Amforta

In Stockholm lies Folkoperan (The People's Opera). Folkoperan wants to show people there are different ways of looking at opera as an art form, and for the last three years they have created something called Opera Showroom, when people can come and experience newly created works for free during two days.

One of the operas that was part of Opera Showroom was Amforta, and after two auditions I was happy to hear I had been chosen to be one of six ballet-girls in the piece. Amforta is a new work created by Mellika Melouani Melani and Bengt Gomér, directed by Mellika, and with music written by Jonas Forssell - one of Sweden's biggest opera composers. Amforta is a very strong, and a bit scary, work that mixes opera, ballet, and the reading of texts written by women who has been through hard times and being treated very badly by the people who were supposed to help them when they really needed help. The work is very feminist in the way it confronts the symbols of male dominance in our society, and asks the question whether it would be possible to replace the male heroes with female ones. Can the wounds of Jesus and Amfortas be carried by female bodies?...

Here is me trying on my costume, and after that we set to work! We had only three and a half day to put all this together before the premiere, and I'm very impressed over the fact that we actually did it! But everyone, from director Mellika, to all the people on stage, and the wonderful people behind it worked amazingly well together, and everyone were so nice! No opera divas here... Haha!

During the whole dance sequence we were supposed to shake like aspen leaves, reaching for the audience for help, before we very cruelly pushed away one after one of us and shot our fellow ballerinas to death...

After dying on our battlefield, the Valkyries came to bring our fallen bodies to the afterlife in Valhalla. In Nordic mythology this is the place the valkyries brought the male heroes that died in battle, and where they then spent the afterlife partying. 

We were all lifted from the ground with the help of balloons fastened around or wrists. And off to Valhalla we went! 

Here is me wondering what the hell the valkyries are singing about, trying to get the party started. And yes, that's a beer in my hand! After a while we released our balloons and relaxed though, after which we indulged in the buffet rolled out on stage, eating chips, popcorn and other goodies like we had never eaten before. Then came la grande finale, and it was over...

Ballerina group pic after the second show! After working so closely and intensely together for five days, it was sad to say goodbye after only two shows... But the audience really loved it, and some people reacted so strongly to it they had to leave in tears before we had come even halfway through the show... But with my "little" pain problem, and thinking I might never even be able to walk normally again nine years ago, I'm so happy I have come so far I was able to actually dance ballet at an opera! A bit achy now though. But it was so worth it!!!

To learn more about Folkoperan, and upcoming shows, please visit their website here, or their Facebook page here! 

PS. Next fall I'll be back at Folkoperan as a nude model in La Traviata...

All stage photos by Markus Gårder.

Anna Pavlova

As you know, I love ballet. So today I will tell you the story about one of the worlds biggest ballerinas - Prima Ballerina Anna Pavlova (1881 - 1931).

1920 (Source)

Anna was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and after seeing a performance of The Sleeping Beauty when she was 8 years old, she decided she wanter to become a ballerina. "I always wanted to dance; from my youngest years...Thus I built castles in the air out of my hopes and dreams", she said herself about her passion for ballet. She was accepted by the St. Petersburg Imperial Ballet School, and made her company debut in 1899. 

Anna in the role that made her famous - The Dying Swan, 1905. Source

Except for her natural talent for dancing, Anna was also a hard worker. As she said herself; "No one can arrive for being talented alone. God gives talent, work transforms talent into genius". Her career blossomed fast, but it wasn't until 1905 she really made her breakthrough, by dancing the swan in Michel Fokine's The Dying Swan, with music by Camille Saint-Saëns. This became her signature role. But of course she danced many big roles in other big ballets too, and just seven years into her career she was promoted to prima ballerina - the second highest title (and quite rare) awarded to a ballerina. 

Anna in 1905. Source

In 1911 she formed her own ballet company, with which she toured around the whole world. At age fifty, after dancing for thirty years, she decided to take a little Christmas vacation - but with the intention of returning to ballet after giving her body a bit of rest. On her way home the train she was on got into an accident. Anna was unharmed, but had to wait out the delay on the chilly platform - only wearing her silk pajamas and a thin jacket - for twelve hours. A few days later she developed double pneumonia. She was told she required an operation to get rid of the disease, but that if she went through with it, she would never be able to dance again. Her reply to this was; "If I can't dance I'd rather be dead". On January 23, 1931, she died in The Hague, in the early morning. On her deathbed she asked to see her swan costume one final time...

Anna and her pet swan. Source

Her ashes wer buried at Golders Green Cemetery, near the Ivy House, in London, where she had lived together with her husband and manager Victor Dandré. The house had an ornamental lake, where Anna used to feed her pet swans. In the picture above you can see her with her favorite swan, Jack. She loved animals and also had a Siamese cat, several dogs, and other birds. Here are a few more photos of this beautiful legend...

In Italy, 1925. Source

In her dressing room. Source

Photo: Ira L. Hill. Source

Source

A pait of Anna's well worn pointe shoes, before 1917. Source

Ballet Dancers Out And About

My landlord Michael showed me some pictures from the wonderful photo series Dancers Among Us by photographer Jordan Matter, and of course I felt I had to share it with y'all too! It depicts ballet dancers in normal, random situations, which obviously become a bit less normal when you do it the ballet way. Enjoy!

Astoria, NY - Matt Oaks

Seattle - Claire Conaty

Towson, MD - Rachel Bell

Sarasota, FL - Danielle Brown

Times Square, NYC - Jeffrey Smith

Chicago - Angela Dice and Demetrius McClendon

San Francisco - Sharon Gallagher

Baltimore - Rachel Bell

Times Square, NYC - Michael Jagger and Evita Arce

Santa Monica, CA - Jill Wilson and Jacob Jonas

Washington, DC - Sun Chong, with his mother

New York City - Luke McCollum

Central Park, NYC - Jason Macdonald

Macys, NYC - Annmaria Mazzini

VIP Heliport, NYC - Marcella Guarino

Columbus Circle, NYC - Michelle Fleet

Source

Dancing Mania

Amidst our people here it come

The madness of the dance.

In every town there now are some

Who fall upon a trance.

It drives them ever night and day,

They scarcely stop for breath,

Till some have dropped along the way

And some are met by death.

This is a little poem taken from the Straussburgh Chronicle of Kleinkawel, written in 1625. It describes something known as "Dancing Mania". The earliest known mentioning of this "disease" comes from the 7th century, but one of the biggest outbreaks of dancing mania happened in Aix-la-Chapelle, in July 1374. A group of people was then seen dancing uncontrollably in the streets, foaming at the mouth, and screaming of wild visions. 

Dancing mania on a pilgrimage to the church at Sint-Jans-Molenbeek,
Engraving by Hendrick Hondius (1642) after a drawing by
Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1564). Source.

This mania could consist of up to thousands of people who gathered and danced until they collapsed from exhaustion. From the 14th century this phenomenon spread throughout Europe, until - for some reason - it died out by the middle of the 17th century. 

Scientists have described dancing mania as a "collective mental disorder", "collective hysterical disorder", and "mass madness", but still we don't have a sure answer to what caused this behavior. Initially it was considered a curse sent by St. John the Baptist, or St. Vitus, and is was therefore known as "St. Vitus' Dance" or "St. John's Dance". 

Painting by Pieter Brueghel the Younger. Source.

It is debated whether this dancing were spontaneous or organized events. But what is certain is that the dancers seemed to be in a state of unconsciousness, and unable to control themselves. While dancing around crazily they screamed, laughed, cried, or sang, and they ended up getting chest pains, convulsions, hallucinations, hyperventilation, epileptic fits, and visions. Some danced until they broke their ribs, and subsequently died, but most of the time the participants just dropped to the ground with exhaustion. 

Source

Scientists have tried to explain dancing mania as a result of different diseases, ergot poisoning, religious acts, and as the relief of "shared stress" from all the hardships people went through during those times - like plagues and floods. Sources agree though, that dancing mania was one of the earliest recorded forms of mass hysteria.

Remedies to get rid of the disease varied from praying to St. John the Baptist or St. Vitus, to exorcism, isolation of the affected persons, and music. It was believed that the order inherent in music was a cure for both ailments of the body and the soul. The music often just made it worse though, encouraging others to join in the dance...

Anita Berber

On June 10, 1899 a girl named Anita Berber was born in Dresden. Both her parents were musicians, and Anita was raised mostly by her grandmother. In 1915 she started taking acting classes and was spotted by the Avant-garde choreographer Rita Sacchetto, and joined her dance-troupe. In the years that followed Anita became more and more popular. She got to dance solo, and was even featured twice on the cover of glossy women's magazine Die Dame. With her scandalously androgynous appearance and heavy makeup she made a name for herself. By 1918 she was becoming a sought-after model, was touring her own solo-programme, and had made her first of nine silent films.

At a drunken party at a hotel in Vienna she danced naked in public for the first time, and then things started to spiral out of control. At the same time she married a wealthy young screen writer named Eberhard von Nathusius, and her film career was blooming, rumors of lesbian affairs and S&M sex reached the daily newspapers in Berlin.

In the winter of 1919 she occupied a suite at the Adlon Hotel in Berlin. The nights she spent at different hotels and elegant restaurants, where she would walk around wearing nothing but a sable coat, her pet monkey around her neck, and an antique brooch filled with cocaine. Except for her addiction to cocaine, opium and morphine, one of her favorites was chloroform and ether mixed in a bowl. She also spent her money wildly on shoes, furs and jewelry.

Photo by Madame D'Ora, 1922.

In 1921 Anita and her husband got divorced, and she started dating a row of beautiful women. The young Marlene Dietrich was rumored to be one of them. A year later though, Anita met dancer and poet Sebastian Droste during a wild night at a casino in Berlin.

The two of them were immediately drawn to each other, and started making plans to create something new and chocking together. This resulted in a production called The Dances Of Depravity, Horror and Ecstasy, which they toured Europe with. In 1923 they got married. But about nine months later - after falling into huge depts, being expelled from Vienna, Anita being arrested for assault and theft, and both of them being heavily dependent on cocaine - Sebastian stole Anita's furs and jewelry, sold them, and fled to New York.

Anita and Sebastian Droste 1922. Photo by by Atelier Elberth.

Anita then moved back to live with her mother at Zähringer Strasse, where she rested long enough to be able to get back to work. Then she met American dancer Henri Chatin-Hoffman. They fell in love and got married two weeks later. In April 1925 they premiered their first production together - Shipwrecked. A year later they started touring with their second collaboration - Dances of Sex and Ecstasy. When they came to Zagreb Anita was imprisoned for six weeks for publicly insulting the King of Yugoslavia.

After this incident they continued touring Europe and the Middle East. While performing at a nightclub in Beirut, on July 13, 1938, Anita collapsed, and was diagnosed with an advanced stage of pulmonary tuberculosis. Then she wanted to go home to Berlin. Because of the state she was in, that journey took four whole months. On November 10, 1928, she died, aged 29, and was buried in a paupers grave at St. Thomas Friedhof in Neuköln.

I saw a picture of Anita Berber a while ago, and I fell so in love with it I just felt I had to do a photo shoot inspired by it! That's why I read up on her history - which resulted in this blog post - too. I like to know the story about someone, or something, that inspires me. The picture I saw is the one below...

...Ant the result from the photo shoot comes here!

The picture was taken with an analog camera by the eminent photographer Michael Vincent McCarthy Kellerman!