The Prague Post
August 29th, 2008
Endowment Fund     Business Listings ONLINE      Reservations      Classifieds    Subscriptions
Hotel Prague Centre

Home » Archives » Tempo

Step by step

An August Bournonville devotee brings his legacy to Prague

By Brooke Edge
For The Prague Post
March 5th, 2008 issue

KURT VINION/THE PRAGUE POST
enlarge
KURT VINION/THE PRAGUE POST
A proud keeper of the Bournonville flame, Andersen explains its fine points here to Nela Čelišová, who dances the parts of Effy and Nancy in La Sylphide.
enlarge
KURT VINION/THE PRAGUE POST
enlarge
KURT VINION/THE PRAGUE POST
enlarge
KURT VINION/THE PRAGUE POST
A rare moment of repose after another intense rehearsal session in Prague.
enlarge
Frank Andersen first took the stage in an August Bournonville ballet at the age of 7. Forty-seven years later, he is internationally renowned as a leading expert on the performance, study and production of Bournonville, in demand by dance companies worldwide.
For three weeks in January and February, Andersen was in Prague working with the National Theater’s ballet company on its new production of Bournonville’s La Sylphide and Napoli. The Prague Post caught up with Andersen after one of the rehearsals to talk about his work perpetuating one of Europe’s most distinguished dance legacies.
The very name Bournonville conjures up images of the style he defined — Romantic ballet, marked by folk dances and ethereally supernatural female figures, with love triumphing in the end. The original choreographies he crafted for the Royal Danish Ballet during his tenure, first as a solo dancer, then artistic director, between 1830 and 1877, were light and beautiful, with an emphasis on storytelling and human emotions.
Bournonville stressed that his dancers conceal their exertion. His is not the athletic style of contemporary ballet or the showy impressiveness of the Russians, but rather a graceful artistry of small jumps and perfect penchés.
In a Bournonville ballet, “When I say, ‘I love you,’ ” Andersen explained, gesturing toward his heart, “I say it the same onstage like I do with my wife.” It’s not an over-the-top exaggeration reaching to the back row, but rather a modest amplification of everyday behavior.
Because of this accessibility for the audience — and, of course, the rich choreography — Bournonville has never left the Royal Danish Ballet repertoire. His works have been performed every season since his death in 1879. Worldwide, the two pieces currently playing in Prague have each been staged nearly 1,000 times.
“There will always be people who remember it, and it has been like that all the time,” Andersen said, explaining that the original choreography has been preserved by dancers and directors handing down Bournonville’s work from generation to generation. That tradition has made him one of the few classical ballet choreographers whose work has not been lost over time.
The real stuff
Andersen assumed the mantle of safeguarding and promoting Bournonville’s legacy when he became artistic director of the Royal Danish Ballet in 1985, following 14 years as a dancer with the company and director of the Bournonville Group, a touring ballet troupe. In 15 years as the Danish Ballet’s leader (he left for a time in the mid-1990s to direct the Royal Swedish Ballet), Andersen has been praised for spearheading multiple Bournonville festivals, maintaining the Ballet School of the Royal Theatre’s Bournonville roots, and promoting the classic Bournonville style abroad.
But he was quick to stress that he is not simply passing along a static body of knowledge. “It is not a question of reproducing Bournonville’s ballets in the world,” he insisted, but rather a matter of translating the tradition he grew up with. “We must look at it with fresh eyes.”
Andersen enjoys watching dancers who weren’t educated in the Bournonville style “get it.”
“It is really wonderful to see people grow in a role,” he said. “That is what gives me the kick and the reward in doing this.”
With the help of five additional Bournonville specialists from the Royal Danish Ballet, Andersen made sure Prague dancers understood the subtleties and hallmarks of the Bournonville style during his time in Prague. Their first reaction, he said, was typical.
“Many of them respond ‘Oh yeah, sure,’ ” upon hearing that performing Bournonville is dramatically different from any other ballet method. But, after a few days of working with the new technique, they found themselves sore. Once the initial rehearsals had passed, however, Andersen could see them getting stronger in the style and more well rounded as dancers. “I think they’ve been very open about the approach,” Andersen said of his National Theater students.
After he steps down as artistic director of the Royal Danish Ballet in May, Andersen will be spending even more time exporting his cultural heritage. Post-retirement residencies are already planned for China, Japan, Moscow, Helsinki, Estonia and Cuba.
The many requests for his Bournonville expertise, Andersen guesses, may be due to a resurgence of classical ballet, in general, among companies around the world. “I feel a definite increased interest in the roots,” he said. “I think it’s so important to look back to the roots.”
But his experience as an artistic director has also taught him the importance of moving ahead. He cited the popularity of two Jiří Kylián works in Copenhagen this year as an example of companies combining classic and contemporary techniques to keep dancers and audiences engaged and educated.
As for the National Theater Ballet, Andersen liked what he saw.
“I think that Petr Zuska is doing a good job with his versatile repertoire,” Andersen said, noting the National Theater Ballet director’s talent for mixing his own new works with others, like La Sylphide, that “look all the way back.” The latter are necessary, Andersen believes, to say to dancers and fans, “Hey guys, this is the real stuff.”

Brooke Edge can be reached at tempo@praguepost.com


Other articles in Tempo (5/03/2008):

Browse the Current Issue

If you enjoyed this article, why don't you subscribe to the print version!
We accept secure online transactions provided by PayPal and Moneybookers

Be the first to add a comment!


Full Name: *
City: *
E-mail: **
This comment can be published in the print version of The Prague Post
Enter the text on the right:
 visual captcha
Comment: *
* Required field. In order to be approved for display, comments must have a first and last name and a city.
** E-mails are required and will only be used for internal purposes.

Most visited in Business Listings

Hotel booking
The Prague Post Online contains a selection of articles that have been printed in
The Prague Post, a weekly newspaper published in the Czech Republic.
To subscribe to the print paper, click here.
Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.