Hail and Farewell in Copenhagen

[Jane S]

The Royal Danish Ballet is currently dancing Balanchine's Jewels and at last night's performance Nikolaj Hubbe appeared on stage twice - after Rubies, to promote Alexander Bozinoff to Solodanser (Principal), and after Diamonds, to do the same for Emma Riis- Cofoed. She has been very obviously headed for the top ever since she joined the company in 2017, whilst Bozinoff is a bit more of a surprise - Hubbe describes him offstage as a 'still water running deep' personality and he has quietly built up quite a repertoire of leading roles.

 

The press release claims this a first for a double onstage promotion but I'm fairly sure that Alexei Ratmansky and Thomas Lund were also promoted together, after a performance of Swan Lake (Prince and Jester respectively). But that was long ago, and at the end of this month Thomas Lund leaves his post as Director of the RDB school after 10 years. His successor is Anne Peyk. until now the director of the Tivoli Ballet School. The press release announcing her appointment describes her previous career (via Google Translate):

 

'Anne Holm-Jensen Peyk comes from the position as innovative artistic director of Tivoli Ballet School and also has 13 years of experience as an instructor and teacher at the Royal Ballet with strong results in organizational, talent and staff development. Her ability to act in the Danish ballet school environment is seen, among other things. through initiatives such as the establishment of the ballet competition The Danish Ballet Prize and the association for dance medical knowledge Dance Science Denmark. Anne Holm-Jensen Peyk is herself a former dancer and has a strong national and international network in the professional ballet environment as well as the ballet school environment, i.a. Ballet Chemnitz, Tivoli Ballet Theater, The Royal Ballet, American Ballet Theater, Finnish National Ballet and Hamburg Ballet.'

[Jane S]

Apologies - her name is Emma Riis-Kofoed.

 

(Which I know perfectly well - fingers/brain link problem, I'm afraid)

[Jane S]

Another new solodanser - Canadian Ryan Tomash was promoted to the company's top level after the last performance of the season.

 

It's been a rapid rise - he joined the corps de ballet in 2017 and was made a soloist only last year - but from the video of the occasion, it's a very popular promotion. Nikolaj Hubbe says Tomash reminds him of Henning Kronstam, which is quite a compliment!

 

[Jane S]

I'm  pleased to see that Stephanie Chen Gundorph was promoted to solodanser last week. She's a dancer I've admired ever since I saw her, in her first season in the company, as  Eleanore, the heroine of Bournonville's Kermessen in Bruge. She's had quite a long wait to the top and I look forward to hearing great things of her in the future.

 

[Estreiiita]

I saw Neumeier's " A Midsummer's Night Dream" in Copenhagen on the 6th of November where Stephanie Chen Gundorf danced Hippolyta/Titania and Ryan Tomash - Theseus/Oberon and I was very much impressed by her dancing and my thoughts were that it's a dance worth of a prima ballerina! So I'm also very glad for that well deserved promotion;  Here you can see her in " Sylfiden" - recording is from a year ago:

 

[Estreiiita]

And maybe another clip - from the same performance; Alexander Bozinoff was James and Christina Michanek was Madge: