CriticalDance Forum

Ulrik Wivel's short movie "Jeg Dig Elsker" (I You Love) premieres in the cinema this week:

From the 11th of November, for the next two weeks you can go to the cinema and enjoy ballet! Ulrik Wivel's short film on Bournonville and La Sylphide, "Jeg Dig Elsker" is playing every day at 5pm at the Empire Cinema in Nørrebro.


(Fra den 11. november og 2 uger frem kan man gå i biffen og nyde ballet. Ulriks Wivels kortfilm om Bournonville og Sylfiden - Jeg Dig Elsker - spiller hver dag kl. 17 i Empire Bio på Nørrebro.)

More information about the film, which was shown on Denmark TV2 this past August, can be found at Ulrik Wivel's website.

The movie received four out of six stars from Vibeke Wern in the Berlingske Tidende.

The movie received four out five stars in the Politiken:



For more click here.

The US premiere of "Jeg Dig Elsker" (with subtitles) will be at:

2006 Dance on Camera Festival
Walter Reade Theatre, Lincoln Center
New York New York

Program 11 - January 10, 2006: 1pm

This program includes "Jeg Dig Elsker", a movie from Norway and a long awaited fillm about the NYCB performancee in St. Petersburg in 2003.

Tickets:

"DFA members/entrants $6; $10 for non-members tickets are sold at the box office on Lincoln Center Plaza, on-line: filmlinc.com and by calling: (212) 496-3809. Only Visa and Master card are accepted. This number only allows you to buy tickets for the coming weekend."

for more information: http://www.dancefilmsassn.org/NewPages/ ... 02006.html

With the US premiere scheduled for next month, I will start posting my thoughts about the short film. My impressions are based largely upon the visuals, as my ability to understand spoken Danish is limited.

"Jeg Dig Elsker" is a brief, but powerful 24 minutes, providing a glimpse into the rehearsals prior to the re-premiere of Nikolaj Hubbe's new staging of "La Sylphide" (Syldifen in Danish). The film ties scenes from rehearsal and performance, togther with glimpses of Hubbe in (a hotel room?) slowly, thoughtfully putting on his tuxedo, presumabley for the premiere night.

In rehearsal, we see two of the Royal Danish Ballet's premiere Bournonville dancers - Mads Blangstrup as James and Gudrun Bojeson as The Sylph. (Knowledgable eyes will spot Caroline Cavallo in the performance scenes - a matter of practicality since Blangstrup and Bojeson are not normally cast opposite each other in "La Sylphide".) Lis Jeppesen, a former Sylph herself, is the mysterious Madge.

The rehearsals themselves take place in Ny Store, a rehearsal studio nestled up in the far-reaches of the Royal Theatre complex. With it's raised stage and soaring views of Copenhagen, it is a perfect blank canvas for the dancers to transform into a Scottish forest.

It is these rehearsal scenes that are the most striking and moving. In rehearsal, where the mime and dance are stripped of sets, costumes and makeup, we get to see Bournonville at it's purest. And so 'naked', the ballet loses none of it's emotional power - a testament not only to the talent of Blangstrup and Bojeson, but to Hubbe's direction and the enduring Bournonville tradition in the Royal Danish Ballet.

This fusion of dance, mime and emotion is rarely, if ever, seen outside the Royal Danish Ballet and one of Wivel's triumphs in this film is his success in showing the power and uniqueness of this tradition.

But the film is not just about "La Sylphide", it is also the story of Hubbe's "return" to the Royal Theatre. In the interludes of Hubbe's final preparations we see a thoughtfulness, with perhaps some signs of apprenhesion. For the staging of "La Sylphide" was Hubbe's first long-term involvment with the company after having been turned down as a candidate for the artistic directorship of the company. One can only imagine that it was not quite how Hubbe had hoped to return to the Royal Theatre, and a reason for desiring to be well-received in his new staging.

Copenhagen audiences are generous with applause, but taking on the most well known and treasured ballet by the 'father' of Danish ballet is no easy task. Perhaps because of this honored place that Bournonville and 'La Sylphide' reside in Danish ballet history, the pressure is not so much to please the audience, but to honor tradition, history and those who have come before. For Hubbe, like almost every Danish dancer on the stage, danced in previous productions as a child and a company member. So staging a new version is almost a test of what one has absorbed and learned before and a demonstration of how one perceives and views the Bournonville tradition....

To be continued...

A chance to see the movie this weekend in NYC: