Peter Schaufuss Ballet, Musikteatret, Holstebro, Denmark, February 22, 1998.

PETER SCHAUFUSS BALLET MUSIKTEATRET, HOLSTEBRO, DENMARK FEBRUARY 22, 1998 REVIEWED BY CHRISTOPHER BOWEN 

No stranger to controversial productions, Peter Schaufuss has now staged his most adventurous one to date with a startling trilogy of Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker for the new ballet company he heads in Holstebro, Denmark. Purists may cry that tampering with ballet tradition is killing off the art form. Yet if these classics really are the great universal works they are often supposed to be, surely they can survive the d of reinterpretation and cultural repositioning that Shakespeare's plays so frequently--and successfully--endure.

Schaufuss's premise is that the trilogy, presented as a series of dreams, interconnects the three ballets as if they were episodes of the same story--and that the story reflects aspects of Tchaikovsky's tortured life. This is familiar territory for the choreographer, who has explored the theme in earlier productions for companies he has directed in London and Berlin. But the choreography and setting for his new twenty-one-member ensemble present a radical departure from previous efforts.

Schaufuss employs a vocabulary that melds academic dance with contemporary aesthetics. The look is very European (there's more than the occasional Bejart moment), very classic-with-a-twist and, in Steven Scott's setting, utterly contemporary. Costume designer Tatyana van Walsum backs up this "Scandinavian moderne" take with a wardrobe that wouldn't look out of place on a fashion runway.

But underneath the chic gloss, Schaufuss makes his premise work. With the dreams populated by the same set of characters, the choreographer has been able to match the four foreign princesses in Swan Lake with cavaliers for Aurora of similarly varied nationality; in The Nutcracker, they turn up as glamorously international party guests and perform the character dances in Act II. Similarly, Odile metamorphoses into Carabosse, who hangs around for the Nutcracker prologue. Her identity there is unclear, but since Schaufuss presents Carabosse as Aurora's half-sister (which really gives her a reason to hate the child), and then has her gate-crashing the Nutcracker party in the shortest little black dress imaginable, her entertaining presence negates any confusion.

At the center of these adventures the various princes and princesses meld into the same pairs of characters, but the figure who most fascinates is one whom Schaufuss calls the Dream Master. Clearly meant to represent Tchaikovsky, this figure also acts as the Lilac Fairy and Drosselmeyer--not a dual role that many dancers get the chance to portray.

At the all-day marathon performance of the complete trilogy in Holstebro, the terminally laid-back Alexandre Bourdar--who otherwise dances with a powerfully feral grace--didn't seem to know who he was meant to be. By way of contrast, Quang Van bounded through Princes Siegfried, Florimund, and Nutcracker like a friendly puppy, while Dione Ware (Odette and Aurora) and Amy Hollingsworth (Clara) gave vivid accounts of their roles. Schaufuss has assembled a very attractive company, and on this evidence he does a far better job of reinventing the classics than most.