In 1997 The Holland Dance Festival presented a survey of Mats Ek work. The festival celebrated its 50th anniversary that year, having established itself as one of Europe’s most creative platforms for innovation in dance, theater, music and opera. Ek created En Slags for Nederlands Dans Theater and premiered the work alongside an array of existing works from his repertoire.
(In addition, he commissioned choreographers Stijn Celis and Jens Östberg to create works for the festival.)
En Slags premiered with the Cullberg Ballet on February 26, 1998 at Dansens Hus in Stockholm. En Slags is a large scale piece for sixteen dancers, set to music by Henryk M. Góreckí: Kleines Requiem für eine Polka and Concerto for Harpsichord and String Orchestra, OP. 44
“A man wakes up, or does he fall asleep? He makes a journey into the depths and, once there, different events take place. He moves into -A Sort Of- reality – or is it a dream? Afterwards, he is forever changed.”
– Mats Ek