Mats Ek Swan Lake

People will either show their enthusiasm and undying admiration or they will stick their tongues out.

Mats ek swan lake.

This video is unavailable. Ek directed the company until 1993 producing works notable for their social commentary and political content. After leaving the cullberg ballet mats ek became guest choreographer with major international dance companies. But eight years before bourne s work mats ek had created his own equally alternative swan lakefor the cullberg ballet.

Seeing that work live it was screened on television years ago it s clear. Mats ek s extensive production of ballets includes more than twenty works for the cullberg ballet among them sensational reworks of classics like giselle 1982 swan lake 1987 and carmen 1992. It is over a decade since i last saw cullberg ballet present the work. Ek who is best known for his full length reworkings of ballet classics like giselle sleeping beauty and swan lake is swedish dance royalty.

His new full length ballet a swan lake nominated for a 2015 benois de la danse takes a fresh look at tchaikovsky s classic work. Legendary swedish choreographer mats ek s ballet was created for the dancers of the opéra national de paris and is here danced by star names including nicolas le riche and marie agnès gillot the name appartement comes both from the word for a living space but also from associations with separation and isolation. His choreography like marmite is one of those topics that leave little room for middle ground. I had forgotten just how good mats ek s swan lake svansjön is.

Ek has chosen a contemporary approach to the story of swan lake turning the ethereal swan into a sturdy creature not unlike a down to earth swedish lass of today.