Royal Danish Ballet | |
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General information | |
Name | Royal Danish Ballet |
Local name | Den Kongelige Ballet |
Year founded | 1748 |
Founder | King Frederick V |
Principal venue | Royal Danish Theatre |
Website | kglteater |
Artistic staff | |
Ballet Master | Nikolaj Hübbe |
Other | |
Orchestra | Royal Danish Orchestra |
Official school | Royal Danish Ballet school |
The Royal Danish Ballet (Danish: Den Kongelige Ballet) is an internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Danish Theatre in Kongens Nytorv, Copenhagen, Denmark. It is one of the oldest ballet companies in the world and originates from 1748, when the Royal Danish Theatre was founded. It was finally organized in 1771 in response to the great popularity of French and Italian styles of dance. The company was founded with the opening of the Royal Danish Theatre, which has served as its home since that time. The Royal Danish Ballet school was founded in 1771 under the leadership of French ballet teacher Pierre Laurent (1730–1807), then Vincenzo Galeotti developed it and August Bournonville founded his methodology for the school.
From the outset, the Royal Danish Ballet employed some of the leading French and Italian dancers and choreographers. Within a few years of its founding, in 1771, the Royal Theater Ballet School or Royal Danish Ballet school was established to provide native dancers, of which one of the first was Anine Frølich. One of its early masters, Vincenzo Galeotti, is considered the veritable founder of the company. He was master of the company from 1775 to 1816, and introduced ballet d'action and prepared for the advent of romantic ballet. Galeotti is credited with choreographing Amors og Balletmesterens Luner (The Whims of Cupid and the Ballet Master ), which is still part of the company's repertoire and is the world's oldest ballet still performed with its original choreography.
Another major master of the troupe was the Danish dancer August Bournonville. During the half-century that Bournonville led the company (1828–1879), he choreographed some fifty ballets, of which about a dozen are still part of the company's repertoire. The works are highly influenced by the French school of dance, since Bournonville studied in that country, and include key roles for male dancers, undoubtedly written with himself in mind. After his death, one of his successors, Hans Beck, used the basic steps he learned in Bournonville's classes to create the Bournonville school to teach contemporary dancers the tradition of the old master.
The third great period of the Danish Royal Ballet came in 1932, when Harald Lander took over the helm of the corps. Trained in the United States and the Soviet Union, he both adapted traditional ballets and choreographed original works for the company. He encouraged local choreographers, who went on to create prominent works that won international acclaim. Among them was Børge Ralov, who choreographed the first modern Danish Ballet, The Widow in the Mirror , in 1934. He also trained many prominent international dancers, including Erik Bruhn.
A prominent company director was Henning Kronstam (1978–1982), who directed the 1979 Bournonville Festival.
In the latter half of the 20th century, the Royal Danish Ballet underwent another transformation, with many internationally prominent choreographers, including George Balanchine, commissioned to work with it. Though modern works assumed increasingly important stature in the repertoire, the ballet continued to remain loyal to its classical roots as well, earning it the reputation as one of the finest corps of dancers in the world, incorporating foreign as well as native-born talent.
In 2007 the appointment of New York City Ballet principal dancer Nikolaj Hübbe as artistic director was announced.
August Bournonville was a Danish ballet master and choreographer. He was the son of Antoine Bournonville, a dancer and choreographer trained under the French choreographer, Jean Georges Noverre, and the nephew of Julie Alix de la Fay, née Bournonville, of the Royal Swedish Ballet.
The Bournonville method is a ballet technique and training system devised by the Danish ballet master August Bournonville.
A ballet master is an employee of a ballet company who is responsible for the level of competence of the dancers in their company. In modern times, ballet masters are generally charged with teaching the daily company ballet class and rehearsing the dancers for both new and established ballets in the company's repertoire. The artistic director of a ballet company, whether a male or female, may also be called its ballet master. Historic use of gender marking in job titles in ballet is being supplanted by gender-neutral language job titles regardless of an employee's gender.
The Flower Festival in Genzano is a one-act ballet by Danish choreographer and ballet master August Bournonville (1805–1879). Bournonville created the work for Denmark's Royal Ballet on December 19, 1858, at the Royal Danish Theatre, on the basis of Danes' general enthusiasm for Italy. The libretto, which is adapted from a tale in Impressions de voyage by Alexandre Dumas, tells the story of a pair of young lovers, Rosa and Paolo, which alludes to the festival still celebrated each June in Genzano, Italy. The music is by Edvard Helsted and Holger Simon Paulli.
Le Conservatoire, or A Marriage by Advertisement is a two-act vaudeville ballet created by the Danish choreographer and ballet master August Bournonville in 1849 for the Royal Danish Ballet. The ballet's setting is a dance studio at the Conservatoire de Paris. Bournonville studied at the Paris Conservatoire in the 1820s with the renowned dancer Auguste Vestris. The ballet launched the career of prima ballerina Juliette Price. A divertissement within the larger work called "The Dancing School" permitted Bournonville to display the basics of his style and raise them to the level of enduring art.
Anine Marie Magdalene Frølich was a Danish ballerina, one of the first professional native ballet dancers in Denmark and the first native star within the Royal Danish Ballet. Anine Frølich was perhaps the principal figure in the emergence of classical ballet as a distinct art-form in Denmark.
Antoine Bournonville was a French ballet dancer a choreographer, active in the Royal Swedish Ballet and the Royal Danish Ballet and eventually ballet master in the latter. He is considered to have played a great role in the development of the ballet in Scandinavia. He was the father of August Bournonville.
Sorella Englund is a former soloist and character dancer with the Royal Danish Ballet. She has been a keen supporter of August Bournonville, staging a number of his ballets in Denmark and abroad.
Kirsten Ralov was a Danish ballerina.
Paul James Rooney is an English dancer, choreographer & music artist. He has danced with various companies and choreographers around the world, including names such as; Matthew Bourne, Tim Rushton, Will Tuckett, Danish Dance Theatre & has choreographed many productions for Tivoli (Copenhagen)
Alban Lendorf is a Danish ballet dancer, choreographer, and actor, who was a principal with the Royal Danish Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre. He also was a guest artist with the English National Ballet and the Stanislavski Ballet.
Vincenzo Galeotti was an Italian-born Danish dancer, choreographer and ballet master, who was influential as the director of the Royal Danish Ballet from 1775 until his death.
Dinna Bjørn is a Danish ballet dancer and choreographer. She has specialized dancing and directing the ballets of August Bournonville. Bjørn has also created five Hans Christian Andersen ballets for the Pantomime Theatre in Copenhagen's Tivoli.
The Royal Danish Ballet School is a ballet school that trains dancers for the Royal Danish Ballet. It was founded in the 1770s.
Ida Praetorius is a Danish ballet dancer. She joined the Royal Danish Ballet in 2010, and was promoted to principal dancer in 2016. In 2021, she joined the Hamburg Ballet as a principal dancer.
Elna Eleonora Fobian Ørnberg, also Elna Jørgen-Jensen, was a Danish ballet dancer and instructor who as a soloist starred in Bournonville's productions at the Royal Danish Theatre from 1907. After receiving further training with Mikhail Fokin, she choreographed the once popular but now forgotten Strauss i Paris in 1932. In 1933, she retired as a dancer but continued as a trainer. As a result of her support of the Nazis under the German occupation in World War II, she was imprisoned for six months. In the late 1940s, she left Denmark together with her husband Leif and settled and taught in Madrid.
Gerda Elisabeth Karstens was a Danish ballet dancer with the Royal Danish Theatre where she became a soloist in 1942. She is remembered in particular for her interpretations of Madge in Bournonville's La Sylphide and the headmistress in David Lichine's Graduation Ball. She performed these two roles during her retirement evening in 1956, after which she spent several years teaching mime.
Holly Jean Dorger is an American ballet dancer. She is a principal dancer at the Royal Danish Ballet.