, I was greeted by the Balanchine people as part of that lineage, and it felt so, so fantastic.
    “The war that Russia started against Ukraine in 2022 changed my understanding of who I am and what matters for an artist—completely—because it was something no one could imagine would happen.
    “The connection between Ukraine and Russia was so close. Even though Ukraine—Ukrainian territory, Ukraine as a country—was under the Russian Empire before the Revolution, and under the Soviet empire during the 20th century, it seemed that nothing truly terrible could happen.
    “Yes, there could be misunderstandings and so on, but the crimes Russia has committed since 2022 are impossible to comprehend. It’s impossible to understand how a country with such a rich culture, with people who grew up listening to Tchaikovsky and reading Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Pushkin, can commit these crimes.
    “You know, it is a dictatorship. Of course it’s dangerous in Russia to protest, but they seem to be spiralling back into the darkest time of Stalin. It’s hard for me to find the right words…
    “As a choreographer—as someone who listens to music, chooses subjects for ballets, prepares premieres—this door for me is closed.
    “I think back and realize people I worked with so closely for so many years are fine with these murders, with these crimes, with this stealing of children, with this destruction. Today, this morning, the news was that a Russian missile hit a kindergarten in Kharkiv—children injured, people killed. That happens every single day. And life in Russia continues as if none of it matters.
    “So, I shut that door. I lost my best friends. I lost all connections with the theaters. The Bolshoi and the Mariinsky continue performing my works despite having no licenses.
    “They erased my name as choreographer. The Bright Stream—you showed a picture of it—they performed it five times on the Bolshoi’s own tour to the Mariinsky. There is no choreographer listed. It says, ‘A version of the Bolshoi Theater.’ I am non-existent there. And they are non-existent for me as well.
    “I thought you could only read about this kind of situation in books about Soviet times. It’s back.
    “Thinking about my life and work in Russia—and my upbringing, being from Kyiv—you see moments that at the time seemed not to matter, but all those points now connect to the developments that led to this horror.
    “You understand oh, that’s why that happened. That’s why those words were said. That’s why those reactions happened.
    “In ballet we’re, of course, so concentrated on working on the body, looking at yourself in the mirror. We rarely look outside. And if you’re focused on your career as a dancer or choreographer, it’s a 24/7 focus on your body and your time on stage.
    “Looking back, I see that I, my colleagues, many creatives in Russia, turned away—ignoring the signs: Putin and his mafia gaining power, cutting freedoms, shutting TV channels, killing opposition leaders for years and years, starting in the early 2000s, when Russia seemed to be joining the world in progressive, democratic development.
    When you created ‘The Bright Stream,’ it was a ballet of hope?
    “That ballet played with the aesthetics of pre-war Soviet culture. And it was about reconciliation, in a sense—because the original Bright Stream from 1935 was banned by Stalin, even though it was a huge success.
    “The creative team was in deep trouble because of official criticism. For me, The Bright Stream was a homage to Shostakovich; to the choreographer who was censored and didn’t have a career after his brilliant beginning, Lopukhov; and to Adrian Piotrovsky, who was sent to a Gulag and killed a couple of years after the premiere.
    “At the time I created it, that felt like a distant past. We could look at the aesthetics of that era and smile with some understanding, even a bit of nostalgia—because our grandparents were building this ideal society, those who believed.
    “There were not many cynics, as now. Now, in Russia, you can get information—you know what’s going on. But at the time of The Bright Stream, I don’t think people had any information at all. There were very, very few who could tell you the truth. Sorry—my vocabulary isn’t enough to speak on these terms.
    “I can speak much more easily about ballet. This [war, politics] has been a very, very big part of my life for the past couple of years.
    “I think everyone is aware of it. It’s beautiful to see so many Ukrainian flags in Copenhagen. I think Denmark supports Ukraine like no other country in Europe.”

    Alexei Ratmansky and “The Art of the Fugue”. Photo: Maria Albrechtsen.

    About Solitude

    Created for New York City Ballet in 2024, ed.
    “This piece was hard to make. There was a picture I saw in the news—in the summer of 2022.
    “This is maybe one of the first wars so thoroughly documented. Every day you see pictures of destruction, of death, of suffering. Everything is recorded.
    “And there was one picture I couldn’t forget: a missile hit a bus stop in Kharkiv, and a little boy was killed. The photograph showed the father holding the hand of his dead son. He sat there for hours, unable to move.
    “I struggled at the beginning. I didn’t think it was right to go into that territory and present it as performance.
    “Then I thought of using Mahler—which, of course, tears your heart apart because it’s Mahler. The dancers’ support was extraordinary. I didn’t tell them the story, but they had seen posts online. They understood the weight of the piece—what I was trying to say.
    “It consists of two parts. In the first, the hero sits motionless for ten minutes—which is actually very difficult physically, because he must then stand up and dance full out. It’s set to movements from two Mahler symphonies. The ballet runs about twenty minutes.
    “I had never made political comments in my ballets before the war. And this isn’t something you can force—you can’t say, ‘Okay, I’m doing a ballet about the war; now look, react.’ But the picture wouldn’t leave my head. And as a father, I connected to that moment.
    “While Russia is bombing Ukraine, ballet companies—as well as opera companies, orchestras, drama theaters—keep working, keep performing. There are air-raid sirens and bombardments every day. They stop the performance, go to the shelter, and then sometimes cancel the rest or return and continue. These performances are so popular you can’t get tickets—people need them. And in such times, you understand it is ‘not just for pleasure,’ as it says on the proscenium at the Royal Theatre. It really means something now; to see that ballet, music, theater are necessities in times like this.
    “I admire Frank Andersen—he staged La Sylphide and Flower Festival in Kyiv. And choreographers like Hans van Manen have given their pieces; they’re rehearsing Forsythe now.
    “Half of the company left. I’m talking about the National Opera of Ukraine in Kyiv, my home company. A couple of weeks ago there was very heavy shelling of Kyiv. I saw a post from a soloist holding his cat, the building behind him completely destroyed. It said, ‘I have no more apartment—it’s gone—but I saved my cat.’ And the first thing he did was go to the theater to rehearse and perform that evening. That is the life of my old community in Kyiv—and in other cities of Ukraine.”

    About Kallirhoe and the Inspiration from Antiquity

    ‘Kallirhoe’ was created for American Ballet Theatre under the title ‘Of Love and Rage’ in 2020.
    “The music is by Khachaturian—the Armenian composer of Soviet times who wrote Spartacus. We all know this music. He also wrote another ballet, Gayane, an extraordinary score, but the story—Soviet propaganda—is impossible. So, we had to find another subject. And my friend, the French actor Guillaume Gallienne, said, ‘Have you read this story? Kallirhoe—it’s the oldest surviving romantic novel.’ I had never heard of it and had never met a person who had read it.
    “It’s a very complex story, but in a few words: it’s about the most beautiful woman on earth, and every man she meets falls in love and wants her for himself. When it premiered in New York in 2020—I think—the timing was not great; it was the height of the MeToo movement, and there were many complaints that the subject was not appropriate.
    You have a very serious interest in Antiquity. Where does that come from and how does it influence your choreography?
    “It actually goes back to my time in Copenhagen: I was at the Glyptotek. I had always looked more toward… well, painting and sculpture were not my interest. But then I looked at the sculptures—an amazing collection, a beautiful museum, the colour of the walls—and the whole thing… magical. It felt like: this is the essence of what we do on stage.
    “The way the bodies shift, how they take flight, the arm positions, the movement that is frozen but not dead—it’s movement in stasis. It was so fascinating it opened my eyes. Since then, we’ve travelled to the smallest cities and museums in Turkey, Italy, Greece—and you always find something that blows your mind because it’s so beautiful.
    “I think the Greeks discovered the secrets of beauty and began to research them. They found the rules—the rules of harmony. Why this line is harmonious and exciting and that line is not. And that’s exactly what we do on stage: we look for the most harmonious, most expressive line. As I said, it’s endless, because each of us has an individual body—but there are rules of harmony.”
    Bournonville was a great admirer of the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen; he saw him as one of his artistic fathers. He even had plaster casts of Thorvaldsen’s works placed in the studio so the dancers would be inspired.
    “I think the students at the Ballet School should study this—study the sculptures, all of them.”

    Is “Ballet” Dying?

    “I can say I see many performances that give me that impression.
    “But I believe the language we inherited—the classical technique—won’t die, because it marries the human body, with its natural curves and imperfections, to ideal geometry. I think that’s a beautiful idea. When I retired as a dancer, what I missed most was that morning moment: standing at the barre doing tendus, dégagés, grands battements. You look in the mirror, but you don’t see yourself—you see the ideal geometry, and you want to perfect yourself. There is no limit to this perfection.
    “And then there is the music, which gives the body its style and phrasing.
    “The vocabulary is huge. Studying the notations made me realize that what we use now is only a small part of the classical vocabulary—there is much more.
    “So, I do believe it will continue, and it will inspire choreographers and dancers in the future, as it does now.
    “But yes, we see a lot of performances that leave you wondering what it is you’re seeing. So yes and no.”

    About The Art of The Fugue

    “Back then my idea was to give the Bolshoi—where the style is so presentational—something pure to do. I think half the choreography was done, recorded. And it always felt like… I needed to finish this project.
    “When Nikolaj asked if I could make a full-length for the Royal Danish Ballet, this was one of the titles I proposed, and he said, ‘Okay, let’s do that one.’ I was happy because I wanted to finish it. It’s like carrying a baby and not giving birth—you need to give birth.
    “We changed the design—the set is completely different. I changed things I didn’t like in what I’d done.
    “And of course the second half of the ballet still needed to be made. I’m still in the process—I have a few minutes left to choreograph—but we’re already having runs on stage. Today was the first time I saw the whole piece from beginning to end, with little gaps to be filled.
    “Bach wrote it—it’s considered his last piece. In the original score there’s a sentence written by his son: ‘Papa died,’ written as he was composing. I’ve read that some people doubt the authenticity, but the last fugue is unfinished; it stops in the middle of a bar. That isn’t in question, and it’s a beautiful, profound way to end.
    “It’s a little unsettling because you’re not sure… But Bach didn’t write it for any particular instrument, so we took the liberty of dividing it into five parts, each played by different forces. We have a piano section, a section for a brass group, a third on harpsichord, a fourth for string ensemble, and a finale sung a cappella by singers.
    “It’s an exercise—a scientific exercise. The little melody—it’s not even a melody; it’s the idea of a melody. And then Bach does everything possible with the polyphonic development of that material.

    Tobias Praetorius during rehearsals for “The Art of the Fugue”. Photo: Maria Albrechtsen.

    “Very challenging music because there are no big contrasts. It’s a whole world, but it’s flat. Yet at the end it leads you somewhere where the rules of harmony are established by… whatever, whoever. There is something bigger than all of us, than this world and this music. You can hear that. It’s very hard to capture, of course.
    “But I think ballet is good at expressing what we can’t put into words. And I’m glad we’re not using words—we’re not.
    “Sometimes we feel we need to explain what’s going on, but actually we don’t, because the body leads us into this non-verbal territory. It has meaning, it has sense, it has gravity, it has weight. And it pushes the dancers to explore the purity of movement.
    “And we’ve talked about this geometry that is fascinating. In the box of the theatre, under the light, we see the bodies as art forms—art objects.”
    “The pas de deux is the only section that hints at a story, or perhaps we make it look as if there is one. We’ve talked about how it’s physical, but there is also the music. The idea is that the music is born from the dancers’ movement. They must be completely together; that’s our focus now achieving that.
    “It’s the most abstract thing I’ve ever done. You can’t hide behind any mise-en-scène or acting; you have to commit to every step.”

    About the Instrumentation

    “I tried different combinations for the music—I even consulted a Bach specialist in New York—but… it’s random; still, I think it makes dramatic sense.
    “I would say this is the most challenging music I’ve worked with. Even though it’s melodic, it has rhythm—and that’s always great for dancing. At the beginning I played with the idea of applying the fugue structure to the dance, but somehow it doesn’t work. It doesn’t work. So, the approach is freer in how we present and develop the movement material; otherwise, it would be too scientific, too dry.
    “What we have now—about a week before the premiere—are the designers’ visions (costumes, set, lighting); the dancers with their personalities and artistic personas; my own desire to see certain movements done a certain way; my wonderful assistants, Alex Antonievich from Toronto and Kyle Davis from Seattle; and the artistic staff of the Royal Danish Ballet. We’re combining our efforts and trying to get somewhere together. We’re very curious where it will lead us, and when the public comes, their energy will contribute to what we see in the end.
    “The result is unknown. We only understand what it is after it premieres— and even then, some productions take time to reach their potential. Many questions, not many answers yet—but we’ll get there, hopefully.”
    It was a dream to experience Bach. Because when you choreograph, it’s like you live with this music for a long time. And I need to hear, and probably other choreographers do it differently, but I need to hear it a thousand times unless, until I get the sense of the movement that I will use for a certain rhythm or passage.
    Can you say more about your choice of instrumentation?
    “I was afraid the ‘scientific’ side of this music might overwhelm—or diminish—the music itself. It’s an important exercise for me, but I thought I needed to change the sound world to keep the audience engaged. It was a protective step—not to let the audience grow bored with the same dynamics. That was the reason.”
    The music has text. Did the text matter when you were making the choreography? And its religious text, I believe.
    “The text, if I’m not mistaken, is like a question—maybe not exactly a question—to God: ‘Let me see you, Almighty God, forever.’ I think that’s what it says.
    “Yes and no. There’s a weight, a gravity, and I think that’s reflected in the steps—but it’s not an illustration. It isn’t. The finale feels like a logical conclusion of the different themes developed throughout the ballet, I think. We’ll see.”
    This ballet has been created first with Russian dancer, and now with the Royal Danish Ballet. How has that impacted your vision?
    “My years with the Royal Danish Ballet were very important to me. I love Bournonville’s idea of making rhythm with the feet and melody with the upper body. I use a lot of that, and I see the dancers understand it instinctively—it’s their language. But you’re right: some sections were made on completely different bodies, with a different technique. Some steps were challenging for Bolshoi dancers and are easy for Danish dancers—and vice versa.
    “In these final rehearsals I try to encourage the dancers to be themselves. They have the material; they need to make it their own. Only then will it work. If I see them fighting the coordination, I’d rather change the steps—make something that highlights their strengths.
    “It’s an interesting process to find a common language with dancers from different schools and with different dynamics. Some moments are very important to me, but sometimes I follow what the dancers do and incorporate their ideas and details. That can be very exciting—and lead you into unknown territory.”

    Rehearsals for “The Art of the Fugue”. Photo: Maria Albrechtsen.

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    Alexander Meinertz

    Ballet reviews, essays & interviews

    REVIEW - The revivals of "The Flea Market in Bruges" and "La Ventana"
    are a quiet proposal to the Royal Danish Ballet

    Kristeligt Dagblad September 2 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4 out of 6 stars)
    The long road back to August Bournonville has begun for the Royal Danish Ballet, after the unique Danish cultural heritage has been misinterpreted and neglected since 2008. It is a strategic decision from the Royal Danish Theatre's board, which Nikolaj Hübbe's successor as ballet director, Amy Watson, has endorsed – not only by directing a renewed focus towards the preserved repertoire of ballets from the 19th century, but also towards those parts of the tradition that include dancer training and a specialization in technique, musicality and mime.
    Last week, Watson appointed former principal dancer Rose Gad and soloist Alexander Stæger as Bournonville ambassadors with responsibility for maintaining, further developing and strengthening The Royal Danish Ballet's anchoring in Bournonville's style and storytelling.
    The first step is the re-enactments of the romantic divertissement "La Ventana" from 1856 and the fairy tale comedy "Kermessen i Brugge" from 1851. Here, Alexander Stæger is responsible for a new interpretation of the Spanish ballet, while Rose Gad, in collaboration with Bournonville doyenne Dinna Bjørn, has directed the Dutch folk life picture after Hans Brenaas' legendary staging from 1978.
    "La Ventana", where the action is limited to a single episode and the focus is on atmosphere and dance, is an example of a ballet where the design and phrasing of the choreography are of crucial importance. In contrast, "Kermessen" is more action-driven, so the emphasis is on the dramatic flow and mime expression.
    Stæger's staging perhaps shows first and foremost how crucial Bournonville training will be in the coming years: It is extremely difficult to dance Bournonville, and the majority of the dancers – both soloists and corps – are challenged to a degree where it is about basic mastery and understanding of form, balance and weight shifts.


    However, Jón Axel Fransson shines exemplary in his natural playing and his complex solo variations as Señor in "La Ventana", as he - as if carried by an invisible hand - flies effortlessly and happily through the music and across the stage with an infectious joy of dancing.
    Tobias Praetorius, who is still waiting for his solo dancer title, has the same radiant energy in the male lead role in "Kermessen" and even redeems his character, the violinist Carelis, with a determined drive and energy that the character has perhaps never had before. As Eleonore, Eukene Sagues has come a long way with the work on the dance style but is so eagerly overacting and playful as the young girl in love that the poetry between the couple has no place.
    Artistically and narratively, it is otherwise a highlight when Eleonore and Carelis emerge from among the many deliberately overdrawn and revealing caricatures of "Kermessen" in a romantic scene, where he offers her a flower that is just about to bloom, and asks for a dance.
    The mime dialogue slips into academic steps, where their movements mirror each other in figures and tell of embraces that only unfold in the imagination, and the tenderness in the description of the young people's hesitant, shy and chaste feelings for each other is a fine example of the humanity and sensitivity that characterizes Bournonville's characters. But the fine mirror duet in the marketplace is only the foreshadowing of the couple's intimate meeting in Eleonore's chamber in the ballet's second act, where Carelis climbs in through the window and seduces his beloved with a longing "romanesca".
    "Soon his expression becomes more tender, and she wants to leave," writes Bournonville in his libretto, "but he lures her back, dancing to the magic of the notes. When she still wants to flee from him, he puts down the violin and sadly walks away. But now it is her turn to call him back: the music unites them both, and they confess their love for each other."
    The scene is one of ballet literature's purest and most poignant depictions of the first, happy experience of love. A subtle, sensual "tableau vivant", an act of love expressed in choreography, music, and emotion, which is also a statement about Bournonville's own romantic notion of love and of art as a medium for a sublime union that is both physical and spiritual.
    That understanding is missing in the current staging, where Eleonore and Carelis are chased through the dance and the game in this very sublime moment when time must stand still and the understanding of life's deepest meaning must emerge.
    Among the colorful crowd of citizens, peasants and knights, Christina Hammari stands out with a caring human touch as mother Trutje, and Agnes Rosendahl and Elvira Thomsen as her daughters Marchen and Johanne, and – of course – Sebastian Suhr and Nico Janssen as the girls' suitors, the two slipper heroes Geert and Adrian. In the divertissement in the third scene, one must admire another of the Royal Ballet's great talents, Sylvester Jønson, for his clean lines and perfection.
    The program with “La Ventana” and “Kermessen”, which will only be performed six times, is a welcome reunion with both ballets – they were last seen in 2013 – but also shows how extensive work with all the elements of tradition lies ahead if it is to retain its validity and relevance. And there are already lessons to be learned. First and foremost, however, that we must work with the poetry that is the lifeblood of Bournonville’s outlook on life and his dance, and that there is just as much need for innovation as there is for seeking an actual understanding of the work.
    The question of consent that Alexander Stæger has inserted as a prologue in "La Ventana", for example, is not artistically founded, but politically conceived and functions – contrary to its intention – dramatically limiting. His move of having Señor appear in Señorita's mirror image as in a dream – inspired by John Cranko's ballet "Onegin" – is, on the other hand, truly enriching and should become his lasting imprint on the ballet's performance history.
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    “The Fair in Bruges” and “La Ventana.” Choreography: August Bournonville. Music: HC Lumbye, VC Holm, and HS Paulli. Scenography: Jérôme Kaplan and Christian Friedländer.
    The Royal Theatre, Old Stage. Playing until September 13th.

    ——————– Photo 1: Tobias Praetorius and Eukene Sagues as the young lovers in "The Bruges Fair". Photographer: Henrik Stenberg.
    Photo 2: Jón Axel Fransson and Holly Dorger as Señor and Señorita in Bournonville's Spanish mood picture, “La Ventana.” Photographer: Henrik Stenberg.

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    Alexander Meinertz

    Ballet reviews, essays & interviews

    REVIEW – International Ballet Gala offers a few glimpses into ballet history
    but is first and foremost a glimpse into what ballet and contemporary ballet look like today.

    Kristeligt Dagblad, August 29
    ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5 out of 6 stars)

    TIVOLI

    Despite red carpets, fairground guards and royal attention, Tivoli's ballet gala "A Celebration of Dance" can hardly be called a gala in the usual sense of the word. Furthermore, the programming of primarily modern and substantial works is too ambitious, and the tight concept - where there is no room for prompts and breaks - too concentrated.
    I consider all of this positive, because although “A Celebration of Dance” cannot of course match last season's great guest performances by both John Neumeier and the Hamburg Ballet and the New York City Ballet, the evening is carried by a remarkable innovativeness and sensitivity, where it actually succeeds in creating an artistic coherence, development and an atmosphere that is maintained for the almost 2 hours and 45 minutes that the evening lasts.
    Ballet director Peter Bo Bendixen's curated selection has a few touches on ballet history, but is first and foremost a glimpse into what ballet and contemporary ballet look like today after a turbulent period of harsh – too harsh – criticism of the art form's elitist ideals and anchoring in the European cultural tradition.
    With two exceptions – an excerpt from Tivoli Balletteater and Kevin O'Day's ensemble work “On Down The Road” and Tobias Praetorius' lyrical ballerina trio “Oenothera” – the program consists of duets, where Benjamin Millepied's “Closer”; a choreographic description of a complex love relationship and an act of love between a man and a woman, poignantly portrayed by Maria Kochetkova and Sebastian Kloborg to Philip Glass's undulating, melancholic solo piano piece “Mad Rush”.

    In a more conventional climax, Sara Mearns and Tyler Angle of the New York City Ballet dance perhaps the most accomplished classical pas de deux of all time, George Balanchine’s “Diamonds.” Mearns and Tyler Angle cross paths in a long, diagonal, and poignantly beautiful entrance before meeting in a formal dance punctuated by unexpected openings, vulnerability, and contact. A conversation in which the ballerina both evades and surrenders to her suitor and, as if in a dazzling, shimmering light, appears to his eyes as a mythical creature.
    Under the excellent conductor Maria Seletskaya, the woodwinds in Peter Tchaikovsky’s “Andante elegiaco” from “Tchaikovsky’s 3rd Symphony” call like hunting horns. The strings tremble and tremble in tremolo as Mearns, in a dizzying balancing act, lets go of Angle’s hand and through a series of fleeting turns evades him, and in an offensive thrust shoots his head, arms and a leg forward like a sword.
    When Anna Tsyganova and Timothy van Poucke from the Dutch National Ballet finally throw themselves into the spotlight in Marius Petipa's bravura ballet "Don Quixote", the desire for unbridled entertainment and the atmosphere in Tivoli's Concert Hall are so tense that the roof, as at all traditional galas, lifts.
    What is remarkable is that “A Celebration of Dance” chooses to let the virtuoso fireworks from “Don Quixote” be replaced – and outshone – by John Neumeier's serious “Adagietto”, set to Gustav Mahler's iconic slow movement from his 5th Symphony, where Ida Praetorius poignantly delicately and Matias Oberlin violently enthrallingly portray love, care and perhaps also the irreversibility of separation and loss.
    Mahler himself described the music as “a love poem” to his future wife, Alma Schindler, but Neumeier's choreography was originally created for Erik Bruhn and Natalia Makarova with the title “Epilogue” as a work of mourning and a memorial to the ballet teacher Vera Volkova.
    Here it stands as a call for reflection and a statement about putting reflection and artistic depth above traditional gala effect – away from the spectacular and into the deeply human.
    International Ballet Gala 2025 – A Celebration of Dance. Choreography: John Neumeier, Benjamin Milledpied, Kristian Lever, Tobias Praetorius, David Dawson, Kenneth MacMillan, Kevin O'Day, Emma Portner, George Balanchine and Marius Petipa. Concert Hall, Tivoli, last time 30 September.
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    Top photo: Ida Praetorius and Matias Oberlin from the Hamburg Ballet in John Neumeier's 'Adagietto'. Photographer: Jakob Melgaard.

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    The Royal Danish Ballet

    Don Quixote – The Cuban National Ballet on the Royal Danish Theatre's Old Stage

    The Cuban National Ballet will visit Denmark and the Royal Danish Theatre's Old Stage for the first time ever on Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 September. This will give the Danish audience a unique opportunity to see the highest level of the famous Cuban method in the classic Don Quixote , where the greatest emotions and sublime technique take the southern dramas completely beyond the edge of the stage.

    don-quijote-anette-delgado-y-dani-hernandez-foto-paco-bou

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