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He returned to RDB as Artistic Director in 2002, eight years after his first term in the role from 1985 to 1994, spending four of the intervening years (1995 to 1999) as Director of Royal Swedish Ballet.

To say the least Andersen undoubtedly brings a rich maturity to this second term with RDB. In a conversation with me in his spacious office at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, he said, "I don't think I feel that, but I hope that I am expressing that, because I think that it's very important to learn from before, and one can never learn enough. But I hope that I've been better now as a listener than I was before. That's what some people have said to me. And I hope that my dancers feel that I am giving them the confidence and the strength as well as support and encouragement that they should have in order to be the best performers. That's at least my goal."

What does he see as the main difference between the company's present state compared with ten years ago at the end of his first term as director? "The most important issue is the way they work, and the way they work together. I think the work spirit is growing, and the devotion for the art and for Bournonville is really really positive. There was a very individual feeling when I left the company. In the last two years we have worked on team-building courses. We've travelled outside Copenhagen on weekends. We've discussed how we could do things better and how we could help each other more."

These group sessions appeared to have been beneficial to all concerned. "I think it is proving now the value of this. This has given us great confidence in the future. And everybody is going in and taking responsibility and helping each other and working for each other, supporting and encouraging each other. That's what I feel is there now. The team spirit has slightly declined in the last ten years, but I really feel that it is coming back very strongly, and just in time so that we can be ready for the Bournonville Festival."

The third Bournonville Festival, which commemorates the bicentennial of the great 19th century choreographer, August Bournonville, will take place from June 3 to 11, and is uppermost in Andersen's mind at present. It only takes place every 13 years, and the last festival in 1992 was a high point of Andersen's first term as artistic director. Among the highlights in this coming festival is "Konservatoriet" which will be given in its complete two-act version. There will also be a new production of "Kermesse in Bruges" which will revert to the original music score.

This Festival will have performances of the ten Bournonville ballets surviving in the repertory as well as a Gala on the closing night. In addition the Bournonville school will be documented by film, and all the six classes from Monday to Saturday will be ready for the Festival in June. In addition, several books on Bournonville will be published.

Andersen is working very hard to ensure that "the Royal Danish Ballet is the company dancing Bournonville the best." However, besides maintaining the standard of dancing in the Bournonville repertory, he is also keen that the company should be versatile and that the dancers can also excel in the styles of other choreographers.

Some critics have remarked that there is a lack of uniformity in the company style nowadays, since the Royal Danish Ballet dancers are of different nationalities and trained in different schools. Andersen however disagrees: "I've put a lot of effort in training to make them more unfied, and I think the result is quite extraordinary. When we get to the Festival, you'll see a united style in Bournonville. I'm not concerned the least about that. On the other hand I think it's a very strong asset that we have in these foreign dancers who are giving us new blood. And I don't think there is any ballet company in the world - not even the Paris Opera Ballet - where there are no foreign dancers."

 

Frank Andersen
© Royal Danish Ballet

But why could he not take all the new dancers from the Royal Danish Ballet school? "We could, but I think we get good inspiration from abroad as well. I am very happy for our Chinese dancer Yao Wei for instance. She's fabulous. I wouldn't hesitate to take another one if she is good, because I know that I can teach her style. Yao Wei proved that, and I'm very proud of her."

Andersen sounded very satisfied with his company overall. "We have the dancers we need to be able to perform the ballets. We are pretty strong in the corps de ballet and soloists level, and we also have some good individual principals."

The new opera house will open on 15 January, and will greatly benefit the Royal Danish Ballet. "We are going to expand the company to 100 dancers, and become one of the biggest companies in the world."

Turning back to his experience at the Royal Swedish Ballet he reminisced, "Well, it was very exciting there. I had four very good and interesting years. I thought I had come with some experience from here, but then I realised that I did not, and so I had to start from scratch. It was very challenging and difficult, but I hope that they learnt something too. I certainly learnt a lot, and I had a wonderful time with my family up there in Stockholm. But it wasn't easy to run the company there. I think we did some good work. We organised a nice festival celebrating the 225th anniversary of the company, and we've put them on the map. I hope that they will stay there, if they want to stay there."

One of the problems in the ballet world today is a shortage of good classical choreographers. Andersen said that he himself has no ambition as a choreographer. Nevertheless it is still interesting to hear Andersen's view on this. "Yes, there are some difficulties there, and it's something that we have to face and nurture like in a greenhouse. I'm doing that next year. We are doing an inter-Nordic project with Stockholm, Oslo, and Helsinki which is called NorCo (Nordic Choreography). Each city will present four world premieres by Nordic choreographers. In six months, there will be 16 world premieres. So we are promoting new choreography, though it will take time."

And he identified another major problem facing ballet at present. "I have to admit that globally classical ballet has lost ground to opera, and maybe other art forms too, because the possibilities outside are tremendous these days with regard to the computer and data. The possibilities to go on the internet and experience new things are so extraordinary that many people are choosing to stay home and download. So we have a challenge there to get people into the theatre, and then into ballet. So that's two challenges. I feel that there will be many difficulties and challenges ahead for classical ballet."

Nevertheless Andersen is still optimistic about the future of ballet. "I believe that everything goes in waves like with wine - there are good years as well as bad years. Opera, I think, has had its time now, and now ballet is on its way up. That's my feeling in the theatre now." A most reassuring prediction indeed, which hopefully will turn out to be true.