Premiering on November 13, 1976 Rapport was Birgit Cullberg’s first large scale ensemble ballet created expressly for the stage after many years during which she created first for television, to then rework and transfer the pieces to the stage. Set to music by Allan Petterson, who would become a central driving force behind the ballet, Rapport was a unique collaboration between the Royal Opera House and the Cullberg Ballet.
Rapport, like Eurydice is Dead, Revolt, The Dreamer and Romeo and Juliet, belongs to the part of Cullberg’s canon considered as abstract and dramatic dance theater works. Rapport is still regarded as one of the most important choreographic works in Swedish dance history.
It is a political ballet where the stage transforms into a forum for a political discussion between polarities: rich and poor, oppressors and oppressed, executioners and victims. The stage design consisted of a white circular carpet which represented not only the earth, but also a universal problem as well as the eternal cycle of life. Situated in the center is the poet, originally danced by Niklas Ek. He symbolizes a unifying force, one that with his art can transcend difficulties and contradictions. As the poet is dying he has a vision in which he sees a way out of the darkness and into the light. While Rapport depicted the trials of the personal and individual, it also placed the future of the entire human race at play, one unfolding all over the world in the shadow of war.