Estreiiita

I'll go tomorrow to Gala performance, shall try to write about it as well!

For a week ago I was lucky to be at " Napoli" performance. It was a glorious evening, with the Queen Margrethe and her sister Benedicte present and a speech of Nikolaj Hubbe opening the ballet festival. I personally was very glad to see Ulrik Birkkjær ( Gennaro) back; I believe he looks and dances more self confident and sure even though he was away from the company for almost a year. He and Amy Watson ( Teresina) made a beautiful couple and she danced and acted very well but sometimes there was a lack of coordination between them - like for example she was sending him a kiss while he wasn't looking and vice versa. In the first act there were a lot of people on the stage, and even a dog ( accompanying a blind person), quite cute, but sometimes distracting from the actual performance. A lot of different characters, each one with its own story, everything quite amusing but probably creating a feeling of overcrowdedness sometimes. Besides Ulrik Birkkjær ( Gennaro) and Amy Watson ( Teresina), I liked Alba Nadal ( Teresina's friend Giovanina) who had been quite noticeable on the scene as well as Jon Axel Fransson and Tobias Praetorius ( Gennaro's friends). If it depended on me, I'd promoted Alba Nadal to soloist ages ago, but alas! Evidently Nikolaj Hubbe is of different opinion even though he constantly gives to this ballet dancer significant roles and engages her a lot in the performances ( in " Napoli" she danced in every act, and it was a pure delight to see her dancing and acting)! I liked more the second act now than when I saw it for the first time several years ago. The corps danced beautifully, and Jonathan Chmelensky created a convincing image of a sea king Golfo, who seemed to be both dominant and sensitive to the beauty of Teresina. Two of his assistants - Corella ( Alba Nadal) and Argentina (Emma Riis-Kofoed) danced perfectly well, I was quite impressed by the ability of Emma Riis-Kofoed who graduated from the RDB school only last year. The third act was an ultimate pleasure to watch. Here we could see practically everybody , and everybody did its best in delivering the genuine Bournonville spirit of this ballet. As now we are blessed with a truly Italian summer weather, Nikolaj Hubbe suggested to the spectators to continue the evening outside the theatre dancing to the 50s music, it was very tempting but unfortunately I had to hurry home as I live quite far from Copenhagen. I'm certainly looking forward to the "Napoli" in the coming season!

Probably because of the coming ballet festival in Copenhagen that starts in the end of the week, the Danish television decided to show the film from the British series "Artists in love" from 2015 about Rudolf Nureev and Erik Bruhn: https://www.dr.dk/tv/se/artists-in-love-eps-1-10/-/en-kaerlighedshistorie-erik-bruhn-rudolf-nurejev# The film can be seen until the 6th of June, 2018.

Today at the press conference Nikolaj Hubbe announced the plans for the coming season 2018-19. Here it's possibly to see all the items: 2018-19 season I believe, it' s just in Danish right now, but the titles of the performances don't need translation. Personally I'm quite content with the coming season and plan to visit Copenhagen as often as my finances and work schedule will permit it.

Thanks a lot, Jane S, indeed a very good article with the beautiful photos! Good luck to Kizzy tomorrow! I'm sure Eva Kistrup will write about the performance in her blog (http://danceviewtimes.typepad.com/eva_kistrup/ ).

I'm looking very much forward to the 15th, though I'd love to see Kizzy Matiakis, Andreas Kaas and Ida Praetorius. But J'Amie Crandall is always very good, and there are quite some interesting dancers in the cast for the 15th of April -should be fabulous!

I have a ticket for the 15th and if it's true Tobias Praetorius will be Hermann and Alexandra Lo Sardo Liza in the second cast, I'll be more than happy! I missed Alexandra Lo Sardo for quite some time, actually since the birth of her child. Of course I would love to see Kizzy Matiakis as the old countess as well but it will probably be impossible, if she's a member of the first cast. And, well, probably Kizzy hadn't counted with being a principal of RDB for 5 years ago, but she always was very noticeable on the scene, even in some insignificant roles, so she surely deserves that position and I'm glad Hubbe made this decision last year!

Actually it's not that difficult to get tickets for Nijinsky Gala. I tried it once and got two tickets no problem ( of course, it' s probably important to send the request in the indicated dates. My friend also got a ticket without problems - we both were sending requests from different countries - Denmark and France.

I, for instance, came to be there by accident - actually, I came to watch " The Winter's tale" - wow, what a pleasure! It was superb! But as I anyway intended to spend the whole weekend in London, after the Gala had been announced, I thought:" Why not?" For me, indeed, it was a rare opportunity to see many outstanding dancers and I haven't regretted my decision, on the contrary, liked everything a lot!

I was also lucky to be present at yesterday's performance, and liked it enormously! All dancers did their best and performed with a great ability and wish to dance! Stanislaw Wegrzyn is surely a very promising dancer, but in my opinion he still has much to learn about partnership - his hand holding Mayara's was not just trembling, it was shaking quite notably - the poor girl had almost no chance to keep the balance after that "support", but well, if she came to substitute at the last moment, it's understandable! For me all pieces were worth of seeing but most of all I was impressed by lightness and musicality of Francesca Hayward, beauty and expression of Ekaterina Kondaurova, physical ability of stunning Polina Semionova, joyful play and a lot of love of Anna Tikhomirova and Artem Ovcharenko, and, above all, the brilliant queen of the scene Maria Alexandrova and her partner, and, of course, amazing Victoria Tereshkina - both as the Black Swan and the eastern tsarine ! I must confess I liked Kimin Kim a lot - oh, those jumps - he just flies above the scene, I wished I could see him in a full time performance! But yes, he could do with a bit more acting, a smile, a loving touch...quite different from Vladislav Lantratov who not just partnered, but also cared about his wife enormously! All in all, the evening I'll remember for a long time! The only slight disappointment is with the information of the public about changes - I, for instance, didn't recognize Fernando Mora ( he was divine!) and just wondered, how much does MacKay brother differ from the others!

The film "Darling", directed by the talented danish instructor Birgitte Stærmose, has been selected for the BFI London Film Festival. "Darling" will be featured in the Thrills section and the film will be celebrating its world premiere at the festival: http://trustnordisk.com/content/press-release-zentropa-produced-darling-selected-prestigious-london-film-festival-0 A young danish ballet danser from the RDB, Astrid Elbo, takes part in the film. Here is a trailer to the film:

I would like to see any of these two companies any day any time again, but I was really grateful to the organizers of the Mariinsky theater's visit this year as the setting the last performances of " Don Q" and " Swan lake" in between "Anna Karenina" and "The Contrasts" permitted me to see all five productions in one week. Very wisely done indeed - I wasn't the only one who came from abroad to see the performances. As to the actual dancing - I was charmed by everybody. Yes, there were some faults - I was, for instance, at " Don Q" with Matvienko and Askerov and both Matvienko (Kitri) and the one who danced Espada's role were unlucky and fell down or almost fell at some point, but still, what an overwhelming joy and pleasure had been in the air that evening! And I can say something similar about every one of the other performances as well - even those, ending tragically! Please give me Mariinsky or Bolshoi any time! A pity we won't see them the coming year, but I look forward to the ROH and ENB, and of course RDB performances!

Just came back from the evening performance of "Don Quixote" . What an amazing performance! Everything was great: the orchestra, the dancers, the costumes, the scene set! Anastasia Matvienko danced beautifully and showed perfect partnership with Timur Askerov! There was unfortunately a couple of unlucky moments when Anastasia's foot slipped and she kneeled for a moment and Espada also had been a bit unstable in his performance in the third act but it didn't ruin the great atmosphere the dancers managed to create on the scene. Now I'll be waiting for the "Swan lake" on Monday!

Well, one more reason to wait impatiently for tomorrow's performance ( it'll be a matinee for me)! I've seen " Don Q" while living in Cuba for many years ago and actually my love for ballet started with BNC performances as I spent my childhood in Cuba. But tomorrow will be the first time when I'll get the opportunity to enjoy this ballet consciously!

I happened to be at "Giselle" as well Tuesday evening and can confirm everything that Jan says, a beautiful performance led by a quite interesting couple! I liked especially Raul Abreu's dancing and though Sadaise Arencibia matched him well, I couldn't stop wondering, how would a younger dancer look by his side ( for me the age difference between two of them was a bit too evident). I was greatly impressed by the state of corps' dancing - absolutely perfect! A great evening that allowes me to look very much forward to their "Don Quijote" performance on Saturday!

Many thanks to Jan and Duck! I'll study their web site as well! As to the transport, I mean that it's far better to use the bus/coach if there is a direct connection between Hamburg airport and Kiel. I myself use to drive by car from Denmark, so I'm not that much acquainted with the German public transport, my almost only experience was missing the connection train because of the rail works once; maybe that's why I don't rely on trains that much. I'll try to research the matter further and report if find something worth of mentioning.

Dear Jan, could you, please, tell me, why are you interested in Kiel ballet? Do they have any remarkable performances or is it your private interest? The case is, I live not so far from the German border and am always after interesting ballet events, so I'll be very glad to get some tips!

Thank you for the post, Duck! Unfortunately I was unable to attend the performance myself, but I send my sister, living in Paris, to it. She was very content and impressed by choreography and dancers' skills!

Kizzy Matiakis, last October promoted to Principal Dancer of the Royal Danish Ballet, is a mother of the 5-y.o. boy.

So nice to know that you liked the performance, Janet. Exactly my thoughts about the set and costumes. I saw the ballet with other dancers and it was equally fabulous! No, unfortunately I don't have any idea about the DVD.

Here: https://www.dr.dk/tv/se/opera-og-ballet-det-kgl-teater-tv/-/giselle-ballet-fra-det-kgl-teater#!/ it's posible to watch the ballet "Giselle" performed by RDB in November of 2016. In the beginning of the transmission Nikolaj Hubbe says welcome words and it's shown a piece of the workshop with the main performers, Ida Praetorius (Giselle) and Andreas Kaas (prince Albrecht). The record should be available for viewing for 7 days.

Right now there is one ticket for 21st of September, 7:30 pm available on the site!

I saw the final performance of Project Polunin yesterday, traveling to see it from Denmark (and I also paid for my ticket, though not the highest price) and I'm not disappointed at all, and I liked the most of the performance. To my mind, all dancers, including those from the second piece ("Tea or coffee") danced beautifully and made a lot of effort. I was quite impressed by Serguei's performance in the " Icarus" part, and Osipova was superb! Probably, the choreography isn't Serguei's cup of tea, at least not yet, but my opinion is that Project Polunin has reached it aim: presented the new works and new names; hopefully the young dancers engaged in this project will be noticed and given the opportunity to develop further their potential!

I'm lookng forward to some performances I've already bought tickets to - "The Snow queen " by the National Finnish ballet this end of month in Copenhagen, "Jewels" in Copenhagen by RDB, and "Dangerous liaisons "of Cathy Marston by RDB. I'd love to come to London to see "Mayerling" and Mariinsky ballet and I am looking forward to Svetlana Zakharova's "Amore" in November. Hopefully I'll get a chance to see the "Stravinsky evening" in Milano as I should be there during these dates.

Until the 31st of December it's possible to watch the "Romeo and Julie" ballet (choreography of John Neumeier) performed by the RDB in the spring of 2016 here: https://www.dr.dk/tv/se/romeo-og-julie-ballet-fra-det-kgl-teater/-/romeo-og-julie-ballet-fra-det-kgl-teater