This weekend, the Louisiana’s Sculpture Park and the Øresund will form the striking backdrop for the annual summer performance of international modern dance by the Danish Dance Theatre under the direction of critically-acclaimed choreographer Tim Rushton.
Rushton is known for his intuitive choreographic style in which he blends modern dance and classical ballet, works closely with the dancers, and chooses striking, architecturally challenging backdrops and settings for his performances. This moving summer performance with its distinctive outdoor location highlights the choreographer’s strengths.
Rushton has been the artistic leader of the Danish Dance Theatre since 2001 when he took charge of the then troubled troupe. The choreographer has since enjoyed critical and professional success as international attention has focused on his creative vision for the Danish Dance Theatre. The troupe has recently completed an international tour visiting cities from Budapest to New York with an original Rushton work: Love Songs. The piece paired modern dance choreography with classic jazz love songs. The performance met with favourable reviews. By shifting the creative direction of the dance company over the years to positive effect, Rushton has created a home and an artistic community for himself in Denmark.
Rushton’s troupe is international, including dancers from the US, Italy, Russia and Singapore, as well as Denmark. In 2012, the dancers performed Monolith for the summer series: a Rushton piece inspired by the unmoving architecture of England’s Stonehenge. For the summer 2013 season, they will perform a diverse programme beginning with a Rushton choreographed piece, End of Loneliness. Originally created for performance at the Beijing Dance Theatre in China, it focuses on the meeting of Eastern and Western cultures and features dramatic drumming, which is part of an original musical score by Mathias Friis-Hansen. An excerpt follows from the melancholy Red, a new piece set to Shoshtakovich’s String Quartet No 8 in C minor by the Swedish choreographer Örjan Andersson. Red will premiere this October at Dansehallerne in Copenhagen − this performance is a special opportunity to get a preview of Andersson’s new work.
Finally, the summer programme includes excerpts from a new work, Blinking, created by the dance theatre’s award-winning dancer Fabio Liberti. Originally from Italy, he has danced with the company since 2010 and performed in last summer’s performance of Monolith. A committed and talented dancer, this year he won third prize in the Copenhagen International Choreography Competition with Blinking.
This eclectic mix of style and artistry in dance takes place on the Louisiana Sculpture Park’s Lower Lawn stage. Audience members can choose a picnic spot on the park’s hill or bring lawn chairs to sit on the lawn in front of the stage. The Sculpture Park, a unique experience on its own, boasts works by Alexander Calder, Joan Miró, Jean Arp, and Henry Moore on beautifully maintained park grounds. Between the natural and the artistic beauty, both from the Sculpture Park and the dance performance, this promises to be one of this summer’s cultural highlights.
The dance performance is about an hour with no intermission and is free with the price of admission to Louisiana.
Danish Dance Theater in the Louisiana Sculpture Park
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, The Lower Lawn, Gl Strandvej 13, Humlebæk; Sat & Sun 15:00; Tickets: 110kr, students 95kr, under-18s free adm; www.danskdanseteater.dk
