© Per Morten Abrahamsen Royal Danish 'La Sylphide' reviews 'La Sylphide' reviews Blangstrup in reviews Michanek in reviews Olsen in reviews recent Royal Danish reviews more Jane Simpson reviews Discuss this review (Open for at least 6 months)

It's for three couples, set to music by Vivaldi, and it's called Lost on SLOW. (Elo goes in for cute titles - the piece he did for the RDB last year was called 10 to Hyper M - and I wish he'd stop. He presumably knows what they mean but I doubt anyone in the audience does.) He's a crossover choreographer and as if to prove it, the women wear the unusual combination of - reading from the top down - tiaras, tutus, bare legs and soft shoes, a disconcerting mix which plays tricks on the brain, making you 'see' pointe work where you know it can't be. Whatever you may think of Elo's choreography, he knows how to make his dancers look good, building on their individual strengths to show them to their best advantage. The men in this cast - Jean-Lucien Massot, Tim Matiakis and Fernando Mora - are in any case an interesting trio, strikingly different in physique and temperament but all having the estimable knack of looking like rational adults whilst tying themselves or their partners in knots. The women (Kizzy Howard, Alba Nadal and Amy Watson) work hard but make rather less of an impression, maybe because they aren't quite so sharply distinguished from each other. The lighting (by Thomas Bek Jensen) provided a fine stage picture: those in the stalls saw the dancers silhouetted against bands of strong colour, and I'm told that from higher up, the patterns of light on the floor gave a different but equally pleasant experience. Overall, I found it hard to determine where the choreography was taking us, but if the journey was pointless at least it took us through some attractive scenery.

I had two particular reasons for wanting to see this evening's cast in La Sylphide: James was Mads Blangstrup, returning to leading roles after a long absence through injury, and the Sylphide was Christina Michanek (formerly Olsen), who made her debut in this closely guarded role only last season. Blangstrup has a strong stage-presence, and his aristocratic good looks and his emotional reserve go a long way to defining the way he plays James. If the Sylphide hadn't intervened, you feel he would have married Effie and behaved towards her with perfect consideration: but she would always have known that there was a deeper emotional capability in him which she couldn't access. It takes the shock of the Sylphide's death to break through his detachment, and it's no surprise that he goes to pieces so completely. Michanek is still in the corps de ballet: so far as I know, this is her first big role. Her inexperience shows most in the opening minutes, when she has to hold the stage on her own, and seemed to be finding it difficult just to 'be' without playing to the audience. Later on, reacting to James, she looked more at ease. I'm not convinced yet that she's a Sylphide, but at the RDB these early performances are just the start of a long journey, and she has time on her side.

Maria Bernholdt's Effy is one of those who finds consolation in Gurn's arms very quickly after James's disappearance - one embrace and she was already much more cheerful, one look at her shiny engagement ring and she was completely convinced and went off very happily to her wedding. Her Gurn was Morten Eggert, who gives the feeling he's got a lot more spirit than his situation allows him to show. Madge was less dominant than is sometimes the case: Jette Buchwald gives a very straightforward interpretation, with none of the I-used-to-be-a-Sylphide add-ons, but I felt James would have worked out his destruction all on his own, without any help from her.