Insights for Andersen's The Red Shoes: The people who 'danced themselves to death' by Rosalind Jana

 

BBC News published an interesting article about "dance plagues" or choreomania. These phenomena are part of what inspired Hans Christian Andersen's "The Red Shoes."

Read the full article at The people who 'danced themselves to death' by Rosalind Jana (12th May 2022).

Here's an excerpt to perhaps catch your interest (the inserted links below are to the mentioned items on Amazon):

Uncontrollable dance has a bewitching effect on those who contemplate it. One only has to think of the popular Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale The Red Shoes, with its cursed scarlet leather slippers that condemn their owner into a dance so tortuous that she eventually finds an executioner to hack off her own feet. It is a horrible tale, and people love it. Although its moral implications are relatively straightforward (a good old dose of punishment for vanity: the shoes' wearer put through this ordeal because she dared to covet such beautiful footwear in the first place), its darker suggestions of possession and incessant movement have inspired numerous works including a Powell and Pressburger film, a Kate Bush album, and several ballets.

This summer, the dance plague itself returns in earnest. Florence + The Machine's fifth album Dance Fever, released today, takes its cues from the unstoppable impulses of choreomania. The accompanying release notes outline frontwoman Florence Welch's interest in this volatile meeting point between energetic motion and moral panic, as well as touching on the subject's obvious resonance on an album recorded during the Covid-19 pandemic, when "the whirl of movement and togetherness" was both missed and anticipated. A dance plague is an apt theme for someone who wants to explore uncertainty and change. The opening lines of the song Choreomania – written before the pandemic – are uncannily prescient: "And I'm freaking out in the middle of the street / With the complete conviction of someone who has never actually had anything really bad happen to them." It's also apt for a singer so consistently preoccupied by the body as a tool of expression. Music videos for the album's singles King and Heaven is Here feature the same group of dancers who writhe around Welch, their motions uninhibited as they stamp their feet and dash their skirts.

A book to learn even more is mentioned in the article:

A Time to Dance, a Time to Die: The Extraordinary Story of the Dancing Plague of 1518 by John Waller

After one woman had danced to exhaustion in Strasbourg in July 1518, the dancing sickness quickly escalated into an epidemic that lasted over a month, with many people dying after dancing with crazed abandon for days. This study tells the story of the dancing plague, evokes the sights and sounds of the afflicted city and seeks to explain why people lapsed into that state of frantic delirium.

SurLaLune Small Print

As an Amazon Associate, the SurLaLune Fairy Tale site earns a percentage from qualifying purchases as a referral incentive which helps support the site. Your cost does not increase by using the links on this site. Read SurLaLune's Privacy Policy here. 

Matthew Bourne's The Red Shoes Airing 9/17/2021 on PBS Great Performances

 

Great Performances on PBS will be airing Matthew Bourne's The Red Shoes on September 17, 2021. Bourne is well-known for his interpretations of Sleeping Beauty, The Red Shoes, Swan Lake and Cinderella. 

From PBS:

Experience Hans Christian Andersen’s dark fairytale from acclaimed director-choreographer Matthew Bourne with this Olivier Award-winning stage adaptation starring Ashley Shaw, Adam Cooper, Dominic North and Michaela Meazza.

Lego's Hans Christian Andersen Set: Activities During Corona

I am thinking about some kind of Lego Fairy Tale challenge for Activities During Corona. I haven't finished thinking it through--although I plan to keep it simple--and have to emphasize it is in no way connected with the Lego company, of course. For inspiration, I went web surfing for some fairy tale related Lego builds.

I somehow missed the release of LEGO 40291 Creative Storybook Set (307 Pieces) (Hans Christian Anderson) a while back! Even when I am not actively posting on the SurLaLune blog, I am always noticing and keeping my own lists of fairy tale related items. This set is a natural for Lego since they share their homeland of Denmark with Hans Christian Andersen. Just looking at it reminded me of my own trip to Copenhagen in 2017 when I got to see many HCA related places and pieces. I loved Copenhagen and hope to return someday for another visit.

This set was a free gift with purchase item and I missed this although I even get the Lego catalogs and have for years. I have many, many Lego fans in my family.

This set, reminiscent of the Once Upon a Brick set with it's open book design, depicts Andersen sitting on a park bench, writing one of his tales. The opposite page portrays a scene from The Ugly Duckling. It's still fairly easy to find through online retailers, but not Lego themselves. My links are to Amazon but you can hunt around for it online if you are interested in it.

SurLaLune's Small Print:

As an Amazon Associate, the SurLaLune Fairy Tale site earns a percentage from qualifying purchases as a referral incentive which helps support the site. Your cost does not increase by using the links on this site. Read SurLaLune's Privacy Policy here.

Call for Fiction, Poetry, Art Submissions: Hans Christian Andersen at NonBinary Review

Call for Submissions

NBR #14: The Tales of Hans Christian Andersen

Ends on July 31, 2017

NonBinary Review is a quarterly digital literary journal that joins poetry, fiction, essays, and art around each issue's theme. We invite authors to explore each theme in any way that speaks to them: re-write a familiar story from a new point of view, mash genres together, give us a personal essay about some aspect of our theme that has haunted you all your life. We also invite art that will accompany the literature and be featured on our cover. All submissions must have a clear and obvious relationship to some specific aspect of the source text (a character, episode, or setting). Submissions only related by a vague, general, thematic similarity are unlikely to be accepted.

We are open to submissions which relate to the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen. We encourage you to explore Project Gutenberg for reference, and suggest Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales, First Series, and Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales, Second Series as your source of inspiration (and accuracy.)

(Heidi's insert: Feel free to check out SurLaLune, too! See Hans Christian Andersen or many of his annotated tales on the site.)

Submissions which do not tie into the plots or make use of characters/settings from the stories WILL NOT be considered--there needs to be a clear connection to the source material.

We want language that makes us reach for a dictionary or a tissue or both. Words in combinations and patterns that leave the faint of heart a little dizzy.

FICTION, CREATIVE NON-FICTION, FLASH & HYBRID/EXPERIMENTAL
NonBinary Review accepts fiction and creative non-fiction of up to 5,000 words in length, although shorter is probably better. Fiction should be double spaced, 12-point type, in Times New Roman or similar font in a Word document or text file. Authors may submit up to 5 pieces of flash fiction, no more than 1000 words each, in this category. Please upload each piece as a separate document on this submission. Flash (fiction or CNF) is the ONLY category where multiple pieces related to the same theme may be selected for publication.

POETRY
NonBinary Review accepts poetry of up to 3 pages in length. Poetry should be single spaced, 12-point type, in Times New Roman or similar font in a Word document or text file. You may submit up to five files with this submission, but each poem must be submitted as a separate document.

VISUAL ART
We prefer high-resolution images in JPEG, PDF, TIFF, GIF or PNG format. Visual art must be related to each issue's theme and please attach only one file at a time. Each file must be accompanied by the artist's bio and an artist's statement, which should be submitted as a Word document or text file, double spaced, 12-point type, in Times New Roman or similar font.

ALL SUBMISSIONS
Your 50-word bio should be included in your cover letter. If your bio is longer than 50 words, it WILL be edited for length if your piece is selected. You may submit more than one piece, but each piece must be submitted as a separate document.

PAYMENT
NonBinary Review pays 1 cent per word for fiction and nonfiction, and a flat fee of $10 for poetry (singular poems or a suite) and $25 per piece of visual art, payable upon receipt of the signed publication contract. In return, we ask for worldwide serial rights and electronic publishing rights. NonBinary Review accepts previously published work as long as the original publication is clearly credited. All contributors will receive a complimentary copy of the issue in which their work appears.

ALPHANUMERIC
If you are interested in your work appearing online, please indicate on your submission that you would like to be considered for our weekly online feature, Alphanumeric. Alphanumeric pays a flat fee of $10 per piece regardless of genre or length, and adheres to the same theme and style conventions as the current reading period for NonBinary Review. Alphanumeric pieces will be published online for the 3 active months per each issue, after which, these pieces will be published as a compendium to the issue in which they were published. All contributors will receive a complimentary copy of the issue in which their work appears.

Authors and artists should state in their cover letters for which issue their submission is intended. Submissions not related to an upcoming issue's theme will be deleted unread.

see https://nonbinaryreview.submittable.com/submit/73086/nbr-14-the-tales-of-hans-christian-andersen

Hans Christian Andersen Statue and the Tivoli

May 2nd was a very full day for us. We spent the morning at the Thorvaldsen Museum as I have already shared. The afternoon was spent exploring more sites and ended with a visit to the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. We stayed at the Scandic Palace Hotel, right in the heart of historic Copenhagen and very close to one of the most famous Hans Christian Andersen sites in Copenhagen, the bronze statue of HCA looking at the Tivoli. Probably the Little Mermaid in the harbor is only more famous for HCA sites in Copenhagen. Sorry, I failed to get a good picture of the Andersen Castle at the Tivoli and hadn't realized it. You can see the statue to the left in the picture above. 

The Tivoli is an amusement park and entertainment facility, one that charmed HCA when it opened. The gardens inspired him to write "The Nightingale" according to Tivoli's historical timeline:

On August 15, 1843 the garden gates were opened for the first time and the guests were awestruck by the elegant and exotic gardens. Among them was the one and only Hans Christian Andersen, who was inspired to write the fairy tale the Nightingale .

Within the gates is one ride inside inspired by Andersen's tale of "The Flying Trunk." We didn't visit due to time priorities and weather. It was cold! I don't know how people were standing to be on many of those rides. The Andersen Castle isn't a museum for Andersen, by the way, it's just a building named after him. I was fine walking around and bundled up, but getting onto a breezy open air ride would not have been my definition of fun. It was colder than usual according to the locals.

And while I am here, I will highly recommend the Scandic Palace Hotel. We were there for four nights and were quite comfortable. The staff was wonderful and I was thrilled with the history of the place, too, for many famous people have slept within its walls, including Audrey Hepburn. The hotel is across the City Hall Square from the Tivoli and literally right next door to the HCA Museum, which I will post about soon. And I will sound fully like a spoiled Tennessean when I say it also had some of the largest rooms we've slept in when traveling in Europe. It's nice to not trip over your luggage when changing time zones has one stumbling around sleepless but exhausted in the dark in a new hotel room. The hotel was also quiet despite being in the middle of the city. The only sounds we heard at night were the clock tower bells which I wish I could hear every day and night. I love them.

Anyway, it took three days but we finally had good sun so I stopped to take pictures of HCA after having only greeted him the previous days for I saw him each day of our stay in the city.

He needed a good cleaning on one side but his knees were shiny from plenty of tourists climbing on his knee. A graffiti artist had tagged the book in his hand recently, too. Poor HCA!

One of the most important rules of travel--and life actually--is to not only look around you but up and down as well. Looking down by the statue treated me to two sewer covers that also honored Andersen, the only two I saw. The rest were ornate but not Andersen related. I wonder if there used to be more. The one above has an inset with the Steadfast Tin Soldier on it. The other was missing its inset figure. Wonder what it was? Thanks to whoever the selfish tourist was who took it! I'm assuming, but I feel pretty safe in doing that.

Wonder what Andersen would have thought about having sewer covers with his visage on them? Rather a dubious honor when one considers it.

Cupid and Psyche at the Thorvaldsen Museum in Copenhagen, Demark

One of my favorite artistic mediums is sculpture which is fitting since my husband has discovered a budding talent for just that in the last few years. He is chagrined that it is one of the few visual art mediums he didn't study in school but has found it is one of his best. So May 2nd was a banner day since we probably saw more sculptures than we have ever seen in a 24 hour period. 

We started our day with a visit to the Thorvaldsen Museum in Copenhagen. Bertel Thorvaldsen is one of our favorite sculptors. Our first day in Copenhagen and within hours of arrival we went to see Thorvaldsen's Christus and Apostles statues at the Church of Our Lady, the cathedral of Copenhagen. So we had already had a wonderful experience with his work. That was a meal. His museum was a feast. 

But what about Hans Christian Andersen and fairy tales? Well, actually, this was a favorite day for me with very little HCA or so I thought. I actually learned that Thorvaldsen and Andersen were good friends. In fact, Andersen was one of the last to spend time with Thorvaldsen before Thorvaldsen's death. From Wikipedia:

Towards the end of 1843 he was prohibited from working for medical reasons, but he began to work again in January 1844. His last composition from 24 March was a sketch for a statue of the genie in chalk on a blackboard. At night he had dinner with his friends Adam Oehlenschläger and H. C. Andersen, and he is said to have referred to the finished museum saying: "Now I can die whenever it is time, because Bindesbøll has finished my tomb."

After the meal he went to the Copenhagen Royal Theatre where he died suddenly from a heart attack. He had bequeathed a great part of his fortune for the building and endowment of a museum in Copenhagen, and left instructions to fill it with all his collection of works of art and the models for all his sculptures, a very large collection, exhibited to the greatest possible advantage. Thorvaldsen is buried in the courtyard of this museum, under a bed of roses, by his own wish.

The museum has hosted a special exhibition about HCA previously (see Writing Is an Act of Love) and owns items about HCA, although none were on display. For example, you can read about Thorvaldsen and Hans Christian Andersen here and A Letter to Thorvaldsen from H. C. Andersen.

But enough about HCA for now. Don't worry. He'll return again in future travel posts. Now I want to turn to mythology and sculpture, especially some of Thorvaldsen's work centering around Cupid and Psyche, perhaps my favorite myth especially since it is a predecessor to East of the Sun and West of the Moon and Beauty and the Beast.

But first I had to share Heavenly Wisdom (1825). She was one of the first figures to greet me in the museum. We have an Athena in Nashville that is quite famous, but I found myself liking this thoughtful one with her little owl at her feet. It's a plaster version. The marble version is found in Saint Peter's in Rome.

As we continue, please note the photos are all my own with all their flaws and you can see them slightly larger by clicking on them. They have been sized down for the web. I am going to link to the piece's museum page where more details are provided and sometimes a better picture. The museum had both marble and plaster pieces. The plasters are always dirtier since they are more fragile but they still have some beauty to be seen.

First, from an information care at the museum, a summary of the Cupid and Psyche tale to remind us of the story.

Now some of Thorvaldsen's interpretations of the story scenes which provide "illustrations" of the story for us today.

Cupid and the Sleeping Psyche, 1841

Psyche and the Sleeping Cupid, 1841

Psyche, 1806

Cupid Revives Psyche, 1810 This is beautiful, there is another version, too: Cupid Revives Psyche, 1810 which I like even better but I didn't see it in person to photograph it. The details are more refined in it. Gorgeous.

Cupid and Psyche, 1861 Executed by Georg Christian Freund under the supervision of H.W. Bissen after the original plaster model ca. 1807

From the museum card:

After many inhuman ordeals, Psyche has at last found her Cupid again. In her hand she holds a chalice with the elixir of immortality that will render her divine like her lover, so the two can finally marry.

Bonus: I also fell in love with this Huntress on a Horse, 1834 that is a rare piece of classical inspired art that shows a woman in action. Even Athena, Goddess of War, is usually just standing still. Its companion piece of a male hunter was much more sedate in action, making it even more magical.

And finally, there were many, many, many Cupids fluttering around in marble and plaster in the museum, the cute cherub types. Those don't capture my fancy as much but this one made me laugh: Shepherdess with a Nest of Cupids, 1831.

From the museum card:

The small cupids represent various aspects of love: The cupid with his eyes closed represents slumbering love; those kissing represent active, ardent love; the cupid laying his head on the shepherdess’s arm is hoping for love; the one patting the dog represents constancy and the one flying away fleeting love. Perhaps the cupid that is not clearly seen represents secret love.

Finally, Thorvaldsen did several studies and other works of Cupid and Psyche, too. The museum site has some photos of the plasters and sketches. These are not as lovely to me since the plaster has deteriorated, but they provide a look into the artistic process. If this really interests you, search the site and see drawings and other works, too. For now see:

Cupid and the Sleeping Psyche, 1838

Another Cupid and the Sleeping Psyche, 1838

Psyche and Cupid, 1838 (waking Cupid)

Another Psyche and Cupid, 1838 (reunited perhaps?)

Hans Christian Andersen at Frederiksborg Castle Gift Shop

As I mentioned in my last travel post about our day visiting the national art museum, Hans Christian Andersen at Frederiksborg Castle, the final destination by design is the gift shop in a museum. Well, we visited this one and I found a few treasures--badly photographed here--to share.

First discovery were the little glass Frog Kings pictured above. Which made me laugh since Frog Kings are so ubiquitous and have nothing to do with Hans Christian Andersen. But it's not surprising that the Frog King is the first tale to be found in the Grimms' collection. I liked this version of the frog since he also holds the gold ball that is rarely remembered from the story.

Moving on, I found some Hans Christian Andersen candy. I didn't buy any--my purchases for this entire trip were minimal and well, it wasn't chocolate. :) Besides, if the label didn't tell you, it would be hard to know this was HCA themed candy. The silhouettes aren't very distinct.

There were a few HCA fairy tale books--nothing new that I hadn't seen before and I forgot to photograph them as a result. But I found these papercut ornaments to be my favorite finds. I was tempted to buy them all until I did the math. They were expensive (about $19 USD each) so I settled on my favorite--the Princess and the Pea, of course. 

I was rather sad that there wasn't a good book to buy--the best ones were ones I already owned and I don't own that many HCA books. Well, relative to other people, I do, but he's not the focus of my folklore library. So I was hoping something would be new to me. But the papercut ornaments seemed fitting so I was happy to find one of those to commemorate the visit.

The Steadfast Tin Soldier

The Ugly Duckling

The Emperor's New Clothes

The Princess and the Pea

Sorry the photographs are dark. You can see the entire collection of HCA themed papercut art by at Oda Wiedbrecht's site with much better photographs, of course. Here is a scan of the one I bought:

Bonus round: As I mentioned, we traveled to the castle by train. I was surprised to find the following message above my head as we waited for the train that morning--whimsical and so very U.S. The world really has gotten smaller. But it was a fitting reminder of how I wanted to spend my day from an unlikely source so I was tickled by it.

And on a similar note, I saw many posters that day advertising a Danish performance of "Into the Woods" at the Tivoli which is essentially the performing arts center of Copenhagen as well as a famous amusement park. I got a bad picture of it--the goal was to get it before several people walked in front of me and to avoid glare. Not very successful. John and I are reflected in the lower right corner. 

But I found the poster again on the Tivoli site for the performance that happened on May 19th. Wonder how well the music--if it does--translates into Danish. Not sure if this was a musical version or not.

And this again shows the universal influence of the Grimms. I've really got to get to Germany next time!

Hans Christian Andersen at Frederiksborg Castle

On Monday, May 1, we took the train to Frederiksborg Castle in Hillerød, Denmark, about 45 minutes away from Copenhagen. Formerly a royal residence, it is now the Museum of National History for Denmark. We looked at a lot of art and saw some impressive rooms like the Chapel and the Great Hall. A small room in the Chapel is also where one can find the original religious paintings of Carl Bloch, one of my favorite parts of our visit. The chapel was quite impressive.

and the Great Hall (that's me in black in the far distance, just left of center, studying a sculpture). This one has great scope for imagining a royal ball, Cinderella visions included.

I wasn't expecting to see any Hans Christian Andersen references--silly me--but somewhat near the end of our visit, we entered a few rooms that had portraits of famous Danes. Well, I looked up over the doorway in one room to spy a familiar face. Hmmm, over a doorway and hard to see, I thought. This picture was taken with my zoom.

Then I entered the next room and realized HCA, unlike most of the other famous figures, was represented twice. The sunlight made it hard to get a good photo, unfortunately, without glare.

That was more than I expected, but there was more to come. Quite literally the last room we visited before returning to the hallway that lead to the gift shop--finding the gift shop's always a good sign that your tour is done--I discovered this little dark alcove. Well, I know him, I thought! 

This time the room was too dark--and no flash allowed, of course--to get very good images. I could barely read some of the items in the dim light when standing in front of it. Some of my photos are too blurry to share, but I did get a few in focus. 

I don't remember ever seeing this portrait before. Obviously, he was going through one of the "I'll experiment with facial hair" stages of early manhood. He was 26 when the portrait was painted.

This was one of the photos I am most familiar with of HCA.

An HCA papercut! Always fun to see one of those!

To Travel Is to Live: Copenhagen and Hans Christian Andersen

Hello all! I have safely returned from a trip to the Baltic where I encountered many fairy tale sightings, some expected and some not. I am going to share pictures and stories over the next several days, going in chronological order for our trip. My husband John and my parents traveled with me on this grand adventure!

We arrived in Copenhagen, Denmark on April 29th. After two flights and too many hours sitting with very little sleep, we wearily navigated the airport to claim our luggage. We turned one corner and suddenly I was face to face with the Little Mermaid! I scrambled for my camera for obvious reasons and snapped these pictures. 

There was a replica of the Little Mermaid statue that sits in the harbor. We weren't planning to go to the harbor during our stay in Copenhagen so I was thrilled to see the mermaid in the airport. (And I would see other versions throughout our explorations of Copenhagen, too, most of which I didn't photograph.) Don't worry, I did plan on a few other fairy tale visits, just not to the harbor which was out of the way of our other destinations and cold. We spend the entire trip in coats, gloves and hats. It was a chilly, even snowy, spring in the Baltic!

There was also a large display case featuring the traveling trunk Hans Christian Andersen used in his own travels. It was large--nearly five feet tall--and suddenly made me feel better about my single suitcase and backpack for a two week trip. But I also felt sorry for whoever had to lug that thing around when it was full--no wheels and not very convenient handles either.

Here is the placard about HCA that accompanied the statue and trunk. You can click on it to make it larger and hopefully read it if you are interested.

More HCA sightings to come as we explored Copenhagen!