Royal Danish Ballet

byCherilyn J. Lee

January 1, 2020 - Updated on August 29, 2024

The Royal Danish Ballet 2024-2025 Season features the world premieres of Eukene Sagues’ Blood Wedding and Arthur Pita’s The Great Gatsby along with a dedicated Balanchine program.

To wrap up the season, the company will tour Denmark with their Ballet de Luxe program which opens with three works by August Bournonville, followed by excerpts from Marius Petipa, Nikolaj Hübbe, and Christopher Wheeldon ballets, and closes with Harald Lander’s iconic Études.

Giant Steps is a triple bill of works by George Balanchine which includes Serenade, The Four Temperaments, and Symphony in C. Serenade is Balanchine’s tribute to women in dance, a midnight-blue masterpiece considered the first neo-classical, abstract ballet set to Tchaikovsky’s beautiful music.

The Four Temperaments is structured in four movements characterizing the temperaments of Antiquity: melancholic, sanguine, phlegmatic and choleric – representing earth, air, water and fire, respectively. It signifies the beginning of Balanchine’s celebrated series of black-and-white ballets, where classical ballet vocabulary merges with a more angular and athletic style.

Symphony in C showcases an unparalleled display of pure classical dance while magically transporting the audience to a ball at the court of Louis XIV at Versailles. Symmetry, balance and harmony are the core elements, with each movement performed by a lead couple, soloists and corps de ballet, all culminating in the exuberant finale.

A Folk Tale is a fairytale ballet by August Bournonville reimagined by, and with additional choreography by, Sorella Englund and Royal Danish Ballet’s Artistic Director, Nikolaj Hübbe.

The story revolves around the tensions between our world and the enticing, demonic underworld, where Junker Ove is engaged to the capricious and wild Birthe from the grand manor but falls in love with the gentle Hilda, who lives in the troll hill. As it happens, the two girls were exchanged at birth, compelling Junker Ove to battle courageously for his beloved Hilda.

The second edition of Koreorama will see world premiere works by corp de ballet dancers Carling Talcott-Steenstra, Eliabe D’Abadia and Oliver Starpov.

The initiative began as to provide the company’s choreographic talents an opportunity for creative expression, with a focus on cultivating new ballet choreography. These young choreographers are tasked with transforming classical dance towards a more contemporary aesthetic, ensuring the art of ballet steps into the future while retaining its unique magic.

Company soloist and rising choreographic star Eukene Sagues will create a full-length ballet inspired by her Spanish countryman Federico García Lorca’s novel Boda de Sangre.

Blood Wedding, set to a medley of music by Elena Abad, Mariano Abad Corral, Federico Garcia Lorca, Manuel de Falla, tells the story of a wedding that ends in a violent confrontation. The bride is set to be married in a grand ceremony yet her former lover, Leonardo, lurks in the shadows.

As the wedding festivities advance, the bride’s longing for freedom intensifies. She elopes, with Leonardo in pursuit, and a mob of angry wedding guests begins the chase for the escapees. In the forest awaits the Moon; an ambiguous and teasing temptress, unwilling to let humans forget the passions they strive to control.

Balanchine’s version of the holiday classic The Nutcracker comes to life with Tchaikovsky’s unmistakeable score and sets by Anthony Ward. Marie and her Nutcracker Prince, dancing snowflakes and waltzing flowers, mischievous mice, icy Snow Queens and warm-hearted Sugar Plum Fairies return to the stage for the traditional Christmastime theatre experience.

Originally created in 2020 for the company, Royal Danish Ballet will present its re-premiere of Christopher Wheeldon’s version of the fairytale classic The Sleeping Beauty. For Wheeldon, this story is primarily about balance: the masculine versus the feminine, innocence versus experience, light versus darkness and good versus evil:

“One cannot live without the struggle between good and evil. Both must exist in our lives. When good clashes with evil, sparks fly – and it is these sparks that can ignite an artistic fire.”

Another classical ballet also seeing its re-premiere this season is Hübbe’s production of Don Quixote which was created after Marius Petipa’s original version. Inspired by Miguel Cervantes’ novel, the ballet stays true to the original tale while highlighting the young lovers, Kitri and Basil, who face an uphill battle to be united. Stylistically, Petipa was inspired by the Spanish theme while ensuring the production remained a classical ballet, greatly aided by Ludwig Minkus’ captivating music.

The season closes with Arthur Pita’s new full-length ballet set to music by George Gershwin and inspired by F. Scott Fitzgerald’s’ The Great Gatsby.

Bearing the same title, the 1920s-set ballet will tell the dramatic story of the wealthy, charismatic Jay Gatsby, who, surrounded by luxury, is obsessed with reclaiming his great love, the beautiful but somewhat self-absorbed Daisy Buchanan. Gatsby is a dreamer, and his schemes ultimately lead to tragic consequences, not just for himself but for everyone involved.

Source: Royal Danish Ballet

The Latest Ballet News

Royal Danish Ballet 2023-2024 Season

byBallet Herald News Desk

June 16, 2023 - Updated on April 19, 2024

Load More