Denmark - Culture

Denmark - Culture - Dance

Denmark
4. Culture
4.10 Dance

[Main menu] - [Previous paragraph] - [Next paragraph]

Dance came into fashion in the European courts in the 17th century, with the French court as the splendid model. With a mixture of able amateurs and budding professionals, the court ballet evolved with beauty and splendour based on harmony and balance. It reflected both the heavenly harmony of the Universe and the monarchs' conception of how their states appeared, or ought to appear. Denmark, too, learned from France. The first Danish court ballet was performed in 1634 at the wedding of Prince Christian and Magdalene Sibylle, and it culminated under Frederik III, whose queen, Sophie Amalie, was a ballet enthusiast and led the court in dancing as an amazon, a peasant girl, a Spanish lady or the muse of war.

In the 18th century theatre dancing moved further and further away from social dancing, and in the Grønnegade Theatre in Copenhagen - the first Danish-language theatre - dance was an important element both in Ludvig Holberg's and Molière's comedies and as independent entertainment. Among the performers was the French dancer Jean Baptiste Landé, who later founded the Imperial Ballet in St Petersburg. The links between the Danish ballet and the ballet of the major countries was thus present from the start. Ballet had a lean time under pietist rule, but when The Danish Theatre opened in Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen in 1748 dance was represented again, although there were only very few Danish ballet artists. Most of them - both ballet masters and dancers - were international artists from Germany, Italy and France.

The foundations were gradually laid for a Danish corps de ballet. 1771 saw the foundation of the Royal Theatre ballet school that is still the mainstay of the Royal Danish Ballet, and in 1775 the Italian Vicenzo Galeotti came to Copenhagen as a ballet master, dancer and choreographer. He was responsible for the first great period of ballet in Denmark, and he directed the Royal Danish Ballet until his death in 1816.

Galeotti introduced le ballet d'action, in which the action was expressed through dance and pantomime. He produced ballet versions of Voltaire and Shakespeare and created the first Scandinavian ballet, Lagertha, which in 1801 was one of the works heralding Romanticism in the Danish theatre. Of his 49 works, only Amors og Balletmesterens Luner (The Whims of Cupid and the Ballet Master)from 1786 has survived. On the other hand, no other ballet in the world has been danced for so long in unbroken tradition.

The great name in 19th-century Danish ballet was August Bournonville, who was born in Copenhagen and became artistic director at the Royal Theatre in 1830, remaining there with few breaks until 1877. From his training in Europe and his travels he knew the demands and the standards in the world of international ballet, and he raised the level of Danish ballet. He made it at one and the same time international in ability and national in style and repertoire, with the special character which is its mark even to the present day and which makes it interesting from an international viewpoint. Bournonville wrote the choreographies for some 50 ballets, of which just under 10 have survived, and this is a bigger repertoire from the Romantic period than any other company can boast. Among the surviving works are La Sylphide (1836), Napoli (1842), Kermessen i Brügge (The Kermesse in Bruges) (1851) and Et Folkesagn (A Folk Tale) (1854).

After August Bournonville the Danish ballet went through a quiet period. His successors sustained the tradition, first and foremost Hans Beck, who in the 1890s collected steps and variations for the so-called Bournonville schools.

The renewal of Danish ballet came in the 20th century. Guest appearances by Michail Fokin in 1925 and George Balanchine 1930-1931 provided inspiration. However, it was Harald Lander who led the ballet to a new series of triumphs in which the life blood was the play of contrasts between the demands of a modern repertoire and loyalty to the Bournonville tradition, which Harald Lander cultivated together with Valborg Borchsenius. Lander, who was artistic director 1932-1951, was also a choreographer, and with a repertoire built around the prima ballerina Margot Lander, he achieved unparalleled popularity for the ballet. Working together with the composer Knudåge Riisager and the author Kjeld Abell he used the ballet as a national standard bearer during the German occupation 1940-1945, and after the Second World War he stood at the head of a really impressive company. The peak of his creations was Etudes (1948), which later came to form the basis for his own international fame. In the Lander era ballets by Nini Theilade, Niels Bjørn Larsen and Børge Ralov were also important. In 1934, Børge Ralov together with Kjeld Abell and the composer Bernhard Christensen created Denmark's first modern ballet, Enken i Spejlet (The Widow in the Mirror).

The Royal Danish Ballet continued its progress towards international status throughout the 1950s. Each year summer festivals were arranged, and there were crucial tours to London in 1953 and Edinburgh in 1955, with the international breakthrough coming as a result of their visit to the USA in 1956. Many of the best choreographers of the day came to Copenhagen to work with the Royal Danish Ballet: George Balanchine, Birgit Cullberg, Roland Petit and Frederick Ashton, who in 1955 created the first Western version of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet for the Royal Ballet. Niels Bjørn Larsen, the greatest Danish mime artist of the 20th century, was artistic director in the 1950s and the first half of the 1960s, his place being taken for a couple of years (1956-1958) by the principal dancer Frank Schaufuss.

In 1966 Flemming Flindt took over the post of artistic director, and a new age began, primarily marked by the fact that Flindt introduced modern dance into the repertoire. He himself made his début as a choreographer with La leçon (The Lesson) (1963), based on a play by Eugène Ionesco, with whom he also co-operated on the great success of the day, Dødens triumf (The Triumph of Death) (1971). The Danish dancers danced in bare feet in Paul Taylor's Aureole (1968), and a large number of other modern dance choreographers made their way into the repertoire.

Henning Kronstam was artistic director 1978-1985. The international reputation of the Ballet was confirmed through tours and through the 1979 Bournonville Festival. The hundredth anniversary of the death of Bournonville was an occasion that demonstrated that through its legacy from the Romantic age Denmark occupies a special place on the world map. Frank Andersen, artistic director 1985-1994, continued the Bournonville tradition and in 1991 persuaded Queen Margrethe II to design the set for A Folk Tale. Peter Schaufuss, who was artistic director 1994-1995, continued this progress towards a Danish repertoire. Danish choreographers, meanwhile, are few and far between, but Anna Lærkesen has created works that are an idiosyncratic continuation of the neo-classical style, and Kim Brandstrup and Tim Rushton are also interesting names. From 1997 to 1999 the British Maina Gielgud was the first woman to become artistic director, and she was also the first non-Dane to hold the post since 1823. In 1999 Aage Thordal-Christensen took over the position as artistic director assisted by Dinna Bjørn who is Bournonville consultant. In 2002 Frank Andersen is back as artistic director; planning the Bournonville Festival in 2005.

Of international choreographers it was especially John Neumeier and John Cranko in the 1970s and 1980s who gave free rein to the Danish dancers' sense of psychological drama, but generally speaking, the Royal Danish Ballet around 2000 stands as a modern, classical company with a repertoire stretching from Balanchine to the great Russian classics such as Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker.

Dance outside the Royal Theatre was for a long time very modest. Since 1844 the Tivoli Pantomime Theatre has cultivated a pantomime form deriving from the Italian commedia dell'arte, blended with a Danish ballet tradition. And for most of the 20th century, the Pantomime Theatre also housed the only permanent ballet company outside the Royal Theatre. It was disbanded in 1991, but on the other hand, every year since the mid-1970s Tivoli has invited leading foreign companies to perform there. Other initiatives like Elsa Marianne von Rosen's and Allan Fridericia's Scandinavian Ballet in the 1960s were important at that time, but only survived for a short time.

Modern dance was late in coming to Denmark. Martha Graham visited Copenhagen in 1954, but only in the 1960s did small groups start working with dance inspired by modern American personalities like Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham. Among the most important were the women's group Living Movement, founded 1971-1972, and Eske Holm's group, founded 1975. None of the initiatives from the 1970s lasted for long. On the other hand, Nyt Dansk Danseteater (the New Danish Dance Theatre), arising from Randi Patterson's projects around 1980, has survived. With Randi Patterson herself, Warren Spears and Anette Abildgaard as choreographers, Denmark finally acquired a modern company of standing, as has been demonstrated in a number of major performances. Interest in dance has also been fostered by the major summer events like the Festival of Fools and Dancin' City, which have brought the most up-to-date international dance to Copenhagen. The situation at the end of the century is an active dance life with a number of smaller groups like Corona, Dance Lab, Kreutzmann Dance, Åben Scene and Out of Control in Copenhagen, and Granhøj Dans and BMT Danseteater in Århus, as well as several freelance choreographers. The training establishment Dansens Hus (House of Dance) was founded in 1985; in 1992, Denmark finally acquired an institutional course in modern dance, and in addition Copenhagen acquired Dansescenen (Stage of Modern Dance), which focuses on modern dance.

The Billedstofteater (Picture Theatre), later called Hotel Pro Forma, has been active in the borderland between dance and theatre, appearing for the first time in 1977. Here, Kirsten Dehlholm creates performances with a bizarre, surrealist and vibrant visual fantasy. After centuries in which there has only been ballet, theatre dance in Denmark at the end of the 20th century can provide a vast array of styles and manners of expression, extending to new and at times provocative ideas of what dance is all about.

Erik Aschengreen

[Top of document] - [Main menu] - [Previous] - [Next]