Celebrating Bournonville
Giannandrea Poesio
Royal Danish Ballet Sadler’s Wells Theatre The preservation of specific choreographic styles from the past is the main obsession in today’s world of ballet. Frequently perpetrated by academics with little or no practical knowledge of theatre dance, this fixation has often led to sterile stagings, in which theatrical vibrancy is sacrificed to debatable ballet archaeology. Luckily, not all dance practitioners think like this. In an enlightening talk, Thomas Lund and Johan Holten, respectively artistic director and co-director of the company of Principals and Soloists of the Royal Danish Ballet, stated that, although they have a profound respect for tradition, they are also fairly open to those changes that the ballet tradition must undergo in order to remain alive.
The tradition they were referring to was that of August Bournonville, the 19th-century ballet master who created a genre that differed considerably from the French Romantic ballet world, which was by then omnipresent. Blinkered traditionalists might not agree with such an open-minded vision of Bournonville’s legacy. Yet the benefits of Lund’s and Holten’s approach to past choreographic and technical principles are clearly mirrored in the sparkling work of the company. The celebration of works by August Bournonville was such a treat that I felt compelled to see it more than once.
The evening opened with a nice chunk from Le Conservatoire, one of the first ballets to bring on stage a slice of every dancer’s daily routine. What I particularly enjoyed was the way it evoked, more or less accurately, the days when ballet classes focused on artistry as well as technique, and were not merely the gym-training exercises that they have become today. On the opening night not everything went according to plan and, like in a real daily class, a few wobbly moments could be spotted by the expert eye. Yet the dancers’ vibrant and enthusiastic performances, together with the most delectable 19thcentury oompah-pah music, made one soon forget any flaw.
The fizzy mood introduced by Le Conservatoire was well matched by the duet from Flower Festival in Genzano. A cultured man, Bournonville had spent a fair stretch of time in Italy, where he had had the chance of observing with typical 19th-century ‘scientific’ interest different regional habits. In the Flower Festival duet he inserted specific references to what goes on during the festival in the town near to Rome: the steps with which the two dancers cross the stage diagonally reproduce the movements with which people walk carefully amid the fresh flowers that cover the streets of Genzano. This duet has long become an international favourite and has been used almost to exhaustion in every ballet gala. It was particularly refreshing, therefore, to see it performed not as a sterile gala piece but as a dance which relies on the combination of pyrotechnic feats and good acting, in line with Bournonville’s aesthetics. Lund and Caroline Cavallo showed stylistic elegance and perfection on the opening night, while Diana Cuni and Kristoffer Sakurai stood out for panache and sheer fun at the Saturday matinée.
The pas de trios from La Yentana reiterated Bournonville’s passion for everything exotic as well as his unique talent in composing dances that catered in equal measure for male and female talents, at a time when ballet was predominantly a female business. The elegantly Spanish-flavoured number was followed by one of the highlights of the evening, the Jockey Dance, the sole surviving number from the long-lost ballet From Siberia to Moscow. This subtly comic duet, which caricatures England’s love for horses and horse-racing, stands out for being almost postmodern in choreographic and technical terms, albeit having been created in 1876.
I am not sure if the following extract from La Sylphide was a good choice, though. The second-act duet requires to be seen within its full context to be appreciat ed. Luckily this is not the case of the pas de six and the final Tarantella from Napoli, Bournonville’s most famous tribute to southern Italian culture. The sparkling series of dances and the most infectious balletic adaptation of the famous national dance ended the evening on a superb high note. This celebration of works by August Bournonville was a splendid reminder that there is more to Romantic ballet than pale dancing ghosts and mad heroines. More significantly, it highlighted how past choreographic traditions ought to be dealt with.
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