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Mats Ek (born 18 April 1945) is a Swedish dance and ballet choreographer, dancer and stage director. [1] He was the manager of the Cullberg Ballet from 1985 to 1993.
Ek was born in Malmö in 1945, the son of the Royal Dramatic Theatre actor Anders Ek and choreographer Birgit Cullberg.
At 17, he followed a summer dance course (modern) taught by Donya Feuer. He pursued theatrical studies at the Marieborg Folks College in Sweden. From 1966 until 1973, he acted as the director for the Marionett Theater as well as the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm.
In 1972, Ek joined the Cullberg Ballet. In 1975, he formed part of the corps de ballet for the Ballett der Deutschen Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf. And in 1976, he made his first choreography titled The Officer's Servant for the Cullberg Ballet. In 1978, Ek became, together with Birgit Cullberg, artistic director of the Cullberg Ballet, until 1985 when the responsibility became his entirely. This position he fulfilled until 1993. During the season 1980-1981, he was associated with the Nederlands Dans Theater as dancer as well as choreographer.
In some of Ek's former choreographies, traditions of Kurt Jooss and of his mother, Birgit Cullberg may be apparent.[ vague ] He uses classical as well as modern dance techniques. Social engagement of psychological dilemmas combined with subtle humor, form the basis of his choreographies. For Ek, movement is a means of individual expression. Aesthetic value is not his first priority.
Ek studied dance and theatre and directed theatre at the Marionette Theatre, the Stockholm City Theatre and the Royal Dramatic Theatre. In 1973 Mats Ek joined the Cullberg Ballet as a dancer. Three years later he began choreographing for the company. Saint George and the Dragon, Soweto and The House of Bernarda belong to his earliest ballets. From 1981 until 1993 Mats Ek was the artistic director of the Cullberg Ballet, succeeding his mother Birgit Cullberg. 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). After leaving the Cullberg Ballet, Mats Ek became guest choreographer with major international dance companies. He created Sleeping Beauty for the Hamburg Ballet (1996), A Sort Of for the Nederlands Dans Theater (1997), and Apartment for the Paris Opera (2000). Several of Mats Ek's ballets have been adapted for television, two of them received Emmy awards.
Mats Ek notable choreographic theater works include Don Giovanni (1999) and Andromaque (2001) at the Royal Dramatic Theatre. With his latest choreography FLUKE, premiered in November 2002 at Dansens Hus in Stockholm, Mats Ek has once again created a work for the Cullberg Ballet, this time in cooperation with the Pork Quartet.
In 2006, he won the Prix Benois de la Danse.
In 2016, he was awarded the XV Europe Theatre Prize, in Craiova, for his "contribution to the revolution in contemporary dance". [2] [3]
Nederlands Dans Theater is a Dutch contemporary dance company. NDT is headquartered at the Amare building in The Hague. NDT also performs at other venues in the Netherlands, including Amsterdam's Het Muziektheater and Nijmegen's Stadsschouwburg.
Birgit Ragnhild Cullberg was a Swedish choreographer. Her father Carl Cullberg was a bank director and her mother was Elna Westerström. Cullberg was born in Nyköping and was married from 1942 to 1949 to actor Anders Ek. She was the mother of Niklas Ek in 1943, and twins Mats Ek, and Malin Ek in 1945.
Cullberg Ballet is a Swedish contemporary dance company.
Juan Ignacio Duato Bárcia, also known as Nacho Duato is a Spanish modern ballet dancer and choreographer. Since 2014, Duato has been artistic director of the Berlin State Ballet. He is openly gay.
Nicolas Le Riche is a French ballet dancer, choreographer and ballet director.
Carolyn Carlson is an American born French nationalized contemporary dance choreographer, performer, and poet. She is of Finnish descent.
Daniela Malusardi is an Italian choreographer, teacher and dancer.
Didy Veldman is a Dutch choreographer. She trained at the Scapino Academy in Amsterdam. She has danced with Scapino Ballet, Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève and Rambert Dance Company, working with international choreographers such as Jiri Kylian, Mats Ek, Ohad Naharin and Christopher Bruce, among others.
Crystal Pite is a Canadian choreographer and dancer. She began her professional dance career in 1988 at Ballet BC, and in 1996 she joined Ballett Frankfurt under the tutelage of William Forsythe. After leaving Ballett Frankfurt she became the resident choreographer of Montreal company Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal from 2001 to 2004. She then returned to Vancouver where she focused on choreographing while continuing to dance in her own pieces until 2010. In 2002 she formed her own company called Kidd Pivot, which produced her original works Uncollected Work (2003), Double Story (2004), Lost Action (2006), Dark Matters (2009), The You Show (2010), The Tempest Replica (2011), Betroffenheit (2015), and Revisor (2019) to date. Throughout her career she has been commissioned by many international dance companies to create new pieces, including The Second Person (2007) for Netherlands Dans Theater and Emergence (2009) for the National Ballet of Canada, the latter of which was awarded four Dora Mavor Moore Awards.
David Dawson, is a British dancer and choreographer. Since his career debut, Dawson has released over 20 creations. Noted for his atmospheric, emotionally physical pieces, Dawson received numerous honours and awards.
Édouard Lock is a Canadian dance choreographer and the founder of the Canadian dance group, La La La Human Steps.
Stéphane Bullion is a French Etoile dancer of the Paris Opera Ballet.
Jorma Elo is a contemporary choreographer.
Giovanni Bucchieri is a dancer and musician from Linköping, Sweden. He established himself early as a prolific dancer, specialised in breakdance and in Street dance. At the age of 15 he moved to Stockholm. Together with his longtime companion Aleksander Maksic he traveled to New York at the age of 16. There they eagerly took part in the frantic club life of New York. It was here that Bucchieri's love for Vogue was discovered, at various ballroom dances.
Ana Laguna is a Spanish-Swedish ballet dancer, court dancer and professor. She has danced throughout the world with such legends as Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov earning prizes for her performances from France, Italy, Monaco, Russia, Spain, Sweden and the United States.
Irina Laurenova was born in Ros', Belarus and studied at the Minsk Ballet Academy. She has been dancing with the Royal Swedish Ballet since 2004 and in 2007 was appointed second soloist. Prior to her employment in Sweden, Laurenova worked with the Bolshoi Ballet in Poznań, Poland, the Ballet Theatre in Minsk and the Ballet Theatre of Trier, Germany. In addition, she has performed as a guest dancer in appearances and festivals throughout the world, including: Belgium, Canada, China, France, Hong Kong, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and Thailand.
Gina Tse is an English ballerina of British-Chinese descent, and first soloist of the Royal Swedish Ballet. Beginning in the 2012–2013 season, she was elevated to the principal dancer of the company.
Karl Wilhelm Alexander Ekman is a Swedish ballet dancer and choreographer. His choreographies have been performed by Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, the Boston Ballet, the Semperoper Ballett, the Nederlands Dans Theater, the Norwegian National Ballet, the Royal Swedish Ballet, the São Paulo City Ballet, the Sydney Dance Company and the Wiener Staatsballett. For some of them he has designed sets and costumes or composed the music.
Jefta van Dinther is a Dutch-Swedish choreographer and dancer. Today van Dinther lives and works in Berlin and Stockholm.
Lea Elizabeth Ved is an American contemporary dancer and choreographer. She was a second soloist contemporary dancer at the Royal Swedish Ballet, dancing with the company from 2016 until 2018. Ved currently dances with Nederlands Dans Theater.
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