A Real Royal Ballet .sx A Folk Tale in Copenhagen .sx By Mary Clarke .sx In preparation for the Bournonville Festival in the spring , the Royal Danish Ballet is gradually bringing into its repertory all the surviving works by its great choreographer and ballet master .sx Many of them have been in and out of the repertory since the Bournonville centenary festival of 1979 ( reviewed in our January 1980 issue ) but some are being re-staged and the reconstructions of Abdallah and The Lay of Thrym will be added to the surviving ballets .sx The first major new production of the season , and a sell-out success for artistic director Frank Andersen , was A Folk Tale which was given on September 20 , staged by Anne Marie Vessel and Frank Andersen and in new scenery and costumes by Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II of Denmark , no less .sx Queen Margrethe , like her father King Frederick IX , is a keen ballet goer and takes a very personal interest in her Royal Ballet .sx She is also a gifted designer of children's books and fairy tales and was therefore a very appropriate choice .sx The Danes consider A Folk Tale to be the most completely Danish of all Bournonville's works , as it draws on Danish legends for its theme , and it is therefore essential that the designer is someone immersed in Danish history and folklore , as Her Majesty unquestionably is .sx Once she had agreed to provide the designs , Queen Margrethe immersed herself in their realisation and when she could spare time worked in all departments of the theatre , supervising the making of costumes and the painting of scenery .sx So unobtrusively did she go about her task that the children from the ballet school , who enjoy themselves so much as little trolls in the ballet , were hardly aware of her presence .sx Indeed , two small boys were overheard to say to each other the day before the premiere " Tomorrow will be really exciting because the Queen is coming !sx " .sx The need to re-design A Folk Tale was because the previous production , shown in 1979 , had been designed for the Tivoli stage during the period when the Royal Theatre was closed for the rebuilding of the backstage area , and was , consequently , very lightweight .sx I remember , in 1979 , mourning the older production which the Royal Danes brought to London on their one and only visit to Covent Garden in 1953 .sx Old fashioned designs suit Bournonville , and for this staging Queen Margrethe has provided settings and formal costuming which place it clearly in 16th century Denmark and thereby capture the period charm of the piece .sx When following traditional designs she is entirely happy .sx Where her imagination and love of fantasy tip the scale a little too far are in the costumes for the visiting trolls who take part in the drunken orgy at the end of the second act .sx So far as I remember , they were much like the troll characters of the story in earlier versions .sx Now they have been differentiated as all kinds of trolls - bird trolls , river trolls , witches , giant trolls , trolls with enormous tails - and these monster figures ( their inspiration doubtless clearer to a Danish audience than to foreigners ) dominate far too strongly as they make their several entrances and detract from what is happening around them - events which are integral to the story .sx The story , so ideally suited to Bournonville's moral stance and his desire to show the triumph of good over evil , concerns a changeling child .sx The beautiful Hilda has been stolen from her cradle by the trolls , who leave one of their own babies in her place .sx While Hilda grows up in the subterranean world of the trolls , Birthe , unaware like everyone else of her troll blood , grows up in a country manor house where her inexplicable outbursts of bad temper are vented on all and sundry .sx The ballet opens with an alfresco luncheon party beneath an old oak tree and near to the hill where the trolls are believed to live .sx There is a delightful peasant dance , and then a more sedate one for the nobility , but Birthe's capricious tantrums are the despair of Junker ( Squire ) Ove to whom she is betrothed .sx The party return to the manor but Junker Ove stays behind .sx The hill opens and he sees Hilda with the witch Muri and the other trolls .sx She comes out from the hill and gives him a goblet .sx He pours off the drink , which is dangerous , but keeps the goblet .sx The hill closes on Hilda and the trolls but the furious Muri causes 'elfin girls' to dance , Wili-fashion , round Ove until he collapses with exhaustion .sx The next act takes place inside the troll house where the little trolls hammer away while Muri's two sons , Diderik and Viderik , quarrel over Hilda .sx She spurns them both and then in a dream sees how a child was stolen from a cradle .sx ( Together with the baby , the trolls stole the goblet which she had given to Ove .sx ) Diderik is the eldest son and claims his right to Hilda's hand but Viderik is gentle and kind-hearted and when neighbouring trolls arrive for a drunken orgy he helps Hilda to escape .sx In the last scene , Viderik and Hilda arrive in the grounds of the manor , near a healing spring .sx Ove staggers in and collapses but Hilda recognises him and restores him with spring water which she fetches in the goblet .sx A Master Mogens , who has been seeking to marry Birthe for her wealth , gives chase to the strangers but Hilda , still holding her goblet , eventually stumbles into Birthe's room at the manor ( where she has been giving hell to the servants ) and by the goblet and a birthmark is recognised by her old nurse as the true heir .sx Birthe is banished and Mogens , seduced by the gold of the trolls , goes with her .sx Hilda and Ove are united and the ballet ends with the wedding dance - the music for which is traditionally now played at all Danish weddings .sx As always happens when a Bournonville ballet is re-staged there were strong differences of opinion , among the experts , as to how true to Bournonville's wishes that staging may be .sx There was criticism of the flimsy garments for the elfin girls " which Bournonville never would have allowed " and of various details of production .sx The most serious mistake , almost everyone agreed , was the casting of a woman in the role of Viderik .sx Sorella Englund is a magnificent witch in La Sylphide and she played Viderik very much in the manner established by that great artist Fredbjorn Bjornsson but to make any sense of the story Viderik must be a man .sx Unhappily , too , Niels Kehlet has given up the role of Diderik and Michael Bastian carries nothing like the same conviction .sx Jette Buchwald , however , was as good as a Muri as I have seen and the Danish tradition of mime was safe in the warm , womanly performance of Kirsten Simone as the nurse ( she was my first Hilda and has now played no fewer than four roles in the ballet) .sx Silja Schandorff , enchantingly pretty , played Hilda just for sweetness and Peter Bo Bendixen made very little of the role of Ove - paradoxically when Erik Bruhn took this part it contained no dancing whatsoever !sx .sx There was also an astonishing performance from Lis Jeppesen as Birthe , culminating in a paroxysm of rage against her servants in the last act when the troll character possesses her .sx Incredibly that this fiery creature should also be one of the loveliest protagonists of La Sylphide !sx .sx The pas de sept , which is the highspot of the wedding celebrations , contained some fine dancing by Alexander Kolpin , Lloyd Riggins and Petrusjka Broholm but needs more polishing .sx By the spring , no doubt Frank Andersen will have everything shining .sx And A Folk Tale will be seen in the context of the whole Bournonville repertory .sx The Shin Splints Epidemic .sx An all too common injury now affecting dancers .sx By Joan Lawson .sx The present epidemic of 'Shin Splints' or stress fractures in the lower legs of many dancers is world-wide and is not being taken seriously even though such injuries are leading to some professionals taking early retirement and some students withdrawing even before reaching professional status .sx There are several reasons for this epidemic , despite the efforts of many organisations encouraging their teachers to make a proper study of anatomy .sx This should ensure the correct placing of weight and the limits of each individual's turn-out when adapting the body to achieve correct stance .sx Instead , too much concentration is now being placed on the 180 degree turn-out of the feet and little or no attention being paid to the individual's ability to turn the upper legs out in their sockets to the same degree .sx At a recent seminar I encountered three victims of this epidemic .sx One was , and still is , a chronic sufferer of 'shin splints' .sx I quickly noted that his feet were turned-out well beyond the 180 degree stipulated by Blasis , while that of his upper legs was no more than 130 degree .sx To achieve correct stance he had to 'tuck his tail in' instead of pulling it downwards .sx This meant that he pushed his weight too far backwards on his heels .sx His spine then arched , instead of being stretched upwards and downwards from the waist .sx Like the other two boys , he was suffering from a constant demand for 'turn out those feet' regardless of what was happening to the rest of the legs , body , arms and head .sx Why has this epidemic spread world-wide and not only among classical dancers ?sx I am not alone in despairing of finding a cure to this ill .sx However , to my delight , I found a most illuminating article about the remarkable Chinese teacher Wang Jia-Hong in Dance Australia .sx In it he warns against the excesses of certain Russian teachers and their followers with their " Overtilted hips and exaggerated Back bends " .sx Like myself , a pupil of the Vaganova system , he was taught by her great pupils Gusev the classical dancer and teacher and Serrebrennikov , whose book on pas de deux is a must .sx Like myself he also studied the Cecchetti syllabus when working with Celia Franca in Canada , Bournonville with Erik Bruhn , and RAD with the late Alan Hooper with its strong links with the work of Dame Ninette and her rules .sx With such a background he has the widest knowledge of the varying methods and their effect on dancers' bodies if too much reliance is placed on one particular style to the exclusion of all others .sx I agree , and would like to remind teachers of what was perhaps the vital feature of Vaganova's own teaching .sx Yes !sx Russians do have flexible spines .sx But they are extremely strong because they are taught from their first lessons , as children , to allow their spines to react to any demand for movement .sx Vaganova and , later , all her own and their students working at the school in Rossi Street insist that the spine is never held rigidly ; the shoulder-blades are never pressed down on the rib-cage ; the head has to move independently on its axis so that it leads every movement ; the arms must be opened away from the body so that the central line of balance runs straight down from the crown of the head through the spine to the tail .sx The weight is then held firmly balanced over the two feet .sx If standing on one foot , then that centre line must be shifted so that the weight is held firmly over the supporting leg .sx Too many teachers do not insist on that slight change being made .sx Thus many children , teenagers in particular , sink on to the supporting hip whenever the working leg moves away from one of the five positions .sx Thus , if the hips have been over-tilted , the spine arched and the feet over-turned the weight is thrust forward on to the lower legs and the toes will be cramped to hold balance .sx Because of the enormous strain this places on all the bones of the lower leg and calf , something has to give .sx