The ballet Miss Julie is based on August Strindberg’s 1888 play of the same name, to date still one of the most performed plays in the world. The ballet premiered in Västerås on March 1st 1950, in what proved a breakthrough year for Cullberg, Miss Julie had been conceived and produced for a regional tour organized by the Swedish National Theater. The ballet would have far reaching consequences for her career, not least of which was the invitation to enter the closed domain of the Royal Opera House, so considered as it was at the time. This event was unique because it marked the invitation of two artists, Birgit Cullberg herself and the dancer Elsa-Marianne von Rosen, both of whom had not received their formal training at the Opera.
Elsa-Marianne obtained her dance education outside the Opera and Birgit Cullberg studied modern dance in England with Kurt Jooss in the 1930s and only after age 40 did she start to practice ballet. Miss Julie also placed Swedish ballet within a new international current in dance, exemplified by Roland Petit’s ballet Carmen, itself having spearheaded a new ballet way of creating and articulating ballet. Indeed, it was Petits Carmen that served as catalyst for Cullberg’s creation of Miss Julie. She had seen the ballet in Paris in 1949, and saw in it a complete form of dance drama that reflected new realism in literature. A movement drama depicting characters of depth and revealing a realism as yet unseen in ballet till then. Gone were nymphs, tulle,fairy tales, spectacle and fireworks. Instead the dance would move past the proscenium and into the audience, altering them.
Cullberg’s Interpretation of Miss Julie is a depiction of the vulnerability of an an odd man. Griped by an awful loneliness, in which birthright and wealth help little to none, is the strongest current in this work. It provides a dimension of depth which balances the fixed choreographic structure, more varied and saturated with effects as it was than any other Swedish ballet at the time.
In Miss Julie worlds collide: an aristocratic, refined and debauched one exemplified by the Countess’ daughter Julie juxtaposed with the primitive, slightly rough around the edges but also vital subject represented by Jean, Kristin and the farmers. Cullberg combined these elements, the free or modern and classical dance techniques when articulating these divergent worlds. The aristocratic refinement of the title role is expressed in the point shoe technique of classical ballet. While Julie dances en point, a sharp contrast is drawn by the grounded quality of the other dancers. The role of Julie was first danced by a young Elsa-Marianne von Rosen, and became for her a stepping stone into the international dance world. Jean was originally danced by Julius Mengarelli, on loan from the Opera. This role has since been danced by some of the world’s foremost dancers including Erik Bruhn, Rudolf Nurejev, Flemming Flindt, Niklas Ek.
Anne-Marie Lagerborg, also on loan from the Opera at the time of originating the role of the housekeeper Kristin, would go on to lead to a lifelong collaboration with Birgit Cullberg. She eventually left the Opera in 1967 as a founder and eventual director until 1975. Anne-Marie Lagerborg was initially responsible for setting Miss Julie on other companies around the world. After Lagerborg’s death in 1988 the assignment was taken over by, among others, Jeremy Leslie-Spinks, Gunilla Roempke, Lena Wennergren-Juras and Ana Laguna.
Miss Julie became a modern Swedish classic and has been performed numerous times all over the world by various dance companies including: American Ballet Theater, The Royal Swedish Ballet, The Finnish National Ballet, and in Oslo, Copenhagen and Poland. It is the most performed work in Birgit Cullberg’s canon.
In 1980, SVT produced Miss Julie for television with Niklas Ek, Galina Panova and the Cullberg Ballet. In 1981, Rudolf Nureyev was an invited guest artist at The Cullberg Ballet, performing Miss Julie at the Circus Theater in Stockholm.
(Source: Birgit Cullberg, Erik Näslund, Norstedts Förlag, 1978)