Mats Ek Carmen Essay Example
This essay will analyze and discuss one of Europe's most creative and influential dance-makers, the Swedish dancer and choreographer Mats Ek; acclaimed for the theatricality and immediacy of his work while his contribution and development through the dance field with the main focus on his revision of the classical ballet stories. It will also discuss one of his major works Carmen and relate it with the original one.
Mats Ek is a prominent and controversial figure of the contemporary dance. He has his own choreographic style and his work in contemporary dance choreography is contested. He was born in 1945. Eks mother, and his big influence, was the famous dancer and choreographer Birgit Cullberg, the founder of the world wide recognized, Cullberg Ballet Company. As said before, his mother was a huge influence for Ek. Therefore one can see that both, Mats Ek and Birgit Cullberg, choreographic style has a lot of same characteristics such as the attention of psychological characterization, the sensitive portrayal of humans feelings and the humorous episodes.
“In performance we see a fantasy world so unwaveringly strange and characters so imperiously dysfunctional we're genuinely compelled...
Ek may ask his dancers to go to some very odd places but the Cullberg
Ballet follows him with ardent alacrity” (Judith Mackrell, the
Guardian.)
In 1974–5, Ek was a member of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Düsseldorf, and then made his choreographic debut in 1976 with The Officer’s Servant, for the Cullberg Ballet, the first of many of his works formed on them. In 1980 he became the artistic director of the Ballet Cullberg and a member of the Nederland’s Dance Theatre. He also worked and created pieces with many great dance companies. Mats Ek in well known for his revisionist versions of the classic ballets. He has also created his own work and most of the time his pieces have to do a lot with humor. However in reworking ballet classics, Ek likes to keep the characters alive so
Mats Ek is a prominent and controversial figure of the contemporary dance. He has his own choreographic style and his work in contemporary dance choreography is contested. He was born in 1945. Eks mother, and his big influence, was the famous dancer and choreographer Birgit Cullberg, the founder of the world wide recognized, Cullberg Ballet Company. As said before, his mother was a huge influence for Ek. Therefore one can see that both, Mats Ek and Birgit Cullberg, choreographic style has a lot of same characteristics such as the attention of psychological characterization, the sensitive portrayal of humans feelings and the humorous episodes.
“In performance we see a fantasy world so unwaveringly strange and characters so imperiously dysfunctional we're genuinely compelled...
Ek may ask his dancers to go to some very odd places but the Cullberg
Ballet follows him with ardent alacrity” (Judith Mackrell, the
Guardian.)
In 1974–5, Ek was a member of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Düsseldorf, and then made his choreographic debut in 1976 with The Officer’s Servant, for the Cullberg Ballet, the first of many of his works formed on them. In 1980 he became the artistic director of the Ballet Cullberg and a member of the Nederland’s Dance Theatre. He also worked and created pieces with many great dance companies. Mats Ek in well known for his revisionist versions of the classic ballets. He has also created his own work and most of the time his pieces have to do a lot with humor. However in reworking ballet classics, Ek likes to keep the characters alive so