Amy Watson, A Steady Hand

When Amy Watson took the reins at the Royal Danish Ballet one year ago, she entered stormy waters. The former director, Nikolaj Hübbe, who had been since 2008, had abruptly left, more than a year before the end of his contract. Watson had already been acting as interim director of the company, where she had been a dancer from 2000 until 2021, before becoming rehearsal director.

Amy Watson. Photograph by Natascha Thiara Rydvald

A year on, the turbulence seems to have quieted down, as Watson takes stock of the company’s current state and attempts to gently steer its path toward a clearer sense of its own identity. When we spoke, the dancers were hard at work on a new ballet by Alexei Ratmansky, The Art of the Fugue. Hübbe commissioned the new work, but it is under Watson’s watchful eye that it is taking its final form. It is a personal project for her as well, since, as she explained, she overlapped with Ratmansky at the tail end of his dancing career at the company, and performed in some of his earliest works. We spoke in her office at the Royal Danish Theater, with its view of Copenhagen’s rooftops, under a stormy late autumn sky.

You were actually born in California and went to the School of American Ballet, but ended up joining the Royal Danish Ballet in 2000. What drew you to Denmark?

Of course, during those years at SAB, I was the typical SAB kid who wanted to go to New York City Ballet. That was my dream. But in my final year, I had two things happen that were very unusual: I had the privilege to be in Suzanne Farrell’s first touring company. And then Nikolaj Hübbe was scheduled to set his first piece on the SAB students, which was Konservatoriet by Bournonville. And he chose me. I was doing a demi-soloist role and understudying the two leading roles. That was also the year the Royal Danish came to SAB to audition students for the company. The auditions were conducted by Colleen Neary [former New York City Ballet dancer who became rehearsal director at the Royal Danish Ballet in 1992].

In the months that followed, I worked with Nikolaj on Konservatoriet while also working on Balanchine’s Stars and Stripes. And my body just reacted differently to Bournonville—it was much more natural for me. So then the Workshop Performance came, and after that, I decided, okay, I'm going here. I was lucky enough to guest at New York City Ballet later in life, and I danced Peter Martins’ Swan Lake there, so I got to experience the best of both worlds.

You also overlapped with Alexei Ratmansky when he was a dancer at the Royal Danish Ballet. [He left at the end of 2003 to direct the Bolshoi Ballet.]

Yes, I danced with him in his last year. I was extremely lucky. I was promoted very young, and I got to dance Olga in Onegin, as well as Lescaut’s mistress in Manon. He was Lescaut. I had two shows with him. I'll never forget it, because it was terrifying—I wanted to be professional and perfect for him—but also because he's such a brave artist on stage, just as he is with his choreography. He was throwing me around and being extremely musical in that drunk scene.

Amy Watson as Teresina and Sebastian Kloborg as Golfo in “Napoli” by August Bournonville. Photograph by Costin Radu

Did you dance in any of his ballets for the Royal Danish Ballet, like Turandot’s Dream (2001) and Anna Karenina (2004)?

Yes, I was in Turandot’s Dream the second year, because it premiered the year before I joined. I got thrown in, and he gave me one of the biggest compliment a young dancer could get. He said, “Wow, you learned all the steps without me. I'm so impressed with your brain, your capacity.” And then I worked with him on Anna Karenina, The Nutcracker (2001), and The Golden Cockerel (2012).

Do you remember the feeling in the company when he left to direct the Bolshoi Ballet?

I remember everyone being really sad. It felt like a huge loss, because we had this golden gem, and we knew it, and he was slipping through our fingers. But also—I mean, director of the Bolshoi—that’s a huge deal. You can’t say no.

Now that he’s back to work on The Art of the Fugue, do you recognize the same artist?

I recognize the language, and I recognize the musicality. I also recognize the same extreme professional work ethic that I love and that resonates with me so deeply. I do see a man who has changed since I worked with him on The Golden Cockerel. I saw that for the first time when he came here in June of 2024. Nikolaj Hübbe was on sick leave and I was a rehearsal director. I took the meeting with him about this ballet because of Nikolaj’s absence; at the time I didn't know if I was going to apply for the job. He was shaken. He looked tired, obviously, and he told me, “I haven't slept since the war began.” And then we talked about work, and he lit up instantly. He's the same genius in the studio he’s always been. And I even recognize some of those steps he’s using.

You worked for a long time under Nikolaj Hübbe. Did he mentor you?

I think Nikolaj mentored a handful of people, if I'm honest. I think he understood that I've always been ambitious for this house. He saw my dedication to the company and my relationship to both Bournonville and Denmark. We also talked very early on, when I had been a principal for some time, and he told me that he wanted me to teach the company. Then toward the end of my career, he gave me opportunities to start shadowing rehearsal directors. And he asked if I wanted to assist a rehearsal director. There were a handful of us that had those experiences.

When did the idea of taking the leading position begin to form in your mind?

I never had conversations with Nikolaj directly. I feel like he and I have an unspoken language and respect, because we know each other very well; so we never discussed it directly. I also didn't want to step on his toes. I think that once I became rehearsal director in 2021, after retiring from dancing, I started exploring that world and figuring out where my strengths and weaknesses lay and how my brain worked. I love economy. I love finances. So I started asking Nikolaj, “Okay, can you talk to me about the budget?” He was very open, and he started slowly to give me more responsibility with that. We didn't shy away from having difficult conversations. And we still talk.

Amy Watson in “La Sylphide” by August Bournonville. Photograph by Costin Radu

There is no real training for this job; for example, did you go to college to study management or anything like that?

No, I learned on the job. I took time off for half a fall season when I was about 35 to study under Darla Hoover [then artistic director of both Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet and Ballet Academy East in New York] for six weeks. I went to SAB and started asking all the questions about teaching and anatomy. And then every time I had the opportunity, whenever we had guest teachers, I would ask questions and shadow them. “How do you do this? How do you do that?”

What do you see as your main goals as artistic director of the company?

I think it's really important, especially in Denmark, to show that there's never going to be perfect work–life balance. That's one thing. It's a beautiful ideal, and in Denmark we do a pretty good job, but I really try to be an example. I have two very small children at home, and I would also like to go see exhibitions and plays and feed my soul elsewhere. I don’t come to every show, but I do see every cast. I come to every premiere, and I map out with the rehearsal directors who’s at which show. But it’s not: Amy’s there every night, and I get all my feedback from Amy. I’m spreading that responsibility. Even though it's a hierarchy, the rehearsal directors are my cultural ambassadors.

You’re empowering them in a way.

Yes, and I also want everyone to know I'm human. A, I'm going to make mistakes. B, I'm learning along the way and developing. My heart is in the right place. My head is in the right place. I don't want this to be about me getting the shine. This is about us getting the shine. So how do we do that together as a team?

Hübbe was the model of the star leader; it sounds as though you define the role differently.

Yes, I see myself differently. I think what Nikolaj did was great, and definitely what was needed at the time. He brought dance to a larger audience and became a household name. The Royal Danish Ballet was much more accessible with him, and I think that's fantastic. Now, I would like the identity of the company to be more about the fact that we have dancers who are phenomenal artists—phenomenal voices of new cultural ideals.

Artistically, what are you aiming for?

One thing is to bolster the identity of the company itself. Maybe not every dancer has come here for Bournonville, but they need to know that this place exists because of him. We are on the international map because of him. So that responsibility is huge. I have a very long interview if I'm thinking about hiring a dancer, where I ask them: What’s your relationship to Bournonville? How do you feel about working in Denmark? What is your relationship to Scandinavian society? Because Scandinavia is a whole other way of living, a different type of culture. How are you going to better our environment here? What are you going to bring to it?

What choreographers are you interested in making space for?

I've inherited some really, really nice choreographers who are up and coming in the company. We have a soloist, a Spanish woman called Eukene Sagues, who did her first full-length last year—Federico García Lorca’s Blood Wedding. I see huge potential in her, mostly as a storyteller, which is interesting because we need more storytelling from the female perspective.

We have a young man in the corps named Oliver Marcus Starpov, who has done a couple of small pieces here and there, and one full-length called Under the Deep. I like his aesthetic and his relationship to societal differences, the queer community, men dancing on pointe as well. He has experimented with pop music that’s very relatable.

And then there’s Sebastian Kloborg, who I'm extremely passionate about because of his sense of originality, his very dark humor, and his physicality. And there are others: Emma Portner, Bobbi Jene Smith, Cathy Marston—we’re doing her Jane Eyre next year. I have a very big project that we’re hoping to get the rights for with Justin Peck that I can’t mention yet. And I’m a huge fan of Kyle Abraham. I really hope we get him here someday.

You’ve been director for a year and a bit—what do you think makes the company unique at this point?

We’re trying to build new bridges, not only generationally but also culturally, in the way we communicate with each other. We’ve had a lot of talks about hair color, hair length, you know—makeup, no makeup. I remember when I was interim director, Colleen Neary was in the house to prepare Balanchine’s Serenade. One of our producers came to me and said, “All the women you cast for Serenade have short hair, so I have to order extensions for them.” And I said, “No, you don’t. I don’t want them wearing extensions. Why do they need extensions?” And Colleen was right behind me and said, “Good, you’re on the right path.” And then I had a lot of conversations with set designers and costume designers, in which I questioned stereotypical ideas like, “Why does the red-haired one have to be the fiery one? Why is the blonde the ditzy one?”

What do you think is special about the Royal Danish Ballet dancers?

I think we are the best storytellers in ballet, hands down. I think we can tell a story extremely well, whether it’s through Bournonville’s mime, or in Gregory Dean’s Karen Blixen. The acting and dramatic abilities of these dancers are unmatched. We expect the best acting on stage.

Only one third of the company’s dancers are Danish. Does that worry you? Is there a way to get more Danish dancers in the pipeline from school to company?

It’s a big question, and there’s no right or wrong answer. Denmark is small. I’ve seen years where there were seven or eight wonderful dancers coming up from the school and getting into the company. And then I’ve seen years where there were no dancers coming in, because no one had made it that far, or just one or two.

I think that to keep the tradition alive, we need dancers who not only want to be here because they love to dance, but who have that tradition in them and are proud to keep it. There’s nothing I want more than for the school to succeed.

Do you feel you need a strong core of Danish dancers, who have grown up with the tradition and with the Bournonville training, so that that information can radiate outward?

I don’t necessarily feel it has to come from the Danes. I’ve seen wonderful dancers from the French school, or from the American school, or the Japanese school, come in and become phenomenal Bournonville dancers. For me, it’s about timing. Who’s right for the company? Do we have apprentices from the school coming up who have the technical and artistic level to join the company?

But what’s important is that whoever comes in—whether they’re Danish or not—has an understanding of what the identity of the company is.

Have you kept most of the staff positions?

Most, yes. But I hired Rose Gad, my childhood idol; she was my first hire. And then Alexander Stæger, who is in his last season. He’s the manager of our Koreorama choreographic workshop, and my partner in the company’s Bournonville Strategy. [More on the Bournonville Strategy soon.]

Do you teach company class? And who else does?

I do, and I love teaching. We used to have a very large teacher pool for morning classes, and that was something I didn’t believe in, and which I immediately changed for this season. Now we have a roster of three teachers. That’s Gregory Dean, Maria Kochetkova, and Sandrine Cassini. I can now close my eyes and think, okay, I know the company’s getting fantastic classes.

What is your approach?

For me, number one is musicality. But there’s something else as well. I know that when I walk into the room, there’s a different energy and pressure. So I leave the strong technical stuff to the other three teachers. When I go in, I try to say, “I'm here. I want to give you all a good base for the day. Let’s find our bodies and minds together.” It’s about keeping in touch with them, and making sure they know I see them.

Marina Harss

Marina Harss is a dance writer in New York, a frequent contributor to the New York Times and the New Yorker Magazine, as well as to Dance Magazine and Fjord Review. She is the author of a book about the choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, The Boy from Kyiv, published by Farrar Straus and Giroux in 2023.

comments

Featured

INTERVIEWS | Eoin Fenton

London City Ballet Spreads its Wings

Times are hard for ballet. With national funding that favours the new and the bold, ticket prices rising, and accusations of elitism, only a fool would start a company focused on works of the past.

REVIEWS | Victoria Looseleaf

French Jewels

It was a grand night of show and—well, show more—as eight members of L.A. Dance Project strutted their gorgeous, technically brilliant stuff in the US premiere of “Gems.”

INTERVIEWS | Garth Grimball

Lee Jong-Ho, for the Love of Art

Before founding the Seoul International Dance Festival, Lee Jong-Ho began his career as a journalist.

REVIEWS | Eva S. Chou

Traditional Tales Retold

During the summer, two Chinese dance productions came to Koch Theater at New York’s Lincoln Center: “Lady White Snake” from Shanghai Grand Theater in July and “Butterfly Lovers” from Hong Kong Ballet in August.