The High & the Mighty

For a company bristling with restless energy, the Royal Danish Ballet is a stick in the mud when it comes to traveling abroad. In the 20 years since the end of World War II, it has visited the U.S. but four times. But when the Danes do come, it is an event that brings balletomanes flocking. In Manhattan last week, they broke all box-office records at the New York State Theater, grossed more than any other stage show on or off Broadway.

Part of their unique appeal is that among the Royal Danes, the male dancers are the stars. Last week they had on display a veteran at the peak of his powers and a young contender just coming into his own.

The veteran is the greatest Dane of them all, Erik Bruhn, who at 37 is the supreme danseur noble. The finest technician on two feet, his endless pursuit of classic perfection forgoes the kind of passionate abandon that marks the style of Rudolf Nureyev, the only other dancer in his class. Says one ballerina: "Nureyev is like Callas singing Bellini; Bruhn is like Schwarzkopf singing Mozart." But Bruhn has learned something about characterization from his friend Nureyev. As Don Jose in Roland Petit's version of Carmen, Bruhn was a man possessed, a smoldering Valentino driven by lust and racked with despair. Eyes afire, nostrils flaring, he sprang about the shadowy stage with the fierce grace of a panther. But later in the week, in the pas de deux from Petipa's sprightly Don Quixote, he reverted to the cool precision of his classical discipline. His high, floating leaps were unstrained, his spins whippet-quick, his every move all fluid grace and beauty of line.

The Danish newcomer is Niels Kehlet, 27. Though he is the shortest (5 ft. 7 in.) of the male soloists, he is a man to look up to. With a flex of his coiled-spring legs, he can probably leap higher than anyone else anywhere in the world. But he has a high distaste for fame as a human jack-in-the-box. "Jumping is not an end in itself," Kehlet explains. "How you get up there and how you get back is not important. It's what you do when you're up there that counts." What he does way up there is a dazzling array of splits, scissors, heel slappings and twisting jackknives, all in keeping with the character. Earthbound, he stirs the air around him into an eddy of excitement. And always, his Puckish face is stamped with the infectious grin of a lad having a smashing good time.

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