In connection with the release of the DVDs featuring the Bournonville Schools, all six of the schools will be presented throughout the festival week at Stærekassen prior to the evening’s performances. An introduction will be provided by Director of the Royal Danish Theatre Ballet School, Anne Marie Vessel Schlüter, who is also one of the driving forces behind the DVD production. The training programme step designs will be performed by dancers from the Royal Danish Ballet as well as pupils from the ballet school.
Casting for the Bournonville Schools at New Stage
>>Go here
The six Bournonville Schools – one for each day of the week from
Monday to Saturday – were not set up by Bournonville himself, but by one of his
successors, Hans Beck. The school step designs were taken from Bournonville’s
teachings, from his ballets and probably choreographed by Hans Beck himself too.
Beck committed the step designs to paper at the beginning of the 1890s, and they remained the
training system of the schools until 1932 when Harald Lander modified the schools after
his appointment as artistic director.
The Bournonville schools were handed down from
generation to generation with the changes and embellishments that come naturally with an
oral tradition.
In 1967, a programme about the schools was televised on DR under Hans
Brenaa’s direction, arranged by Allan Fridericia and accompanied by Elvi Henriksen.
Not all steps were included in the programme.
The schools were officially publicised for
the first time in 1979 by Kirsten Ralov. They were issued with French step indications and
in two separate notation systems (Benesh and Laban) along with the accompanying music.
|