Archives: Archived Performances

Birgit Cullberg brought The Lesson (based on Ionesco’s play) to the repertoire of the company and asked Flemming Flindt to dance the role of the demonic ballet teacher at the premiere. Flindt agreed on condition that Cullberg would play the role of the pianist.

The work takes place in a ballet studio, a typical setup with bars in front of mirrors. The student, an innocent and eager young woman, is received by the old pianist. The dance teacher enters and the lesson begins fairly normally.However, the steps become more and more strange, the atmosphere bizarre and dangerous. Soon thereafter everything unravels, ending in disaster.

Bernard Daydé’s decor was built at the Riksteatern / Svenska teatern’s studio at the Hjalmar Bergman Theater in Örebro under the direction of set designer Göran Wassberg. Georges Delerué’s music was recorded by members of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Paul Jörgensen, conductor at the Royal Theater in Copenhagen.

Birgit Cullberg created a total of seven new ballets during the Cullberg Ballet’s first year in 1967. Folkfest was one of the works that quickly disappeared from the company’s repertoire. According to Erik Näslund’s book Birgit Cullberg the concept for the work came to her after a holiday in Spain.

Cullberg was appalled by the atrocities of a bullfight she witnessed. In Folkfest a group of people flock to an arena, but behind the festivities a cruel ritual is soon revealed. The ancient sacrifice of a living creature. The ballet is a satire on the popular party scene that surrounds a bullfight and Birgit took a strong stand for the victim. In this instance, the bull.

At the premiere, the role of the bull was danced by the African American dancer Morris Donaldson and the work gained another dimension. It became a political commentary on racism and the situation of people of color, ethnic minorities, mob violence, and the subjects of colonialism the world over. The audience was deeply divided.

The ballet is about transformation and the cost of change.

The piece is a modern version of the classical ballet Coppelia (Arthur Saint-Léon and Léo Delibes, 1870) It is both a social satire and a depiction of the predicament of the aging artist. Present in Coppelius is a recurrent motif in Birgit Cullberg’s canon, namely a revolt against the confinements of bourgeois life. Here this struggle is brought to life through the setting of a dollhouse containing stereotypically repressed people. The work could be seen to mirror Cullberg’s personal revolt against her upbringing in a bourgeois home in Nyköping, Sweden. In addition, Coppelius also reveals Cullberg’s sense of satire and burlesque, but interestingly much of the grand gestures and movements which came to represent her signature have been left aside in this work.

The ballet is composed of ten etudes for dancers and musicians. Ten variations without a theme. In Pas de Six dance and choreography have come about in parallel though a kind of mutual music making where dancers and musicians have inspired each other in equal measure.

Icarus was choreographed by Lucas Hoving (1912-2000) a renowned dancer and teacher. Born in Holland, Hoving worked with some of the most important figures of the European and American modernist tradition, including Martha Graham, José Limón, Doris Humphrey and Kurt Jooss.

One of Hoving’s most iconic works, the piece recounts the story of Icarus, a key figure of Greek mythology. Son of Daedalus, Icarus is given a pair of wings made of wax by his father in order to escape Crete. Warned not to fly too close to the sun lest his wings melt, Icarus nonetheless succumbs to his own hubris by flying too high, allowing the sun to melt his wings and causing him to fall to his death.

Apspel (Monkey Games) is based on true events which took place at the Copenhagen Zoo. The piece depicts a male and female orangutan cohabitating in a cage at the zoo when suddenly the female falls ill and dies. Though highly intelligent animals, the male oranguatan nevertheless cannot comprehend the permanence of her death. When the veterinarian discovers the dead female she is taken away, and the male orangutan is unable to understand why.

In time, a new female is brought to the zoo, and the veterinarian is seen playing with her outside the male’s cage. Eventually, she is introduced to the male and they accept one another. However, the male has grown suspicious of the veterinarian since the arrival of his new companion and, growing paranoid, attacks the caregiver when he suspects him of wanting to take away his new mate.

The work can be read as simple depiction of the events but also in its symbolic form. As psychodrama or morality tale.

Nightwandering was created by Merce Cunningham and premiered at Dramaten in Stockholm on October 5, 1958 with Cunningham himself and Carolyn Brown dancing together. Bo Nilsson’s music was characterized by rapid tempi interspersed with periods of silence, designed to evoke the feeling of the vast endlessness of a Nordic night. Nicola Cernovich designed the tunics that were worn in the original version of the piece. In 1960, Robert Rauschenberg made new costumes made of fur.

The Split Self is about a woman who suffers from a profound case of split personality disorder. Her psyche is divided into three distinct peronas, such that she alternately appears as three completely different individuals. Leading to major complications in communication, not least in her love affair with a young man, the ballet is structured in three layers, where each layer illustrates one of her personalities.

The Sea is essentially a pas de deux but encompassing three distinct participants: the boy who grew up by the sea, the girl who sees its waters for the first time, and the ocean itself. The sea is present in their play, in their discovery of each other. The sea sparks a strong sense of life in both, catapulting them toward one another. The sea triggers their love. Caught in their passion the boy forgets that the tide is coming, and the sea rises while they make love. They are washed away but manage to save themselves. The beach is deserted once again.

Choreographer Eske Holm on Orestes:

Orestes is more of a victim than a hero. His fate is predetermined – retaliation, frustration, hatred and vengeance are waiting to manifest in him. Orestes first murders his mother’s accomplice, emptying himself of all his hatred. He has no power left to turn on his mother. Elektra, his sister, helps him. The masses wish to greet him with cheers, but he refuses, after which he is separated from her and the choir. There is a line draw between the one holding the knife and the one pushing it in. On which side the characters fall, is decided by the viewer. In any case, Orestes is tormented and driven mad by guilt. We can consider him a pacifist who, when finally pushed to fight, puts his entire soul’s disgust for violence into the cruel act of murder. It will thus stand as a protest against revenge and violence – is there a limit to how much one can protest against it?

In Merce Cunningham’s Summer Space, dancers explore the room wearing specially painted full-body unitards. They make their way across the floor in different patterns, throwing themselves across the space and jumping through the air. They move in alternate patterns alone, in tandem, or as an ensemble. The dance conveys the feeling of movement in space, in this case a bright summer space. The work is an example of Cunningham’s method at the time, whereby the choreography was created independently of Morton Feldman’s music and Robert Rauschenberg’s scenography,. The work premiered at the American Dance Festival in the summer of 1958 and had its Cullberg premiere in 1967.

In non-traditional roles, the artist experiences a profound sense of resistance. He feels both liberated and anxious.

The ballet Love was danced to psychedelic pop music surrounded by a shimmering gold decor. In this golden array youthful figures move about dressed in sensual, beautiful colors. They dance and play with one another.

The ballet Fedra is a variation on an old theme from Euripides and Racine. Jag är inte du (I am not you) was the first name given to the work based on the story of Fedra, originally made for Norwegian television in 1966. The music for the television production was specially commissioned by Norwegian composer Bjarne Brustad. When the work was moved to the stage the following year, organ music by Hilding Rosenberg was used instead and the work also received a new title: Fedra.

“The Ballet About Bellman is not a collection of pantomimic anecdotes deploying Bellman’s famous characters in the lead roles. Instead, it is an attempt to portray in dance how Bellman’s poetry could become contemporary music in its own right. Both were violent, powerful and surprising. Bellman’s lyricism has parallels to Beethoven’s romanticism and grace. The character Bellman in the ballet is not a portrait of the poet as a private person or singer. Dance and choreography are a completely different artistic language than literature.”

– Page 253-254, from Birgit Cullberg by Erik Näslund (Norstedts Förlag 1978)

The ballet is inspired by Euripides’ continual marital troubles and the drama of divorce.

Talley Beatty created the ballet Phoebe Snow in 1959. It is based on a tragic series of events among youth gangs in socio-economic hardship. A young girl commits suicide after she was raped and her boyfriend beaten by a rival gang.

Phoebe Snow is a train. The setting is partially a Chicago slum situated along the railroad tracks of the train line. The theme in the ballet is the rootlessness and emotional distress that these young people from poor families fall victim to. It is a study in how people hurt and abuse one another when they lack strong family ties and a sound socio-economic foundation.

The Green Table (German Der Grüne Tisch), is Kurt Jooss’ breakthrough ballet from 1932 and “a turning point in the history of modern dance drama” (Erik Näslund, Birgit Cullberg, pg. 34). Set during the interwar period of the 1930s, the green table is the meeting place for diplomats and statesmen who discuss, argue, and mock one another all while a war rages and death takes its victims. In expressive scenes, the shortcomings of these ten statesmen is depicted. Wearing elaborate masks they make unsuccessful attempts to mediate peace.

The Green Table was created a year before Hitler came to power and Jooss wanted to show in his work how much he disliked war. The Green Table was first presented by Folkwang Tanzbuhne at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris on July 3, 1932, as part of the “Concours international de chorégraphie en souvenir de Jean Börlin” (International Choreography Competition in Jean Börlin’s memory) where the ballet won first prize. It was the Swedish’s Dance Museum’s patron Rolf de Maré and his Archives Internationales de la Danse who arranged the competition. Despite Jooss making an early international breakthrough, he was forced in 1933 to flee Nazi Germany with his entire dance troupe after refusing to stop collaborating with the Jewish composer Fritz Cohen and likewise refusing to fire the Jewish dancers in the troupe. The company moved to Dartington in the UK and took the name Ballets Jooss. After that, they toured in Europe and America until the 1950s. Jooss returned to Essen in 1949, where he worked until 1968. Birgit Cullberg studied for a period with Jooss.

A classical Indian piece that Lilavati Devi Häger — married to Bengt Häger (dance critic and founder of the Dance Museum, among other things) — herself performed while touring with the Cullberg Ballet. Bengt Häger and Birgit Cullberg collaborated early on in Birgit’s career.

A classic Indian work by Lilavati Devi Häger, married to Bengt Häger (dance critic and founder of the Dance Museum), danced herself while on tour with the Cullberg Ballet. Bengt Häger and Birgit Cullberg collaborated early in Birgit’s career.

US dancer, choreographer, and company director Talley Beatty (1923-1995). He trained with Katherine Dunham and made his professional debut in her company in 1940, undertaking additional later studies with Martha Graham. In 1946 he left Dunham to perform in musicals, including a revival of Show Boat (1946), as well as in Maya Deren’s film, A Study in Choreography for Camera (1945). In 1949 he formed his own company, Tropicana, for which he created Southern Landscape, a work portraying the plight of African Americans in the South after the Civil War. In 1955 he disbanded his company, and focused on giving solo concerts and choreographing for others. His dances frequently highlighted social injustice, particularly for black Americans. A list of his works includes The Road of the Phoebe Snow (1959), the full-length Come and Get the Beauty of It Hot (1960), Powers of Six (1964), and Montgomery Variations (1967). He also created The Black District (1968) and The Stack Up (1982) for the Alvin Ailey company; Poème de l’extase for Cullberg Dance Company in 1972, and Cathedral of Heaven for Batsheva Dance Company in 1973. Other companies with whom he worked include the Boston Ballet and Dance Theatre of Harlem and he also collaborated with Duke Ellington on two television specials: A Drum Is a Woman (NBC, 1956) and Black, Brown and Beige (CBS, 1974). His tribute to the composer, Ellingtonia, had its premiere at the American Dance Festival in 1993.

Dionysus was a god in ancient Greek mythology who took on many forms. In this work he is portrayed as the god of transformation, uniting four typologies of the feminine, each representing four distinct elements: earth, water, fire, and air. He thus embarks on a search into the entire universe.

These four abstract phrases of movement display diverging fragmentary visions and impressions, composing a choreographic dialogue.

The story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves debuted in the cinema when Birgit Cullberg was young, and the film’s music became subsequently very popular. In the Walt Disney version Snow White was sweet, the dwarves comical and kind, the prince noble and the queen wicked. At that time Cullberg composed mostly solo dances which she performed at her first performances in Stockholm. She was also true to the story of Snow White, however it was not the normal protagonist that interested her but rather the queen. Why was she so wicked?

The Evil Queen was first created as a television ballet for SVT (Swedish Public Broadcaster) in 1960.
Producer: Arne Arnbom
Music: Dag Wirén, Radio Orchestra, Stig Westerberg, conductor
Costume: Sonja Carlsson
Decor: Cloffe

Dancers in television production: Frank Schaufuss, Marianne Orlando, Gerd Andersson, Caj Selling, John Burman, Willy Sandberg, Elis Gustavsson, Iain Montague, Nils Winqvist, Hans Wahlström, Stefan Bobek, Eki Eriksson, Birgit Grefveberg, Margaretha Jönsson-Åsberg, Lena Malmsjö , Dagny Palm, Nils Johansson, Svante Lindberg, Gunnar Randin, Gösta Svalberg