Congratulations Bournonville!

Old Stage
21 August 2005 6 pm


Alina Cojocaru, Jose Martinez, Marie Agnés Gillot, Julio Bocca, Lloyd Riggins, Johan Kobborg and Nikolaj Hübbe are just some of the interna-tional ballet stars to appear at the bicentennial celebration of the birth of August Bournonville.

On the 200th anniversary of the birth of Bournonville some of the world’s most distinguished ballet dancers will convene in Copenhagen to pay homage to the great Danish ballet master. The programme will feature highlights from the international classical repertoire as well as first-performance tributes promising exceptional en-tertainment.
And there is plenty to celebrate. Following recent renewed recognition of the high international standing of both the Bournonville repertoire and the Royal Danish Ballet by the world ballet press, the Royal Danish Theatre takes special pride in presenting this year’s bicentennial celebrations.
A number of acclaimed international ballet stars have been handpicked for the event, including Danish performers such as Nikolaj Hübbe (solo dancer, the New York City Ballet), Johan Kobborg (solo dancer, the Royal Ballet) and Lloyd Riggins (solo dancer, Hamburg Ballett) as well as Alina Cojocaru (solo dancer, Royal Ballet), Marie Agnés Gillot (danceur étoile, Opéra National de Paris), Argentine-born Julio Bocca (solo dancer, ABT), Zhu Yan (solo dancer, the National Ballet of China), Mihail Sosnovschi (Wiener Staatsoper Ballett) and Anna Polikarpova (solo dancer, the Kirov Ballet). As at any true birthday celebration, the programme also features surprises that will not be publicised prior to the performance itself, which will draw to a close with the 3rd act of Napoli performed by the Royal Danish Ballet.

Programme:
Overture: Yrsa by Hartmann
The Royal Danish Orchestra

Excerpts from the Bournonville Schools
The Royal Danish Theatre Ballet School

Birthday present from the Wiener Staatsoper Ballett
Dancers: Franziska Hollinek and Mihail Sosnovschi

Balanchine: Duo Concertante
Dancers: Silja Schandorff (the Royal Danish Ballet) and Nikolaj Hübbe (the New York City Ballet)

Petipa & Ivanov: Pas de Deux from Swan Lake
Dancers, the Bolshoi Ballet: Nadeja Gracheva and Andrei Ouvarov

Balanchine: Diamonds
Dancers, Opéra National de Paris: Marie Agnés Gillot and Jose Martinez

John Neumeier: Pas de deux from The Camellia Lady
Dancers, Hamburg Ballett: Anna Polikarpova and Lloyd Riggins

Birthday ballet by the Royal Swedish Ballet
Dancers: Marie Lindquist, Anders Nordstrøm and Pascal Jansson

MacMillan: Pas de deux from Manon
Dancers: American Ballet Theatre: Leanne Benjamin and Julio Bocca

Ripples
Dancers: the National Ballet of China: Zhu Yan and Sun Jie

Ashton: Voices of Spring
Dancers: the Royal Ballet: Alina Cojocaro and Johan Kobborg

Petipa: Le Cosaire
Dancers: the American Ballet Theatre: Paloma Herrera and Gennadi Saveliev

Bournonville: Napoli, 3rd Act
The Royal Danish Ballet

The programme is subject to change

The gala took place yesterday.

In one apparent correction the casting - ABT's Paloma Herrera was partnered by RDB principal Andrew Bowman, instead of the originally scheduled Gennadi Saveliev. Saveliev had been pulled from at least one schedule performance during ABT's tour to Japan, so perhaps he'd not recovered from whatever caused his absence in Japan.

Kate

Very good performance in general! I hopefully could get a billet even if it was not very easy and too expensive, unaffordable for a lot of people. I know this evening was a gala evening but that's really a shame that we have to pay the normal price and even more expensive (no student or senior special price and no reduce price for the same day billet that usually give 50% discount ). Ballet and culture in general should be accessible to everybody.

The best of the program:
- "Duo concertant" Very good interpretation and musicality from the dancers.
- "Lianyi", original and beautiful
-"Diamonds" with marvellous and magic dancers
-"Voice of the spring":incredible virtuosity

Unforgettable!!

The train schedule didn't allow me to see "Napoli"


I hope we will have soon the opportunity to see again this kind of performance!

Many thanks for the report! It's too bad that the gala fell in the middle of peak tourist season when prices are so high, otherwise I'd have made the trip over. How was Kenneth Greve's new ballet?

I'm sorry for the higher ticket prices, but I suppose the salaries of all those guest dancers had to come from somewhere. Also, the discounts are probably used to encouraged to people to come fill seats - attendance has not been wonderful in recent years - but for the gala that was hardly a problem. Just think the extra expense now as contributing towards your discounts for the rest of the season.

And, in general, consider yourself lucky because ballet ticket prices in Denmark are much lower than just about anywhere else in the world. I wish the US government would be so generous to the arts!!

In NY, there are no senior discounts that I am aware of and student discounts are available only for certain performances and seats - often way up in the 'cheap seats', and sold only 24 hrs prior to a performance. And no half price tickets on the day of the performances. Here in Scotland it's better, but concessions (discounts) are certainly not 50% and often not available on Fridays or weekends.

Anyway, will you be going to the Kastellat performance?

Kate

Well, I know that Denmark is a pretty good country for cultural event and for a lot of other thing. I never paid more than 60kr at the Royal Theater. But that's not like that everywhere in Denmark. In Aarhus for instance, performance at the Musikhuset are very expensive even after the student rabat and there's no so many ballet there, I have to go to Copenhaguen.

I see you live in Scotland, do you have a good ballet programmation there? I 'm sorry but if I know that London is a good place for ballet I don'y know so much about Scotland

I won't make it for the Kastellet. I've to pay the train ticket (I'm still a foreigner (so no scholarship) student and I spend all my cleaning job money in ballet!)and I've to go there again the 2nd of September for "Den lille havfrue". It'll be my first time at the new opera (even if I already can say that I prefer the old one!). i'm looking forward!

Since this discussion is spilling over into this season, let's continue it in the RDB 2005-06 Season topic...

http://www.ballet-dance.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=21862

Also, did you know that the RDB is touring within Denmark in January - they're take 'Manon' to a number of cities including Aarhus.

Kate