The Royal Danish Theatre

Since 1748 The Royal Danish Theater has been located at Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen. For the first couple of seasons the staff was very modest, it only consisted of 8 actors, 4 actresses, 2 male dancers and 1 female dancer. The first expansion was The Royal Chapel that became the set inhouse orchestra in 1770.

Around the year of 1800 the acting staff was doubled, about 30 singers formed the Oprah choir and the number of dancers was ten-doubled. In 1830 August Bournonville became the leader of The Ballet and from then he has been one of the most important figures of The Royal Danish Theater. He was the first professional instructor of the Theater and his job was to build a qualified ballet of about 50 dancers. In the 1960’s the Ballet was going through a big internationalization. The staff was no longer as fixed as before. Many left and new ones joined. One of the things The Royal Danish Theater did to go more international was to bring in more international choreographers, George Balanchine among others.

As one of the most important culture institutions it was crucial for The Royal Danish Theater to make its mark at the European Culture City, where ballet especially was a focus point. There was an exceptionally high number of shows in 1996 and they implemented among others Peter Martins new work “Svanesøen” in cooperation with the artist Per Kirkeby. Two years later, in 1998, The Royal Danish Theater, could celebrate their 250-years anniversary, which they did by putting together a big jubilee show to mark the different style arts. In 2008 Nikolaj Hübbe came home from New York to be the new Ballet leader after he had been a solo dancer at the New York City Ballet for 17 years. Nikolaj Hübbe for example renewed some of Bournonvilles biggest works: Sylfiden, Napoli og Et folkesagn. Both the audience and the reporters were enthusiastic.

"Ballettens historie 11/5 - 2022 https://kglteater.dk/om-os/kunstarter/den-kongelige-ballet?section=27785"