New ballet mistress

[Pamela Moberg]

The Gothenburg Opera has got a new ballet master for the coming season.

French-Canadian Mireille Leblanc.

I have heard the name, but dont know much about her.

What are we to expect? Anybody knows something of her work

[bart]

I found an interesting website for a "danceperformance" called Turbulence that premiered at the Gothenburg Opera in 2004. The text is in English and includes a brief biography of Leblanc, who is listed as "repiteteur."

Turbulence

[Pamela Moberg]

Thank you for that, Bart! I wasnt even aware that this site existed - but some of the names are familiar to me. There are a few small companies in and around Gothenburg, well, it might be incorrect to call them companies, I would say groups performing at various venues. As they all do modern dance (and some of it distinctly weird) I have actually never seen any of them.

So there is no classical ballet to be seen in Gothenburg and we can now assume that the opera ballet will follow the hitherto familiar track with only modern stuff.

[bart]

Pamela, the situation you describe seems to reflect what is happening to "ballet" in too much of Europe and North America

I got curious and looked up the Goteborg Opera site (which has an excellent English translation). The Goteborg Ballet is performing the work of a number of contemporary choreographers I've not heard of -- only Jiri Kylian and Nacho Duato were familiar names.

They also have a production called "Aurora," which is descirbed as "Merly Tankard's very personal interpretation of the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty." Photos of the company in one of their programs have a completely modern -- in fact, bare-foot -- look.

Those interested in what opera, ballet and theater look like in one of Europe's small cultural centers might want to check Goteborg Opera (and Ballet)