When two seasons ago Ballet Vero Beach wanted to stage its first Balanchine ballet, “Valse Fantaisie,” it brought in a former New York City Ballet dancer, Paul Boos, to direct rehearsals, a requirement of the Balanchine Trust, which safeguards the choreography.
For this year’s season final next weekend, the company is bringing in another City Ballet veteran, Nilas Martins, to set a piece of choreography of the great 19th century Danish dancer and choreographer August Bournonville. It will be the first time performing part of the Bournonville repertoire for both this company and its sister company, Ballet Nebraska.
Martins is a natural fit to coach the delightful but devilishly difficult Bournonville technique. He grew up dancing in a number of Bournonville ballets, training at the Royal Danish Ballet school like his father, Peter Martins. His mother, the late Lise La Cour, danced and taught with the Royal Danish Ballet for almost 40 years, rising to the rank of associate director before moving to San Jose in 2002, where she died last August.
Nilas eventually followed his father to the New York City Ballet. Arriving at 17, Nilas at first trained at the company-affiliated School of American Ballet before eventually joining City Ballet and ultimately achieving the status of principal. He retired in 2010.
That year, Nilas Martins was chosen for a DeVos Arts Management fellowship at the Kennedy Center (Betsy DeVos, who has homes in Vero’s Windsor and is now secretary of education, served on the Kennedy Center board).
Since then Martins has made a career of helping regional companies master the choreography of not only Bournonville but Balanchine – he is an official répétiteur with the Balanchine Trust.
Balanchine adored Bournonville’s work, who “entertained with steps,” Balanchine said. It was Balanchine who in 1979 invited the legendary teacher Stanley Williams (who taught Peter Martins from the age of 12) to create a ballet from his favorite Bournonville works. That work, “Bournonville Divertissements,” is one of the few Bournonville dances in New York City Ballet’s repertoire. It was staged as recently as 2015 by Nilas himself for the ballet’s annual Spring Gala.
Martins’ work with the dancers of Ballet Vero Beach began last fall, when he met up with company founder Adam Schnell and ballet master Camilo Rodriguez in Omaha. There, they worked with Ballet Nebraska dancers who will fly south next weekend to perform as Ballet Vero Beach. The “Bournonville Divertissement” that Vero will see and that was performed in Omaha over the past two weekends was adapted by Martins for the particular strengths of the dancers.
Martins had already spoken of the company with Paul Boos, the Balanchine répétiteur who came to Vero two years ago.
“I knew they did ‘Valse Fantaisie,’ which requires musicality and very fast footwork and is very, very dancey,” says Martins, who watched the dancers on video. “In many ways that draws parallel lines for the dancing requirements of Bournonville style. “Although it looks so effortless, it’s very, very hard, especially the legwork. It’s a lot of jumps with this easy upper body, which makes it such a joyful experience to watch. Making joy of dance is one of the big important elements of Bournonville.”
August Bournonville was a dancer himself. Like Nilas, he was the son of a legendary dancer, Antoine Bournonville, a French-born actor and singer as well as choreographer; August was born of Antoine’s second marriage, to his Swedish housekeeper. After leaving the Royal Swedish Ballet following the assassination of King Gustav III, Antoine became ballet master of the Royal Danish Ballet. Son August carried on, directing that esteemed company for half a century. The Bournonville style, full of bravura story-telling and mime, continues to define Danish ballet.
Of the 50 dances he created, 12 are performed today. Apart from “La Sylphide,” perhaps his most famous Bournonville ballet, the subjects of his stories weren’t fairies and fauns as was fashionable at the time, but instead real people typically having a wonderful time. He was particularly known for his female roles, charging them with not only strong personalities but movements as athletic as the male dancers’.
Today, Bournonville is not only a school of choreography but its own technique. The precise and very quick footwork, the power jumps, and the effortlessly relaxed upper torso combine for a deceptively natural dance style that in fact requires intense skill and stamina.
With a homespun, upbeat quality to the story lines, Bournonville’s dances retained a distinctly Danish quality over time. They were passed down step by step to subsequent generations of Royal Danish Ballet’s academy, which continues to teach Bournonville’s classes, one for each day of the week. Bournonville drew inspiration from his constant touring and set many of his dances in foreign places; Italy, Spain and even Asia.
Ballet Vero’s divertissement opens with a section of “The Kermesse in Bruges,” what Schnell calls “a nice appetizer” for its softer, quieter temperament. “It looks great on our company.”
Then comes the pas de deux from “Flower Festival” and the pas de six and tarantella from “Napoli.”
In between, the Nebraska costumer designer threw in a costume change, again with the traditional Bournonville look: longer tutus and the men with satin scarves at the neck.
Ballet Vero Beach performs April 21 and 22 at the Vero Beach High School Performing Arts Center. Tickets are available through the ballet’s website.
