A week of fairy tales

The Little Mermaid

On Wednesday, Jan. 28th Megan, Caroline and I went on a DIS sponsored bus tour of Copenhagen. Some of the sites we visited were repeats from the orientation scavenger hunt like the Royal Palace and the Rosenborg Slot but our tour guide told us a lot about them so it was still interesting. We also visited the Black Diamond. That is the new wing of the Royal Library here in Copenhagen. As you can see it looks like... what else, a Black Diamond. It has beautiful architecture inside as well. Inside the lines of the building are all curved and seem to continue the movement of the water which can be seen through the window. (BTW I just discovered that you could add pictures to this blog so get ready!)

After this we went to one of the most famous sites in Copenhagen, The Little Mermaid statue. On our way there our tour guide told us the original story of the Little Mermaid which is much sadder than the Disney version. In Hans Christian Anderson's story, the Little Mermaid did fall in love with a human but he had a girlfriend. She had made a deal with the sea witch who told her that she had to return to the surface and kill the man. Of course she could not do it because she loved him. So, because she broke her agreement with the sea witch, she was transformed into the foam on the sea.

Some people are often disappointed with this statue because she is fairly small and you could actually miss her if you were not paying attention. I on the other hand thought she was beautiful and I was so happy to see this landmark of Copenhagen. 

Our tour guide also told us that China has asked to have this statue as a representation of Denmark a the next World's Fair (apparently to be held in China). This is still under a great deal of debate. Personally, I think that is crazy and I think they should never move her. but we will see what is decided.

In keeping with my theme of fairy tales, I will tell you about my trip to the ballet. This Friday was my first field study with my history of ballet class. We went to see Romeo and Juliet at the Royal Theatre at Kogens Nytorv (one of Copenhagen's many squares). This performance was held at the old Royal Theatre (a new one was recently built but both are used for performances of all kinds). The theatre was beautiful! And I loved the ballet. It was wonderful. It was choreographer by John Neumier, an American dancer/choreographer who spent a lot of his career in Copenhagen. He had a very unique style, using motion and particular steps to differentiate between the characters which was really interesting.

One very funny thing that I did notice though was at the end of the performance, during the curtain calls when the audience was clapping, everyone clapped at the same time, and I mean everyone. It was cool but a little weird. Maybe the Danes just have more rhythm than Americans? :)