High-spirited Danes at KenCen

Quite an antidote for a gloomy winter season, the Royal Danish Ballet is in town, bring- ing its appealing mix of sunny dancing, charmingly old-fashioned plots and overall joie de vivre.

At its opening performance Tuesday, the company danced "Napoli," whose high-spirited third act has made it an audience favorite for 162 years.

The busy, bustling port of Naples is the setting. The streets are filled with merchants selling their wares, people strolling, children running through the crowd, young people flirting.

No one does crowd scenes like this company. The stage is alive with small dramas and jostling good spirits. Everyone is dancing all at once all over the stage -- dashing young soldiers, showing us how well Danish men can leap; young women who match their fresh energy; and the ballet's lovers -- Teresina, a lively young girl danced by Gitte Lindstrom opening night, and Gennaro the fisherman, played by Mads Blangstrup with an overabundance of nervous, stop-and-start energy.

The problematic second act takes place in a blue grotto, where Teresina has been washed up in a storm. There she is surrounded by a bevy of naiads who produce the kind of soft, feminine ensemble beloved of romantic ballets. Unfortunately in this instance, the choreography is not very interesting. The sea spirit Golfo presses his attention on Teresina, suggesting that rape is imminent before she is rescued by Gennaro, with Christian symbols and religious talismans playing an important part.

With the third act, we have infectious Danish dancing at its irresistible best. It is one of the true wonders of the ballet world, and the company danced it with considerable charm.

After four nights of "Napoli," the company switches this afternoon to "La Sylphide" for its concluding three performances. It is a universal favorite, and its popularity is easy to understand: the off-putting moralizing in some of Auguste Bournonville's other works is absent, the plot is dramatic, the choreography imaginative, and there are meaty, well-developed parts, especially for the ardent hero, James; the deliciously amorous and airborne Sylph; and the towering, malevolent figure of Madge the witch.

In 1992, when the Danish company last played a major engagement here, it introduced Nikolaj Hubbe, whose thrilling dancing and vivid stage presence brought a new vitality to the role of James. Soon after, Mr. Hubbe joined the New York City Ballet and became one of its leading dancers. Now Mr. Hubbe has returned to his home company to stage "La Sylphide."

The dancer describes himself as a traditionalist, but with a difference.

"Bournonville was a great choreographer, a wonderful ballet master," Mr. Hubbe says, "but first and foremost, he was a fantastic theater man, and I think sometimes in Denmark they forget that.

"When you work with any dancer, it's about fantasy, about imagination. I rehearsed a lot with the women in the corps. I wanted these followers of the sylph in the second act to be a reflection of her and like a sisterhood -- to feel as beautiful and as desirable as [she]."

His approach, he notes, is from both a technical and musical view. "Having them all being together, like one big muscle, in unison. And then also having a feeling of being very limp and frail, soft in the upper body and strong and sharp and precise in the legs and feet. That is one of the significant techniques of Romantic ballet -- Bournonville, Petipa, 'Giselle.' You create that otherworldliness by separating the upper body from the lower."

Working with Danish dancers possessing both extraordinary training and tradition is a unique experience, Mr. Hubbe says.

"The dancers have lived with that tradition for so many years. There have been so many Jameses and so many interpretations -- it only proves how great the ballet is. I would give them information, but once they went in a certain way instinctively, I would let them go. You add your imagination to theirs, reinforcing them -- 'If you're blue, let's see how many shades of blue can we make out of this.'"

As a performer, Mr. Hubbe has a stunning intensity, and he tries to transmit that to the dancers.

"A ballet is not a movie, not a picture on the wall. It happens, and then it dies. You can take the play and read it, and the words will be there any time, but for us as dancers, you have to be in the now, in the instant, and that's what I want this 'La Sylphide' to be."

WHAT: The Royal Danish Ballet in "La Sylphide"

WHEN: Today at 1:30 and 7:30 p.m., tomorrow at 1:30 p.m.

WHERE: Kennedy Center Opera House

TICKETS: $27 to $97

PHONE: 202/467-4600