Dancing the Danish way 

Following the success of his production of Bournonville’s La Sylphide for The Royal Ballet in 2005, Johan Kobborg stages the divertissement from Napoli for the company later this month. Zoë Anderson talks to him about his plans for the new production

Bournonville’s 1842 ballet ends with a burst of delight, the pas de six and tarantella. Classical dances are followed by Bournonville’s irresistible version of the folk dance he had seen in Naples.

Johan Kobborg grew up with the Bournonville repertory, starting his career with the Danish Royal Ballet before moving to the British Royal in 1999. When I met him recently, he was preparing for Napoli, planning costumes and casting. He’s intelligent and articulate, but no chatterbox. His detailed answers follow thoughtful pauses; he takes care over the wording. With this serious approach, the jokes come as a surprise – though they come quite often.

La Sylphide was completely new to the company, but The Royal Ballet has danced some of the Napoli material before. Anthony Dowell had his first big chance in a 1962 staging of the divertissement by Erik Bruhn; a second production followed in 1981, though it soon fell out of repertory. More recently, Kobborg staged a Napoli divertissement for his show Out of Denmark, using Royal Ballet dancers. His new version is more ambitious. Besides the pas de six and tarantella, “I’m adding something from Act I,” Kobborg explains. “There’s a very nice group dance for six couples. Now, in the real ballet, there’s a couple of mime sequences, with some of the other characters, so I need to slightly rechoreograph it.”

He mentions those changes very airily. What will they involve? “The actual dance sequences, from both acts, are what they are. But where there are mime sequences, with characters who aren’t part of what I’m taking out as an excerpt – I’ll rechoreograph five, six minutes. Of course, I’ll have to do it within Bournonville style, or at least what I think Bournonville style is. That’s what I really like, to come up with ideas, hopefully so that you won’t notice, ‘This is a new bit’! In a way, that’s difficult, in another it’s easy, having to work within an already set choreographic style. If I just had to choreograph something to music, I could do whatever, but you can’t just do whatever – you have to stay true to the style.”

His Sylphide also had new material. “Some years ago, they discovered music that had been cut out from the ballet. That music, I felt, could help explain the story better. When I was reading the libretto, I’d say, ‘I’ve never heard about this scene, I’ve never seen it!’ But it made sense to me. So I was very lucky that they discovered this music.”  What were those extra scenes? “Well, for example: James clearly tells his friends in Act I that he’s seen this vision of a woman; and they haven’t, so they think it’s crazy. That I think is quite important, because later Gurn, James’ rival, says he’s seen the Sylph. Throughout the rest of the ballet, no one else can see her. And now, I think, Gurn overhears James telling his friends about this woman. So it makes more sense for him to come up with this, that he’s seen James run off with another woman.”

Dancing La Sylphide for the first time, The Royal Ballet looked happy in Bournonville style, with its light jumps and quick, brilliant footwork. In conversation, however, Kobborg doesn’t dwell on that side of the work. “My take on style, it’s like that old saying: when somebody dies, you can leave the ashes and take the soul. That’s what I was trying to do. For myself, when I dance Ashton or MacMillan – now, I’m schooled differently, but I can try to take the soul, the atmosphere of these ballets. I think that’s much, much more important than ‘is this here or here’,” he adds, showing an arrangement of fingers. “I didn’t find it that difficult to teach the ballet to these dancers. I’m totally sure that what I saw them dance here last season was just as good as anywhere, I would say, stylistically. You can also find places in the world where they do Manon extremely well. I saw a comparison between American Ballet Theatre’s Manon and our Manon – well, I shouldn’t say the outcome, but it wasn’t actually that good for us! But that’s what happens when you give out ballets so much. You have dancers everywhere who can make a certain ballet live. Just because it originated in a country, you can’t count on that company dancing it best.”

Much of his coaching was to help the company find meaning in the steps. “If you lift your leg, it means something. And the mime – that was great fun. Mime is all about timing, not acting but reacting. It’s not something that’s planned – it’s, ‘What would you do?’ Even if you’re just looking for your phone, there’s a way you look.”  He hasn’t yet danced his own production: “I’m certain it’s going to be one of the scariest things I have to do. I’ve been standing in front of this whole company, telling them to make sense of the steps. So I’d better deliver what I told them! I’m certain I’m going to have every single James in the wings.”

With Napoli, he admits, he might have to change his approach. Bournonville’s tarantella has plenty of characterisation in its steps, with little rivalries and flirtations between the dancers, but the divertissement has no plot. “The minute you move, you’re telling a story. There are stories between the people, of course there are, but I wouldn’t call it a story ballet. It’s going to be a pure explosion of joyful dance. That’s my aim.”

Kobborg has decided casting in discussion with Monica Mason, The Royal Ballet’s director. “If it were the full-length Napoli, there are many people I could see in the leading roles. But when you take away the role and just put in the dancing, then those people who were obvious, might not be that obvious. So that’s been quite difficult.” He’s chosen plenty of young dancers. “Some will be doing their first soloist part. I like to take a risk with someone. Because, when I was younger – I’m only here because someone took a risk on me. You can wait too long. You have to find out whether people can be pushed or not.” He also had to work around other company commitments – for instance, who was already dancing in La Sylphide. “I don’t think there’s anybody doing both – oh, I do.” He laughs. “I was forced to do it, forced…”  So you say, I suggest. “No, I was, I was, trust me.” 

Besides staging, coaching and dancing, Kobborg is designing the costumes for this Napoli. “That’s a first for me, so that’s quite exciting. I’ve made some drawings, but for me to start choosing material, that’s a different thing. Already, now, I’m getting a buzz. I hope they’ll be good, because – when you don’t have anything else to look at..!”  The traditional set for the complete Napoli is famous: Naples, with Vesuvius in the background, and a high bridge, from which, in the last act, dozens of children watch the dancing. “Of course, it’s nice if you have the big bridge and sixty kids upstage,” says Kobborg, “but you can also do it as something where you really focus on the dancing – I guess I’m trying to find positive things about doing it without a set! No, it’s fine, it can stand alone, in a different way.”

Kobborg is currently thinking about trying his own choreography. “I’m working on a couple of projects. I could easily just test – once a year, within the company, we have opportunities – but that doesn’t interest me. Because I feel you need the proper setting. But I have ideas for some ballets, there are some stories I would like to tell.” He loves pressure, he adds. “That’s why it’s good, with the costumes, because I don’t know if they’ll look nice! I had such a great time with Sylphide. Absolutely loved it. It was very hard, but… If I were just doing the Sylphide again, it probably couldn’t live up to my own expectations of how great a time. It’s good to do something new that will be probably harder, challenging for the company. Sure, I’ll have lots of fun.”

 

NB: Johan Kobborg’s new staging of the divertissement from Napoli for The Royal Ballet opens at the Royal Opera House on January 16.