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28.09.2016

Cullbergbaletten tours in the US

Cullbergbaletten tours this fall in the US with Figure a Sea, a project by Deborah Hay and Laurie Anderson. It is the first time since 2002 the world famous Swedish dance company performes in the US, and the tour is made possible with support by The Embassy of Sweden, Washington, DC, The Swedish Arts Council and Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation.

“There is a great interest in Swedish and Scandinavian dance in the US, a sort of positive buzz. The fact that Cullbergbaletten collaborates with two American icons raises the temperature even higher. And what also seems to be inspiring here is how big creative space the dancers of Cullbergbaletten are given, in terms of research and developing solo performances such as Against the Current, Glow that will be performed at the House of Sweden in Washington”, says Linda Zachrison, Cultural Counselor, at the Embassy of Sweden in Washington.

Figure a Sea has been performed successfully during the summer in Montpellier, France, at the outdoor theatre Parkteatern in Stockholm, Bassano, Italy, in Cologne and at Tanz im August in Berlin, Germany with brilliant reviews throughout. The piece had its world premiere at Dansens Hus in Stockholm, last September. The tour in the US goes to Montclair 6-9 October, Los Angeles 15-16 October and Berkeley 22-23 October. Talks, solo performances, panel discussions, workshops and master classes will be arranged in New York, Washington DC, Los Angeles and Berkeley in connection to the tour.

“A creation by Deborah Hay for a big dance company, using all the advantages of a big machine, challenging seize, scale, resources just had to be there. Her ongoing reflection on dance, what it can be and how it can be perceived, is a crucial link in the development of this art form. I felt like being in a museum where the Jackson Pollocks or the Rauschenbergs were missing. This piece just had to be made. And it is of course extra special to show a piece by Hay with a Swedish dance company on her home base in the US”, says Gabriel Smeets, Artistic Director, Cullbergbaletten.

Deborah Hay, American icon dancer, choreographer, and author, was born 1941 in Brooklyn. She trained with Merce Cunningham and Mia Slavenska and danced with the Cunningham Dance Company in 1964. Hay belongs to a generation of choreographers who were at the base of Judson Church Movement in New York in the 1960s, where daily life movements became part of the choreography and untrained people became dancers. This was a change in the history of dance. The group, known as the Judson Dance Theater, became one of the most radical and explosive postmodern 20th century art movements. Hay focused on large-scale dance projects and later almost exclusively on rarified and enigmatic solo dances based on her new experimental choreographic method. She also choreographed a duet for herself and Mikhail Baryshnikov, Single Duet in 2000.

Laurie Anderson, composer, born in 1947 in Glen Ellyn, IL, is one of today’s premier performance artists. Known primarily for her multimedia presentations, she has cast herself in roles as varied as visual artist, composer, poet, photographer, filmmaker, electronics whiz, vocalist, and instrumentalist. As a composer, she has contributed music to films by Wim Wenders and Jonathan Demme; dance pieces by Bill T. Jones, Trisha Brown, Molissa Fenley, and a score for Robert Lepage’s theater production Far Side of the Moon. She has created pieces for National Public Radio, the BBC, and Expo ’92 in Seville. Anderson’s awards include the 2001 Tenco Prize for Songwriting in San Remo, Italy, and the 2001 Deutsche Schallplatten prize for Life on a String as well as grants from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Co-commissioners:
Zodiak, Center for New Dance, Helsinki, Finland.
Peak Performances @ Montclair State University, New Jersey, USA.
Balletto di Roma, Rome, Italy, Centro per la Scena Contemporanea – Comune di Bassano del Grappa, Bassano del Grappa, Italy
CCAP, Stockholm, Sweden.

The tour is made possible with support by The Embassy of Sweden, Washington, DC, The Swedish Arts Council and Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation.

For more information contact:
Erica Espling, Marketing and PR Manager Cullbergbaletten
+ 46-70-602 27 01
erica.espling@cullbergbaletten.se

Cullbergbaletten has performed all over the world and is an important contributor to the international presentation of contemporary dance. The company also engages in national outreach through its tours within Sweden. Cullbergbaletten collaborates with a variety of national and international choreographers and performing artists who create works for large as well as small stages. Cullbergbaletten’s activities encompass different projects and productions including collaborations with dance training programs. Cullbergbaletten was founded by Birgit Cullberg in 1967 under the auspices of Riksteatern – The Swedish National Touring Theatre, of which it still is a part. The company currently has 16 dancers from nearly as many countries. Since its inception, the stage personalities, creativity and technical strength of its dancers have been Cullbergbaletten’s defining characteristics. Gabriel Smeets is the artistic director since 2014.