The Cullberg Ballet celebrated three decades at the forefront of contemporary dance with the premiere of Mats Ek’s interpretation of the classic ballet Törnrosa (The Sleeping Beauty). Since its inception Cullberg Ballet has stood for excellence, innovation and a reflection of our common contemporary condition. The company continues to mine the unexplored in the fields of contemporary dance and art both in Sweden and abroad.
Eks Törnrosa was created for the Hamburg Ballet in June 1996. The Swedish premiere followed in February of 1997, danced by Cullberg Ballet at Dansens Hus, Stockholm. The performance was described as “an ingenious work with fresh takes on the old story, with depth and with ironic imagery. Poetic, richly creative and playful. A modern tale of man searching, of the fear of the unknown. In Mats Ek’s depiction, The Sleeping Beauty is a wounded young woman of our time. “
This young woman is at the center of the piece, rebelling as she does against her parents. She does not prick her finger as in the original fairy telling, but rather injects herself with drugs for the first time, entering an altogether different kind of slumber.
Mats Eks Törnrosa was danced by a total of twenty dancers.
Mats Ek about Törnrosa
While fairy tales and allegories appear like a cute finished little cottage, they exist in fact to be mined for their various meanings. Meanings that change according to the time and manner in which they are read.
Most fairytales have something in common: princesses, witches, kings and queens, good and evil. But each one also contains something unique, almost inexplicable. In Sleeping Beauty, this mysterious moment occurs when the young princess falls into a deep sleep after pricking her finger. What could this mean? What might follow?
I have a desire to tell stories. We are all bearers, mediators and in some sense victims of a great cultural heritage – myths, legends, allegories and fairy tales. They become so familiar that we are no longer able to see them clearly. To read them again closely, perhaps discover there the obvious, the ability to deconstruct them, to sabotage even, and to recreate them – that is for me a way to take them seriously, and is a valuable creative act.
– Mats Ek
Törnrosa was performed by Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in Montreal 2009 and of the Gothenburg Opera Ballet in 2010. Each time is it was reworked and updated.