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Alexandra Tomalonis became interested in Henning Kronstam, then Ballet Master of the Royal Danish Ballet, during her first visit to Copenhagen in 1990. Becoming intrigued by the indefinable quality of his productions, she decided to write his biography. However he was an intensely private person and she eventually approached him in 1993 with a view to writing solely about his roles. By dramatic mischance, two days after agreeing he was abruptly removed from his post in unexplained circumstances. In fact his health had broken down and he suffered a collapse that led to his virtual sacking. She therefore had no easy task in interviewing him and fitting his own version of events into the recorded history and t he recollections of friends and colleagues. What emerges is a book that is a portrait, not only of the individual but also of the Royal Danish Ballet, to which he devoted his whole life, set against the background of the Danish national character.

Kronstam was born in 1934 into a comfortable middle-class family. He was his mother’s favourite but his childhood and early adulthood were marred by her intermittent hospitalisations for manic depression and her eventual suicide, for which he blamed himself for the rest of his life. At 17 he met an aristocratic older man, Franz Gerstenberg, who became his life-partner and fulfilled the roles variously of lover, business manager and father figure. At the beginning of their relationship Kronstam was actually under age and at one point his parents reported the pair to the police – a fact that fatally strained family ties. Despite remaining with him until Gerstenberg died in 1994, Kronstam had numerous relationships with other people, men and women – in fact he seems seriously to have considered mar rying at least two women - but he eventually married Gerstenberg in 1989 when Denmark legalised same-sex marriage. His own mental health was unstable: his first breakdown occurred at the age of 26 and he was hospitalised on several occasions. There was also a history of heavy drinking. The author presumes that he suffered from manic depression like his mother and there is an interesting “afterword” by an American psychiatrist supporting this theory; indeed Kronstam hints at this himself, but there is no confirmation that he was ever diagnosed or treated as such and the general impression in the ballet world was that he was an alcoholic. His death in 1995 at the age of 61, a year after Gerstenberg’s death, came just as he seemed to be on the mend from the final breakdown in health that caused his ignominious removal from the Royal Danish Ballet. His public funeral and the later memorial evening of performances by the company are described with heartbreaking poignancy.

Henning Kronstam on the book dust jacket

He entered the Royal Danish Theatre Ballet School at the age of eight, having been singled out by the teacher at ballroom dancing classes where he and his elder brother were sent to learn correct social behaviour. The School seems to have offered him the order, stability and discipline previously missing from his life. The training was uni-dimensional to say the least. Only the steps of the Bouronville technique were taught – very little pointe work and little or no partnering or character dances – and academic study was often sacrificed to preparation for small parts in performances. In fact Kronstam, who grew to 6 ft in his early teens, seems to have entered the company proper while still a student, going on stage to partner an experienced 30-year o ld ballerina without any preparation at the tender age of 13. He remained with the company throughout his entire career, rising rapidly through the ranks and eventually becoming Ballet Master (a role which seems to equate to Artistic Director but encompassing the responsibilities of ballet master, school director and general administrator) at the age of 44.

A picture emerges of a dancer who never quite got the recognition he deserved. Eric Bruhn was six years his senior and Flemming Flindt two years his junior. Both names are widely known in the international ballet world, but Kronstam chose to remain in Denmark (although guesting occasionally abroad with the company or as a solo dancer) and was less well known. Although he was regarded by insiders as one of the greatest dancers of his time, he does not seem to have registered in the consciousness of the audiences, critics or ballet historians and the author offers various explanations: firstly “Jantelov”, the peculiarly Danish version of tall poppy syndrome, whose precepts could best be summarised as “who do you think you are?” which made star status within Denmark unacceptable; then his ability t o inhabit the character of a role so completely that his own personality was submerged, and lastly his unwillingness to befriend the critics who therefore wrote unfavourable reviews. Indeed he was largely omitted from a history of the Royal Danish Ballet in the programme notes for the famously successful Bouronville Festival of 1979 which he had organised because he unwittingly offended its author.

The chapters on his major roles offer fascinating insights not only into Kronstam’s painstaking approach but also into the creation and staging of ballets. However the information is not given in isolation: the book sets out virtually the whole history of the Royal Danish Ballet and Kronstam’s career is interwoven with the changes and the many intrigues and scandals besetting the Royal Danish Ballet. The tensions between those who favoured preserving the company’s heritage and its Danishness and the modernisers who felt that only by bringing in foreign choreographers and dancers could the company hold its own in the international arena will be familiar to British readers, as will the tensions between dancers and artistic directors.

There are tensions too in Kronstam himself. He is described as aloof and having an air of unapproachable authority, yet throughout his life he was heavily dependent on others: Harald Lander, his early mentor, Vera Volkova, his teacher, Niels Matthiasen, Minister of Culture and not least Franz Gerstenberg who saw to the day to day organisation of all non-professional aspects of his life. Kronstam had difficulty coping when each of them left or died. Again, was he a great dancer in the technical sense or a great actor, or both? Was he a great artistic director who got the company back on its feet after decades of turbulence, or a weak, unimaginative and cautious stopgap? Was he a person beloved by his friends and the members of the company, or an aloof, isolated and selfish individual who lacked generosity to others? What was the true nature of his sexuality? Were his health problems due to mental disorder or alcoholism, or a combination of both? Was he treated abominably by the company who effectively sacked him when his health broke down or was he unfit to continue? Unfortunate gaps in the records and the unwillingness of the author to probe too deeply in her conversations with Kronstam have left many questions unanswered.

This is not an easy read – there is a wealth of information and the structure of the book makes it possible to lose sight of the sequence of events – but persistence (plus reference to the list of Kronstam’s roles set out in chronological order in an appendix) brings worthwhile rewards and it is a must for anyone who saw Henning Kronstam dance or who is interested in the Royal Danish Ballet.