BWW Reviews: DANCING ACROSS THE ATLANTIC: USA- Denmark 1900-2014 by Erik Aschengreen

Ballet has undergone a rebranding in recent years. Shedding simpering cliches, the form reframed itself as an intense subversive high art. The expressionist passions of Russian dance in particular has become a central icon of traditional dance. From "Black Swan," to the surge of "Rite of Spring" tributes in 2013, bravura rebellion became the marker of relevant ballet. Though, what of reserved balletic traditions? Can delicate dance still astound with refined intricacy? Erik Aschengreen, a leader in Danish ballet study, details the fruitful relationship between the United States and Danish traditions in "Dancing Across the Atlantic: USA-Denmark 1900-2014"

Danish ballet is founded in the nineteenth century choreographer Bournonville. His masterpiece, "La Sylphide," is arguably ballet's oldest surviving work. Performed in the 1830's by Marie Taglioni at the Paris Opera, it is an icon of Romantic art. The piece is definitive of the choreographer's penchant for lighter than air precision and heartfelt pastoral narratives. The Danish ballet maintains its founder's legacy to this day with the Bournonville School. Erik Aschengreen continually reiterates Bournonville's early influence discussion of America and Denmark's relationship and Danish Ballet's choreographic evolution. It is this foundation which made collaboration between the nations complicated at the outset. The initial response to the works of Balanchine, almost exactly a century following Taglioni's "Sylvphide," was almost unanimously negative; although Balanchine's introduction to modern ballet brought to high relief the need for modernization and evolution in the company's rigid technique.

Balanchine returned to the Danish Ballet in 1952, then under the direction of Niels Larsen. This time the need for his outside influence was unanimously recognized. Following this collaboration American and Danish ballet began a partnership which rivaled, and even surpassed, most other cultural exchanges. In 1954 the Danish Ballet performed at Jacob's Pillow, then under the leadership of founder Ted Shawn. Since then the relationship between Jacob's Pillow's cultural retreat and the Danish dance community has flourished. The maturity of Bournonville's mathematic execution was adulated by Ted Shawn and is an opinion which was equally echoed by American choreographers such as The New York City Ballet's Balanchine and Jerome Robbins.

The Danish Ballet caused a sensation in their first American tour in 1956. Performing in New York City's Old Metropolitan House, the Danes were at once recognized as being aesthetically unique and pleasant. That same year the New York City Ballet performed in Copenhagen. Balanchine's work, originally reviled in the thirties, was welcomed with open arms by late fifties audience members. It was also during this portion of the tour that ballerina, and wife to Balanchine, Tanaquil leClerq, tragically contracted polio, paralyzing her for the rest of her life. After these visits the nations maintained communication through frequent tours, festivals, and artist exchanges.

Mr. Aschengreen's fine detail is exhaustive, with nearly every professional Danish or American dancer with cross Atlantic connection given a full biography. His interest in dance is also not solely balletic but gives credence to modern and dance-theatre interactions. Yet, even with such fully researched text, the book lacks historical insight in this cross cultural communication. While rightfully regarded as a bastion of ballet history, Erik Aschengreen never bares his perceptions of why such a relationship was cultivated between the two nations. The relationship itself is also notably without conflict. While cold war relationships turned ballet into an artistic arms race between America and Russia, the Danish ballet was simply enjoyed. Though amiable relationships between cultures should never be lamented, without context the story of a company which could do no wrong is repetitive and disinteresting. The book's finer context is found not in archival analysis but in photography. Stuffed to the brim with photos, "Dancing Across the Atlantic" is a well captioned coffee-table book, an assessment I offer without any derogatory intentions. As an encyclopedic retrospective founded in imagery, it's quite a successful publication.

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