Born: 1994
Nationality: Danish
Education: The Royal Danish Ballet School, 2001-10
Career: Joined the Royal Danish Ballet as an apprentice in 2010, became a member of the corps de ballet in 2012 and was promoted to soloist in 2018 and Principal Dancer in 2023.
Highlights from the repertoire with the Royal Danish Ballet: Soloist parts include Queen of Hearts in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Christopher Wheeldon), Solo Girl in Rubies (George Balanchine), Sugar Plum Fairy and Dew Drop in The Nutcracker (George Balanchine), Posthorn in Third Symphony of Gustav Mahler (John Neumeier), the Fairy Godmother and the Wicked Stepsister in Cinderella (Gregory Dean), pas de trois in Swan Lake (Nikolaj Hübbe and Silja Schandorff), Dryade Queen in Don Quixote (Nikolaj Hübbe) and Prudence and Nanina in The Lady of the Camellias (John Neumeier). Other featured roles: Vertical Road (Akram Khan), Falling Angels (Jiří Kylián), Infra (Wayne McGregor), Minus 7 (Ohad Naharin), and Symphony of Psalms (Jiří Kylián). As a child at the ballet school she danced the role of Clara in The Nutcracker (Alexei Ratmansky) and the first Sylph in Kom Bamse – nu balletter vi! (Thomas Lund)
Creations: Madame de Tourvel in Dangerous Liaisons by Cathy Marston, 2017, Shaken Mirror by Kim Brandstrup, 2016, Know by Idan Sharabi, 2015, Strangers by Sebastian Kloborg, 2015, Olivia in Twelfth Night by Nikolaj Hübbe, 2014, and Rosa in The Stolen Spring by Esther Lee Wilkinson, 2011
Guest performances: Pas de deux from Othello by John Neumeier, Nijinsky Gala, Hamburg, 2021, and Pas de Quatre by Jules Perrot at the Prix de Lausanne, 2012
Other engagements: Bonnie in the story ballet Bonnie and Clyde by Signe Fabricius and Elisa Kragerup, Betty Nansen Teatret, 2020. Had her debut as an actor as Polly in Birgitte Stærmose’s movie Darling, 2017. Summer Ballet at Bellevue Teatret, 2015. Guest performance at the Joyce Theater in New York. Self-choreographed solo for Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du soldat performed among other places at the Black Diamond and Christianskirken in Copenhagen. Her latest works as a choreographer include Death and the Maiden, which was shown in back yards in Copenhagen in May 2020, and Duet for a Cellist and a Ballerina at the Baggaardskunst Festival in August 2020. Astrid Elbo is a founder and member of the performance duo La Mia Bella Sorella together with the violinist Katrine Grarup Elbo
Awards: Reumert Award for Dancer of the Year, 2020, Queen Ingrid’s Honorary Grant, 2018, The Neel Resling Halpern Foundation’s Grant, 2017, Balletmaster Albert Gaubier and Poul Waldorff’s Grant, 2016, Balletmaster Hans Bech’s Grant, 2016, Talent prize from the Friends of the Royal Danish Ballet, 2014, and the Royal Danish Ballet’s “Colleague of the year”, 2015.
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Why do you dance?
Because I have to!
Why do you think that ballet is relevant today?
When the world seems so dark, I sometimes wonder if it is a waste that I am using my arms as a dancer rather than as a nurse or a doctor to be on the ground with people suffering and help here and now. But what we can do as artists is to help people escape reality. I hope to give my audience an experience that they can take with them in their everyday life.
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Read more about Astrid Elbo:
Instagram:
@agrelb
@la_mia_bella_sorella