There's a press release on the Royal Danish Ballet site (in Danish only) that says that Frank Andersen will step down at the end of his current contract (end of season 2008). The Theater Chief, Michael Christiansen, will leave at the same time.

Well, this is an interesting development. Any thoughts about who might be in line to step into those postions?

I think it's too early to tell. Two stay-at-home Danes who have experience running small companies are Alexander Kolpin and Peter Bo Bendixen (who just assumed the position of director at Tivoli's Pantomime Theater. There are, of course, the ex-patriate Danes (Ib Andersen, Nikolaj Hubbe, and Peter Martins). When Andersen was appointed the last time, it was announced that Lloyd Riggins (American, but an Honorary Dane, now dancing in Hamburg) would be being groomed as director, and would serve in some sort of artistic capacity, but that lasted about three seconds. Michael Christiansen, the departing Theater Chief with an extraordinarily unfortunate record of appointments , will still be in place during the selection process, so it's anybody's guess. Why a dancer? Let's try something NEW.

(The article went on to say that the heads of the opera and drama departments will remain. Opera is King in Copenhagen now. Has been for well over a decade.)

The search is on. I received the following notice from the RDB's Marketing Department yesterday. Nice to see 'preservation of the Bournonville tradition' as one of the job's top tasks.

The Royal Theatre seeks
Artistic director for The Royal Danish Ballet

The position as artistic director for The Royal Danish Ballet at The Royal Theatre is vacant from July 1st 2008.

The artistic director is appointed by the board of the theatre and reports to the managing director. The artistic director for the Ballet works in line with the artistic director for the Opera and the artistic director for the Drama and these three represent jointly the artistic line of The Royal Theatre. The artistic director has both artistic and the overall financial-administrative responsibility for the Ballet. Administrator Henrik Sten Petersen attends to the daily administrative direction under the artistic director.

The appointed artistic director is assumed available on a consultant basis from the summer 2007 in order to begin the planning of the repertoire for the season 2008/09 and onwards.

The Ballet Department has a separate budget which includes the ballet company , instructors, pianists and a number of other employees as stage managers, producers and administrative personnel. The activities of the Ballet Department are at the moment performances at Kgs. Nytorv (Old Stage), at the Opera (both Store Scene and Takkelloftet) as well as touring and outdoor performances. It is planned that the Ballet will do both smaller and bigger productions on a regular basis at the new drama house when it opens in February 2008.

It is in the interest of The Royal Theatre to receive applications from a wide, international range of candidates.

The artistic director must be able to:

Both preserve and renew the Bournonville tradition and constantly develop the Ballet as well as secure and develop its central place in the Danish cultural life, the international ballet world and in the mind of the audience.

Secure the global position of the Ballet both by choice of repertoire and artists as well as guest performances and tours.

Participate in the creation of new ballets and scenic modes of expressions.

Take care of and develop the artistic personnel.

Position the art form and seek new ways of enhancing the awareness of ballet, and open the theatre for a larger and broader audience.

Cooperate with the other art forms at The Royal Theatre.

Contribute to a continuous strengthening of the education system for the ballet and active work for the best possible recruitment for the ballet company both national and international.

Control a financial-administrative system for the ballet department to ensure an optimum use of the resources.

....etc......Read more about The Royal Theatre at www.kglteater.dk.

Eske Bo Knudsen
Marketing Coordinator Assistant
Den Kongelige Ballet / Royal Danish Ballet

Very interesting, indeed. There's a lot at stake.

It would be nice also if female dancers came under consideration once in awhile, although with the male contingent traditionally as strong in the company as it is, I suppose it’s inevitable that men should predominate among the candidates. (Although as I think about it I recall at least one ballerina who thought she was right for the job, as Alexandra relates in her book on Henning Kronstam).

There is at least one female potential candidate who knows the culture of the RDB thoroughly and also knows of its idiosyncracies and is capable of discerning what should be kept and what can fall away. And "fall away" is probably the best way in managing any old problems there. Don't call attention to it, just say, "We're going to do something different. We'll see how it works out over time." And she's not the candidate mentioned by Alexandra, although that one has her strengths, too. I think the best route there is "Bournonville is the institutional treasure. What gets in the way of that is best forgotten." I wish I knew more about the administrative/executive abilities of any candidate, but I guess that's pretty much the same in all business.