Dance Performance Review Essay

On March 20th and 21st 2011, Guggenheim Works and Process presented the Royal Danish Ballet taken place at the Guggenheim Museum. The program consisted of twelve pieces: “Excerpts from Bournonville Variations”, “Excerpts from Lost on Slow”, “2nd Movement”, “4th Movement”, “the Jockey Dance”, “Excerpts from A Folktale”, “Excerpts from La Sylphide”, “the Window Scene”, “the Death Scene”, “Excerpts from Napoli”, “Pas de Deux”, “the Tarantella”. The cast of this performance consisted of four soloist: Kizzy Matiakis, Nikolaj Hansen, Alban Lendorf, and Alexander Staeger; as well as six principal dancers: Susanne Grinder, Gudrun Bosjessn, Amy Watson, Jean-Lucien Massot, Thomas Lund, and Ulrik Birkkjaer. Watching a performance from a computer screen was a different type of experience that I was not expecting. Hearing insights from the Artistic Director, Nikolaj Hübbe, prior to the presentation of the dances on stage was something that I would not have received at

I appreciated this online stream because Nikolaj Hübbe spoke about Bournonville and his class structure prior to the beginning of the performance. Bournonvilles class sturucture was very similar to what you would see in a traditional ballet class today ending his class with variations. This allowed me to get an idea on who Bournonville is and what to expect from this portion of the cherography. Five men graced the stage with allegro work, dressed in gray jackets, sometimes folding their arms crossed in front of them. The formations consisted of lines and diagonals with such beautiful and integrate footwork-performed simultaneously with one another. It was beautiful to watch and something that they must have spent a lot of time perfecting it. Nikolaj Hübbe described one of the following pieces, the Jockey Dance, as “Anything you can do, I can do better.” The footwork dancer Thomas Lund and Alban Lenforf performed was so entriquite and