{"id":280,"date":"2021-05-05T19:59:13","date_gmt":"2021-05-05T19:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/?p=280"},"modified":"2021-11-21T21:06:13","modified_gmt":"2021-11-21T21:06:13","slug":"dancers-artists-lovers-ballets-suedois-1920-1925","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/dancers-artists-lovers-ballets-suedois-1920-1925\/","title":{"rendered":"Dancers, Artists, Lovers: Ballets Su\u00e9dois 1920\u20131925"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Edited by Erik Mattsson<\/strong>
320 pp. Arvinius + Orfeus Publishing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reviewed by Anna \u00c5ngstr\u00f6m<\/strong>*<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00adThe pioneering work of Stockholm\u2019s now long-gone Ballets Su\u00e9dois appears as a bold and luxurious period in the history of dance. This new anthology written by a team of international researchers in art, dance, theatre and music gives a variety of perspectives on the impact of this 100-year young dance company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scene: New Year’s Eve, 1924. The Th\u00e9\u00e2tre des Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es in Paris. The piece part of Cin\u00e9sketch<\/em>, an improvised satire staged by Francis Picabia. The American photographer Man Ray captures the moment where the artist Marcel Duchamp and the model Bronja Perlmutter pose in the nude as Adam and Eve, a paraphrase of the painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder. Ray\u2019s photo, funny and challenging, shows us God\u2019s creations\u2014Adam and Eve in paradise\u2014as a pimp and his prostitute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cin\u00e9sketch<\/em> is usually not spoken about much, but it is one of the 26 works that Ballets Su\u00e9dois created during these five years. Indeed, this avant-garde revue was performed only once and ends this epoch in the Swedish history of dance\u2014but it should be discussed just as it is here because it points forward, towards those cross-border productions of performance art and happenings that would follow later during the twentieth century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written about briefly in Bengt H\u00e4ger\u2019s 1989 volume Ballets Su\u00e9dois<\/em>, an essay in this new book by the French art historian Frank Claustrat places it as a rebellious milestone and inspiration for modernists Merce Cunningham and John Cage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A richly illustrated anthology, the book is part of the 100th anniversary celebrations of the Ballets Su\u00e9dois. Credit here goes to the Swedish Dance Museum (founded in Stockholm by Rolf de Mar\u00e9 in 1953), which mounted an exhibition in 2020 to celebrate the event entitled Om ni inte gillar det kan ni dra \u00e5t helvete <\/em>(If you don\u2019t like it, you can go to hell<\/em>), a quote by Picabia himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erik Mattsson, curator at the Dance Museum in Stockholm and editor of the book, notes that the ten different chapters\u2014each with a specific approach\u2014gives a picture of how international and how elusive the Ballets Su\u00e9dois really has been artistically, geographically and aesthetically. Indeed, its early existence was a mirror of the hopeful post-war one period in which the world opened up. Yet, despite the company\u2019s norm-breaking aesthetic, the volume is a reminder of how art is often characterized by paradox, circumstance and the people involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exhibition itself was based in large part on the charged relationship between rich art patron Rolf de Mar\u00e9 and his less well-to-do prot\u00e9g\u00e9, dancer and choreographer Jean B\u00f6rlin, the company’s star and visionary. In the book, you also get to know more about  other dancers and meet key people behind the scenes: the 25-year-old wardrobe mistress Lilly \u00c5sberg, for example, who had responsibility for every costume during their tours; and the little-known Jacques H\u00e9bertot, a Frenchman with a keen interest in dance who knew de Mar\u00e9 and came up with the idea of \u200b\u200bstarting a Swedish equivalent to the more well-known Ballets Russes which was already established in Paris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also clear is the image of the company\u2019s media-driven strategist, the theatre director and impresario working alongside de Mar\u00e9, H\u00e9bertot. It was he who participated in the recruitment of eleven dancers from the Stockholm Opera, which, to the anger of the Opera House\u2019s management, drained the company of its young talent, a group attracted by both larger salaries and stimulating adventures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karin Helander, a professor of theatre studies, describes the storms around the Swedish Opera, a not-so progressive institution at the time, where the Russian choreographer Mikhail Fokine’s guest performance ignited a spark of renewal among the younger dancers. When Jean B\u00f6rlin returned there in 1923 to do Bergakungen<\/em>, this Swedish fairy tale ended up at the centre of an ongoing conflict with different interests standing in the way of new directorial ideas about multi-disciplinary stage works in which all art forms had equal value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the large amount of source material, the writers pick out insightful quotes that give a real scent of the 20s and its special zeitgeist<\/em>. That said, sometimes material is repeated and sometimes information is contradictory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One particularly interesting essay is by Canadian art historian John Potvin, who writes about the gay dancer Jean B\u00f6rlin against a background of the time when the male body became a projection of national”health” ideals, with sculptures of antiquity as model. Certainly, both the Ballets Russes and Ballets Su\u00e9dois placed male dancers in such a light rather than focusing it on females. Their two stars, Vaslav Nijinsky of the Ballets Russes and Jean B\u00f6rlin of the Swedish company, cultivated an androgynous, physically explicit stage persona which aroused both desire and strong homophobic reactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In another essay, the Danish researcher Karin Vedel describes how dissatisfied the six male dancers recruited from Det Kongelige Teater in Copenhagen were with the repertoire they were asked to dance at Ballets Su\u00e9dois. They had hoped for developmental challenges and complained in a letter to B\u00f6rlin that not only did they not have prominent roles, but those that they did have, were mostly in folk dances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was, in fact, Swedish folkloric-based works that most attracted foreign audiences, works such as Les vierges folles<\/em> and Nuit de Saint-Jean. <\/em>These were performed several hundred times, while the more innovative African-inspired La cr\u00e9ation du monde<\/em>, where the dancers became part of Fernand Leg\u00e9r’s cubist set, was played only twelve times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, openness to other art forms and continents was crucial to the development and legacy of Ballets Su\u00e9dois. Art historian Frank Claustrat calls La cr\u00e9ation du monde <\/em>an anti-colonial work and considers that the company\u2019s repertoire was opposed to xenophobia, racism, homophobia and even Islamophobia. His enthusiastic analysis echoes contemporary discourse but possibly lacks a problematization of the fact that borrowed elements from different cultures could also have features of exoticization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Choreographer\/dancers Petter Jacobsson’s and Thomas Caley write in the volume about how they tried to recreate the dadaist treasure Rel\u00e2che<\/em> (by Picabia, B\u00f6rlin and Satie) in 2014. Theirs is an interesting grand final\u00e9 to a book whose very disposition corresponds to the dramaturgy in Rel\u00e2che<\/em>. The duo, who lead the Centre chor\u00e9graphique national\/Ballet de Lorraine<\/em> in France, describe how, with limited source material, much detective work and by trying to feel the zeitgeist<\/em>, <\/em>they struggled trying to revive this iconic work which in 1924 attempted to challenge audience passivity. It even included the mischievous film Entr ‘acte<\/em> made by Picabia and Ren\u00e9 Clair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jacobsson and Caley speak of how societal development, trends and politics shaped the original as well as their own interpretation of it. Obviously, it is never possible to really recreate a bygone era or, perhaps, even fully understand it. But with their own contemporary version of a provocative Rel\u00e2che<\/em>, they certainly managed to arouse today\u2019s audiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In sum, this is a book that clearly confirms the place of Ballets Su\u00e9dois, its ambitions, resources and many original works, works that on their own constitute a luxurious period in dance history, one that still arouses interest and curiosity. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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*<\/a>Anna \u00c2ngstr\u00f6m <\/strong>is the senior dance critic and editor for the national newspaper Svenska Dagbladet.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Copyright \u00a9<\/strong> 2021 Anna \u00c2ngstr\u00f6m
Critical Stages\/Sc\u00e8nes critiques<\/em> e-ISSN: 2409-7411<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Creative<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This work is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution International License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":282,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/05\/CS-Books-Dance.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":484,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/interview-with-sarah-melin\/","url_meta":{"origin":280,"position":0},"title":"Crucial Collaboration in International Networks: Interview with Sarah Melin","author":"Anna \u00c2ngstr\u00f6m","date":"May 23, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Theresa Bener* We have never lost sight of the need to continue working, so that we can greet the audience again with our artistic productions. This does not necessarily mean going back to what was \u201cnormal\u201d before, but it could be different. (Sarah Melin) Established in 1994 as a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Interviews"","block_context":{"text":"Interviews","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/category\/interviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/05\/image8-1.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/05\/image8-1.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/05\/image8-1.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/05\/image8-1.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":152,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/tadashi-suzuki-and-the-thalia-prize\/","url_meta":{"origin":280,"position":1},"title":"Tadashi Suzuki and the Thalia Prize","author":"Anna \u00c2ngstr\u00f6m","date":"April 30, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Margareta S\u00f6renson* The Japanese stage director and author Tadashi Suzuki received\u00a0 the Thalia Prize from the International Association of Theatre Critics (AICT-IATC) on 16 April 2021. Due to the pandemic, the award ceremony was presented online in conjunction with an international conference on the work of Mr. Suzuki, whose performance\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Thalia Prize"","block_context":{"text":"Thalia Prize","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/category\/thalia-prize\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/04\/toga-park.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/04\/toga-park.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/04\/toga-park.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/04\/toga-park.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":267,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/creating-in-between-times-and-identities-expressions-of-contemporary-theatre-in-guatemala\/","url_meta":{"origin":280,"position":2},"title":"Creating In-between Times and Identities: Expressions of Contemporary Theatre in Guatemala","author":"Anna \u00c2ngstr\u00f6m","date":"May 5, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Regina Solis Miranda* and Luis Antonio Morales Rodr\u00edguez** Abstract Theatricality in contemporary Guatemala has its own poetics shaped by a tense interaction of multiple identities in a context defined by enforced colonial logic. By recognizing Mayan and Ladino\/mestizo theatrical trends, we can explore alternative ways of thinking that shape contemporary\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "National Reports"","block_context":{"text":"National Reports","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/category\/national-reports\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/05\/image6.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/05\/image6.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/05\/image6.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/05\/image6.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":728,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/lin-hwai-mins-water-stains-on-the-wall-a-cosmopolitical-perspective\/","url_meta":{"origin":280,"position":3},"title":"Lin Hwai-min\u2019s Water Stains on the Wall: A Cosmopolitical Perspective","author":"Anna \u00c2ngstr\u00f6m","date":"June 13, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Kin-Yan Szeto* \u0391bstract Water Stains on the Wall is a pivotal example that demonstrates the world-renowned Taiwanese choreographer Lin Hwai-min\u2019s cosmopolitical perspective. This article examines the performance in the context of Lin\u2019s other works and demonstrates how he contests our presumption and consumption of Otherness in the dancescape. Lin highlights\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Special Topic"","block_context":{"text":"Special Topic","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/category\/special-topic\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/06\/Water-Stains-Cover-and-Final.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/06\/Water-Stains-Cover-and-Final.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/06\/Water-Stains-Cover-and-Final.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/06\/Water-Stains-Cover-and-Final.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":207,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/a-chronicle-of-chinas-pandemic-theatre-the-word-from-nine-theatre-artists\/","url_meta":{"origin":280,"position":4},"title":"A Chronicle of China\u2019s Pandemic Theatre: The Word from Nine Theatre Artists","author":"Anna \u00c2ngstr\u00f6m","date":"May 5, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Lissa Tyler Renaud* Introduction The mainstream media's virus-centered narrative about China swept the world, but didn't include the story I wanted to hear: about China's theatre. I began writing to colleagues connected in some capacity to the yearly Wuzhen Theatre Festival\u2014many of whom are among the most influential figures\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Interviews"","block_context":{"text":"Interviews","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/category\/interviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/05\/Wuzhen-Grand-Theatre.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/05\/Wuzhen-Grand-Theatre.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/05\/Wuzhen-Grand-Theatre.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/05\/Wuzhen-Grand-Theatre.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":680,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/mutations-in-crisis-generic-engineering-in-contemporary-southeast-asian-dance\/","url_meta":{"origin":280,"position":5},"title":"Mutations in Crisis: Generic Engineering in Contemporary Southeast Asian Dance","author":"Anna \u00c2ngstr\u00f6m","date":"June 19, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Aparna R Nambiar* Abstract This article analyzes two recent works of contemporary Southeast Asian dance staged in Singapore: Indonesian dancer Rianto\u2019s Medium (2018) and Behalf (2018) by Thai Dancer Pichet Klunchun and Taiwanese Dancer Chen-Wu Kang. I identify an emerging epoch of intense, cross-generic experimentation, as traditional cultural practices negotiate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Special Topic"","block_context":{"text":"Special Topic","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/category\/special-topic\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/06\/image8-2.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/06\/image8-2.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/06\/image8-2.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2021\/06\/image8-2.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1000,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions\/1000"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/23\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}