A Nod from the King

Back in the days when Jean Georges Noverre, one of the grandfathers of ballet, was writing his famous Lettres sur la Danse (1760), Copenhagen's Royal Danish Ballet was just ten years old. But under a Noverre pupil named Antoine Bournonville and his son Auguste, the Danes learned so well that their company soon became one of the best in Europe. Last week Denmark's 200-year-old Royal Ballet, which now bows only to England's crack Sadler's Wells Company in Western Europe, was putting on a special 14-night summer festival. Danish balletomanes saw the full current repertoire of 21 ballets--most of them native productions* which are rarely seen outside of Scandinavia.

Help from the Men. Since beautiful Prima Ballerina Margot Lander retired in February, the Royal Ballet has sorely missed a female dancer who could rival England's Margot Fonteyn (TIME, Nov. 14). And the company as a whole could not quite match the glittering polish and clockwork precision drilled into the Sadler's Wells troupe. But the Danes proved to be second to none in their male stars.

Even Sadler's Wells has no one to touch handsome, Danish-born First Solo Dancer Borge Ralov, 42 (who changed his name from Petersen to avoid confusion with another dancer). In an art in which the reverse is usually true, the Danish male dancers are thoroughly masculine. Says Ballet Master-Choreographer Harold Lander: "When I see a boy going that way, I tell him to give it up or give up dancing. Ballet needs feminine women and masculine men."

Help from the King. Completely state-financed and controlled, the Royal Ballet has also had a little artistic help from 51-year-old King Frederik IX, an ardent and accomplished musician. Solo Dancer Ralov in particular could thank him for one of his successes. When Ralov first danced the role of Gennaro in Auguste Bournonville's Napoli, Frederik, then Crown Prince, came backstage and asked him if he would like some pointers. Frederik had seen Hans Beck, a famed Danish dancer, the role years before, and had spent hours in a practice room with Ralov, coaching him on what he had seen.

As the festival began, King Frederik and his handsome Swedish-born Queen nodded approval from the Royal Box in the gilt-splashed and chandeliered Kongelige Teater as Soloist Ralov and his blonde wife Kirsten danced a rousing performance of Napoli. By the time the festival closed this week, a silken-smooth performance of Concerto (based on Robert Schumann's Piano Concerto in A Minor) had moved the Danes to break an old Royal Ballet tradition. To a thunder of bravos, the full company lined up to take one of its rare curtain calls.

*Despite guest invasions by famed Choreographers Michel Fokine in 1925 and George Balanchine in 1930, Denmark's company has largely resisted Russian influences. The Danes saw their first Swan Lake in 1938, when it was already 60 years old.

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