Ballets Suédois

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Ballets Suédois: Production Skating Rink (1922) by Jean Börlin , set design: Fernand Léger

The Ballets Suédois were an active ballet ensemble with headquarters in Paris from 1920 to 1925 . Its founders were Rolf de Maré and the dancer and choreographer Jean Börlin .

History and focus

The ballet ensemble Ballets Suédois was founded in Paris in 1920 by the Swedish patron and art collector Rolf de Maré (1888–1964) together with the dancer and choreographer Jean Börlin . It consisted mainly of Swedish and Danish dancers, including, in addition to Börlin, Jenny Hasselquist , Carina Ari and Irma Calson . The debut of the Ballets Suédois took place on October 25, 1920 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris . During its only five-year existence (dissolved in 1925), the Ballets Suédois not only appeared there, but also on numerous European stages and in the United States.

Similar to the Ballets Russes founded by Sergei Djagilew in 1909 - the success of which it wanted to build on - the ensemble turned against the prevailing currents of academicism and took up the influences of expressive dance from Isadora Duncan , Mary Wigman or Rudolf von Laban . Jean Börlin, who is responsible for all over 20 productions as a choreographer and often also a solo dancer, previously worked for the ballet of the Royal Stockholm Opera , often drew his inspiration from contemporary painting. Thematically, he drew partly on Swedish, but also non-European folklore, partly on everyday stories. In his choreographies he strived for a synthesis of dance, music, poetry and contemporary painting. Elements of African dances (fusion of African creation myths with jazz-influenced music in La Création du monde , 1923), roller-skating ( Skating-Rink , 1922) or abstract art through to Dadaist multimedia drama ( Relâche , 1924) were integrated.

Similar to the ballets of Russes, the collaboration with painters and composers of the avant-garde of the time was formative. The former included Fernand Léger , Giorgio De Chirico and Pierre Bonnard . There were also libretti and livrets by poets such as Paul Claudel and Jean Cocteau . The collaboration with the French composer group Les Six resulted in the joint composition Les Mariés de la tour Eiffel (1921).

Productions

All choreographies by Jean Börlin:

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ List by Emmanuel Thiry (French)

literature

  • Bengt Häger: Ballets Suédois , Thames and Hudson, London, 1990, ISBN 978-0-500-235874
  • The Oxford Dictionary of Dance, 2nd ed., Eds .: Debra Craine and Judith Mackrell. Oxford University Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0-19-956344-9 , p. 44.
  • Mathias Auclair, Frank Claustrat, Inès Piovesan: Les Ballets Suédois Une compagnie d'avant-garde (1920-1925) , Opéra national de Paris, 2014, ISBN 978-2-35340-186-4

Web links