World Ballet Festival, Denmark, announces 2021 programme

Xander Parish, Lauren Cuthbertson, Marcelino Sambé, Federico Bonelli, Yasmine Naghdi, Marian Walter and Ida Praetorius will dance at this year's festival.

For 13 years running, The World Ballet (Verdensballetten) has presented a summer festival that takes place in specially selected locations around Denmark. Principal dancer of The Royal Ballet Steven McRae and Danish opera singer Jens-Christian Wandt are the joint artistic directors of this year's festival. They have selected a number of the world's leading ballet dancers for the performances this coming summer.

From the Staatsballet of Berlin is Marian Walter; Laurent Cuthbertson, Marcelino Sambé, Federico Bonelli and Yasmine Naghdi, are all principals of The Royal Ballet; Xander Parish is a principal at the Mariinsky; and Ida Praetorius is a principal dancer from The Royal Danish Ballet. The programme offers classical ballet, modern dance together with completely new pieces created for this year's show.

Danish choreographer Kim Brandstrup will create a new work for the festival. It will celebrate the reunification of communities after Covid-19 and the piece, with music by Philip Glass, will be danced by Ida Praetorius and Marian Walter. The optimistic approach is tempered by the festival's guarantee: “Should new restrictions make it impossible to complete the festival, the audience will of course get their tickets refunded.”

The performances are in the open-air at locations where art, history and nature merge: from a beach of the North Sea, the garden of the royal castle Schackenborg, a former prison, and the garden of The Royal Copenhagen Shooting Society.

There are 10 performances in Denmark and one in Germany, and all health guidelines will be strictly adhered to.

Verdensballetten 2021

14 July: Sølyst, Copenhagen (Premiere)
15 July: Benen-Diken-Hof, Keitum, Sylt – Germany
16 July: The Royal Castle Schackenborg, Tonder
17 July: Sostrup Castle, Grenaa
18 July: Ribe Museum of Art, Ribe
19 July: The Sanded Church, Skagen
29 July: Hindsgavl Castle, Fuen
30 July: The Prison, Horsens
31 July: Groyne 90 – The Beach, Agger
1 August: The Royal Mounds, Jelling 

Info and ticket sale: www.verdensballetten.dk/

Gramilano( Editor )

Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.

His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.