Ballet across Borders: Career and Culture in the World of Dancers

212 Pages·1998·14.622 MB·English

by  Helena Wulff

Career and Culture in the
World of Dancers
Helena Wulff
First published 1998 by Berg Publishers
Published 2020 by Routledge
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ISBN 13: 978-1-859-73993-8 (hbk)
In memory of my Father,
who introduced me to ballet.

'You see, this place is like a life. It's not just
the stage. This is where we have our relationships,
everything!'
Woman soloist dancer
'I enjoy very much that I have an international
language. On stage, I can talk to anybody without
knowing or actually seeing the person!'
Male principal dancer
Acknowledgements ix
I Prologue: A Return to the Ballet World 1
2 The Transnational Context 33
:,
Work as Vocation 59
" Classical Ballet Culture 89
5 Producing Performance 117
6' Moving and Mixing 145
Bibliography 169
Index 179
This book has grown out of a love for ballet and dance that I kept stowed
away for many years. By making an anthropological study of the ballet world,
I have been able to combine my intellectual and artistic interests into a
research approach that also offers an understanding of contemporary life,
work and thought in general.
My gratitude to the many people and institutions that made this study
possible is enormous. Simon Mottram, ballet director of the Royal Swedish
Ballet during my field study, was an invaluable key informant and introducer
who became a friend. A highly intelligent and imaginative artist, Simon often
understood intuitively what kind of information or access I needed. Through
his many connections, he opened up the transnational ballet world for me. I
am in great debt to Simon for being my guardian angel in the ballet world.
I owe special thanks to Eskil Hemberg, director of the Royal Opera House
in Stockholm during my field study, and Nils-Ake Haggbom, the ballet
director who gave me permission to spend one year with the Royal Swedish
Ballet. He also saw to it that I got access to the American Ballet Theatre.
Dag Simonsen, ballet producer of the Royal Swedish Ballet at the time, was
always supportive and pivotal for my access to the Royal Ballet in London.
Among the people I met backstage at the Royal Opera House in Stock-
holm, I would in particular like to thank Gunilla Roempke, Jan Willem de
Roo, Per Mankeus, Dobrana Mirchev, Viktor Fedotov, Eric Sjostrom, Vija
Briedis, Marika Lagercrantz and Bo Wulff (not a relative). Per Mankeus,
Paul Nelissen, Agneta Stjernlof-Valcu and Ewa Bjarnholt were also helpful.
A Swedish The Nutcracker by Par Isberg made ballet history in 1995. I
have had many enjoyable conversations with Par, considerate and insightful
house choreographer of the Royal Swedish Ballet. Madeleine Onne provided
well-articulated information about ballet as a career. Johanna Bjornson, Eva
Nissen and Hans Nilsson also contributed generously to the study. So did
Anneli Alhanko, Matti Alenius, Jan-Erik Wikstrom and Anna Valev. Elina
Lehto and Charlotte Stalhammar shared much information about ballet, as
did Christian Rambe and Tiiu Kokkonen, Mikael Fjellstrom, Henrik Burman,
Anders Groth, Kate Lind af Hageby and Alexandra Kastrinos. I also wish
to thank Marie Lindqvist, Susanna Englund and Rennie Mirro.
ix