TURMOIL AT ROYAL DANISH BALLET.

COPENHAGEN--The recent troubles at The Royal Danish Ballet began to surface in 1994. The president of the theater's board, Niels-Jorgen Kaiser, also director of Tivoli Gardens at the time, chose not to renew the contract of Frank Andersen, a charismatic artistic director whose entire career had been with the RDB. Kaiser wanted to hire Peter Martins, but Martins declined. The company engaged controversial candidate Peter Schaufuss, who stayed almost eleven months of a seven-year contract before his reign was enveloped in scandal; he left with three and a half years' worth of salary. An interim period featured Johnny Eliasen as chief, and, on his recommendation, Maina Gielgud, who had been artistic director of the Australian Ballet, was offered a three-year contract.

The eighteen-month tenure of Gielgud has been difficult. Critics have been vitriolic, complaining, "Send a wreath. The Royal Danish Ballet is dead. R.I.P.," and "Can Napoli be used as a funeral feast for Bournonville?" Audiences are responding: because of poor ticket sales, two ballet performances in September were replaced by a rehearsal and an opera.

Gielgud has been taken to task for neglecting the works of August Bournonville. No new productions of the Danish master will be given this season. Gielgud explains that plans for a new staging of Bournonville's Kermesse in Bruges "fell through at a very late stage" and La Sylphide was "not considered to sell well enough to be included. I am thoroughly annoyed at the inference that I am ignoring Bournonville, as the plan was to highlight his work, as it still will be in the seasons to come, with a January 2000 weeklong celebration.

"I love Bournonville's work and style, and, not being a specialist, I appointed Dinna Bjorn as my advisor," she adds. "She is in charge of all matters that relate to his style and repertoire."

All of this is complicated by recent newspaper reports in Denmark that Nikolaj Hubbe, who was trained at the Royal Theatre and is now a principal with New York City Ballet, has been saying that he would accept Gielgud's position as artistic director, if asked to take it. His supporters think the thirty-year-old dancer, who has never directed a company, would be a good choice. Gielgud has a year and a half remaining on her contract.

Different people provide different explanations for the problems. Former RDB dancer Bernard Courtot de Bouteiller, interviewed at the USA International Ballet Competition in June, claimed, "The dancers are spoiled. Your contract with the company is for your life. The dancers stop at four o'clock because they don't like to work too long. You have good money. It is very easy, so dancers don't want to be pushed and they don't want to see other dancers coming in and working hard.'"

The president of the dancers' union, Henning Albrechtsen, on the other hand, has publicly complained of a director who "arrives with ten foreign dancers; as a starter tells a dancer to lose one pound; who does not even bother to be present at the audition of the new children; who continually has rehearsals but has difficulties in motivating the dancers."

"The company is very mixed up, and as a whole, lacking in confidence," says Gielgud. "I was asked to bring stability, direction, and new inspiration to the dancers. This takes time, particularly when there is such a long tradition. Any suggestion of change--to see if things can be done in a more efficient way for instance--is very suspect, as, of course, is the fact of having a foreign director, and a woman, for the first time."

Meanwhile, Kaiser--appointed by the prime minister--and the company's administrative director, Michael Christiansen, are being held responsible for years of unsuccessful management decisions.