Winter 2018-19 Review

From the Winter 2018-19 issue of Ballet Review

A Conversation with Madeleine Onne

On the cover: Isabella Boylston and James Whiteside. (Photo: Karolina Kuras, Ballet Sun Valley Festival.

© 2018 Dance Research Foundation, Inc. 4 Paris – John Marrone 5 New York – Karen Greenspan 8 Toronto – Gary Smith 10 New York – Susanna Sloat 12 Washington, D.C. – Lisa Traiger 13 Toronto – Gary Smith 14 St. Petersburg – Joel Lobenthal 15 New York – Harris Green 16 Stuttgart – Gary Smith 18 New York – Karen Greenspan 20 Boston – Jeffrey Gantz 42 Elizabeth Kendall 25 A Conversation with Madeleine Onne Ballet Review 46.4 Winter 2018-19 Karen Greenspan Editor and Designer: 31 The Space Between Marvin Hoshino Managing Editor: Joel Lobenthal Roberta Hellman 36 A Conversation with Senior Editor: 56 Violette Verdy Don Daniels Associate Editors: 42 Dance We Must: Joel Lobenthal An Exhibition from Jacob’s Pillow Larry Kaplan Alice Helpern Gary Smith Webmaster: 50 A Conversation with David S. Weiss Reid Anderson Copy Editor: Naomi Mindlin Joseph Houseal Photographers: 36 52 A Conversation with Inko di Ö Tom Brazil Costas Karen Greenspan Associates: 56 Site-Specific at the Rubin Peter Anastos Robert Greskovic George Jackson Michael Langlois Elizabeth Kendall 62 A Conversation with Paul Parish Isabella Boylston Nancy Reynolds James Sutton Edward Willinger 52 Naima Prevots Sarah C. Woodcock 73 Memorial Day

90 London Reporter – Louise Levene 95 Music on Disc – George Dorris Cover photograph by Karolina Kuras, Ballet Sun Valley Festival: Isabella Boylston and James Whiteside in the After the Rain pas de deux. A Conversation with things. Don’t just talk about it, do something! You can’t do something in the corridors. You Madeleine Onne can if you are a personnel representative, or on the board. BR: We have unions in the United States, Elizabeth Kendall but maybe a bit different. Onne: I think so. As an experienced dancer, BR: Madeleine, you are taking over the Finnish I was also on the scholarships board, giving National Ballet on August 1, 2018, but you be- money to other dancers. According to my gan to be a director when you founded a small mother, I’ve always been . . . “You do that; you group from within the ? do that.” I think it’s in my genes – to delegate. Madeleine Onne: Yes, 59 Degrees BR: That’s odd, because the education of a North, in 1997. female ballet dancer does not encourage talk- BR: Then you became the Royal Swedish Bal- ing. let director, then director, Onne: But I don’t agree! I always felt I then director of the Academy. could talk. I had a fantastic female artistic How did you know that you could be a leader director, Gunilla Roempke [Royal Swedish of dancers when you were still just a dancer Ballet (RSB) artistic director, 1980-1984]. She yourself? was the one taking me out of the corps de Onne: I was very much involved with the ballet to do Juliet, making me a principal union, so I realized that people listened to me. dancer. She would guide me, but she liked I was the personnel representative on the Roy- that I questioned things. We would discuss al Swedish Ballet Board. why is Juliet doing this, how she feels about BR: Why did you offer yourself as that? that. I learned to analyze and discuss, and be Onne: Because I always have lots of opin- involved. If there is a meeting, most people ions, and I hate when you go around and think think a lot, but they’re not going to raise

Madeleine Onne at . (Photo: Stefan Bremer, FNB) ©2018 Madeleine Onne, Elizabeth Kendall 25 their hand. I couldn’t keep quiet. I just had to you need to pay for the travel.” And I was like, say it. “Ho, ha ha. How can I pay for the travel?” BR: But you’re an anomaly. There aren’t very Philip Morris had a prize, a yearly prize, in many of you. Stockholm. I went to them. “I can go to Jacob’s Onne: Maybe not. Pillow. These are the best dancers in the Roy- BR: Speaking as a female dance writer, we al Swedish Ballet. Most of them got your prize. want more of you. Now I need someone to pay for the trip.” They Onne: Thanks! But it comes with a lot of re- said yes, and even paid to start a nonprofit or- sponsibility. When I talk to my friends, they ganization. They sponsored me for I don’t say, “Don’t you get tired?” or “I would hate know how many years. Everyone, of course, when dancers scream at me.” Of course it has hated me in Stockholm. There were big arti- those undersides. But the pleasure is over- cles about this horrible woman using a ciga- whelming: the joy of seeing someone you know rette company. Okay, but they weren’t throw- develop from a first rehearsal, of watching a ing money at us. And none of us, our thirteen young dancer grow to a ballerina. That’s al- dancers, was smoking! most a bigger kick than dancing myself. BR: What was the idea of the company? BR: Did you have that feeling already with Onne: I knew about the problems of tour- Stockholm 59 Degrees North? ing the whole , since I was on Onne: Yes, because I was thirty-six at that the board. We traveled with 125 people. It cost time. Before that I was as egoistical as every- a fortune, and with all the union rules, one else. It was just about me. [Laughs.] That’s etcetera. I told Phillip Morris, “If I have this the way you have to be, to go up every day and group, I can promote Swedish dance in a dif- dance when your body is in pain. It’s about ferent way.” I had the general manager’s bless- “me and my performance.” ing to call it “59 Degrees North, Soloists of the BR: And your audience! RSB.” I promised him we would only tour dur- Onne: Yes, our audience – partly our re- ing our holidays – but we had two months of ward. The thing was, I love to travel. I was get- paid leave. Usually we would go somewhere ting older. “If I start this group, with young and pay money to take class. Now we stayed dancers, they can dance, and I can go with in shape and promoted Swedish dance. We got them.” I’d heard about the Bournonville Group. amazing reviews. The Boston Globe, or the New But I was trying and trying, and nothing York Times, wrote, “The best thing since Saab.” worked. Then Frank Andersen became my di- (Saab is not Swedish anymore, but that’s an- rector, in 1995. other story.) We got this kick start, and the BR: Director of the Royal Swedish Ballet. group is still going, under other directors. It Onne: Yes. He’d started the Bournonville had its twentieth jubilee this year. Group, long ago. His first day of work in Stock- BR: And then you made a huge leap up, to holm, I was there. “I need help!” That was in the RSB itself. 1995. In 1996 I began to organize and get the Onne: People started to talk about us, espe- sponsors. In 1997 we did a season at Jacob’s Pil- cially in America. We got new invitations, and low. the main company got invitations. I was still BR: You had the idea before he came? the personnel representative on the board of Onne: I hadthe group – and the idea. “I want directors. The general manager asked me, to do this and this. I can get the rights for this “Don’t you want to apply for ballet director?” I and this.” I’d been writing to every festival in didn’t think I was up to it. And then I got it. . . . I the world, every embassy. What am I doing remember that day still. I was out biking in the wrong? Frank is an extremely generous man. city and I biked back to the theater – the Royal He put me in touch with Ella Baff, at the Pillow. Swedish Opera House. It’s amazingly beautiful. She said, “Okay, sounds really interesting. But I went to the entrance hall, the big stairs (they 26 ballet review tried to copy the Paris Opera, but it’s more of a Onne: Maybe I didn’t notice? Because I was mini version). I was sitting there, and pinching so sure I could do it? I grew up in that theater. myself. At forty-two years old I went from be- People had seen me since I was nine years old. ing a dancer (my last role was Katharina in Tam- They knew who I was. I’ve always been fight- ing of the Shrew) – to being the director. It was ing. I have bad scoliosis: 57 degrees. I should- fabulous – but difficult to be the director over n’t be dancing. When I was thirteen, I had this your colleagues. Not a good idea. wonderful doctor, so old, you know, with the BR: I can imagine. But you did it for six eyelids hanging over. He said, “Either I can years. make you straight, or you can dance.” I start- Onne: Which was at the time one of the ed to cry. “I just want to dance.” He looked at longest in our history. Usually we threw out me, pulled on my two braids, and said, “Usu- directors after about three years. ally the ones who suffer the most make the BR: Why? best artists.” Some of my colleagues called me Onne: Because the dancers used to vote. “Against All Odds.” But I had a fantastic ca- BR: Not anymore? reer. I danced everything I wanted, except Swan Onne: Not anymore. During my time we had Lake, which I would have looked horrible in. seven directors. But there was a fantastic head BR: Why? of the board, and he said, this is ridiculous. Onne: I could move really quickly, so no one The dancers should not choose their own di- could see how crooked I am. But I can’t do beau- rector. They would choose thisdirector because tiful arabesques. Physically, I can’t lift one leg they thought, “Now I will be a ballerina.” Then really high, because the ribs are going into the they were not – and wanted the next one. This hip. [Sighs, laughs.] You can either give in . . . time he said to the dancers, “Tell us who you’re BR: Or you can find another way. Then as looking for.” The Board got involved for the the ballet’s director, you left. first time. And I got the job. Onne: I resigned, with a lot of pain, so I After three years, the board was supposed could mentally prepare myself. I couldn’t bear to decide whether to renew my contract. It was the thought that they might throw me out. I’m the same chairman – and I got pregnant. So I sure they would have. went to him and said, “Look at me as a man.” BR: Why? He said, “Uh, that’s difficult.” Onne: Because no one stays for nine years. “No seriously,” I said, “I’m a man.” Then I It has never happened in our history. chose my words carefully. I didn’t say, “I’m BR: Did you already have an offer from Hong pregnant.” I said, “I am going to have a child,” Kong? like you might say if you were a man. I asked Onne: I had nothing. Well, I had an idea. The him, “Okay, what would you say to a man?” last thing I’d arranged with the Royal Swedish “I guess, Congratulations!” Ballet was a tour to China – the first in forty I said, “Good, and I will do my work.” years – and I stayed on with my family in Asia, BR: I see why they chose you. because I’ve always been obsessed with Asia. Onne: I gave birth on a Friday. I was back I love the food, the lifestyle. at work on Monday. In Sweden you can breast- BR: Any Asian country? feed anywhere, even during a board meeting. Onne: Some more than others, but then it My baby was with me at work. That made lot was just Asia. I wanted to live in Hong Kong. of people upset. “I don’t think my child is hap- I thought I could manufacture scenery, sets. I pier sleeping at home than sleeping in my of- knew that only the big opera houses have their fice. He’s just eating, and then he sleeps. And own workshops. we’re fine.” BR: You planned to manufacture stage de - BR: Did you often have to face the attitude cor? You like that? that, “She can’t do this job?” Onne: Not especially. I just had this idea – winter 2018-2019 27 live in Hong Kong; make sets and costumes in “No, I don’t know.” China, which is near. Then ship them off to And there I was, fifty-plus something, giv- the West. Later my Hong Kong stage manager ing away all my secrets about flirting, to this taught me that it would not have worked. They twenty-year-old Chinese girl, who was look- do not have the proper wood. While I was in- ing at me like, “Really.” vestigating this, Frank Andersen, again, said, Then I took a quite young boy with poten- “I think the director of the Hong Kong Ballet tial, and had him do Dr. Coppélius. He was so just left.” I contacted them, and they said, “Un- upset with me. I said, “I understand, he’s an fortunately, the time for applying is past.” My old man. But don’t look at it that way. Look at husband looked at me, and said, “Did they hire what you can do as an artist.” We worked and someone? Just send your things.” worked. I told him to look at old people: how This was in November 2008. I was working they sit, and how they turn their heads. And for an events bureau. For 59 Degrees I’d taken he did the most amazing Coppélius. marketing courses, thinking that if I didn’t BR: That role is so important. have an artistic director job, I could combine Onne: And the other dancers finally got it. my stage knowledge with marketing. I forgot It was like a snowball. Everyone was open, and about Hong Kong, until someone called me in hungry. I never had three casts who looked the January of 2009. “Okay. We are going to Hong same. We would discuss, I would give them a Kong.” I have the most amazing family. link to a movie, or a book to read. BR: What did Hong Kong give you and what We did a ballet of Turandot, with a long, long did you give them? kiss at the end. “When am I going to see this Onne: I’d never heard of the Hong Kong Bal- kiss? Every rehearsal you have to kiss – so it let before I applied. It was embarrassing. Then won’t feel so scary.” On opening night, an Aus- I went there and – wow – they’re really good. tralian culture big shot I’d invited looked at And yet I saw a lot of technique but not much me with a big smile and said, “That’s what you emphasis on artistry. If you had five casts, they call a snug.” all looked too much the same. And I really like After all this you couldn’t stop them. They individuality. understood what I meant, even in the corps I thought: I can give them the artistry, and de ballet, about making the audience believe I will make them more famous. I focused on in the story. I told them, “You have to know those two things. It was really difficult the first who’s your sister, who’s your brother, who’s two years. I would say to the Albrecht, for in- your ex-flirt. Da da da.” Then you get a total- stance, “Why are you doing this?” He would ly different thing onstage, because they all reply, “Because they told me to.” have a relation to each other. “Look into her eyes. This is a love pas de I managed to get us to the Prix Benoit in deux. You can’t look at her breast.” Moscow, and make us a partner company to “I’m not looking at her breast.” the Prix de Lausanne (the first Asian coun- “I know it’s different from Asian ways, but try). I made a friendly exchange with Aus- you are doing a Western art form, so you have tralia, with Sweden – to get the dancers out. to do this our way.” They also brought back their experiences. One of my principals was so angry with me Most of them came from the People’s Repub- one day, “You never, ever, tell me to stretch my lic. They grew up in a very closed world. foot. You just tell me to look into her eyes.” So BR: Eighty percent of your company was I said, “Because you are stretching your foot, from China? but you never look into her eyes!” Onne: Yes. We also went to Jacob’s Pillow – We were going to do the Flower Festival in twice. We didn’t have the money the first time, Genzano. I said, to this quite young girl, “You so the dancers carried their own costumes. I know, you mime ‘no,’ but you mean ‘yes.’” had one technician, plus me, and the dancers. 28 ballet review They did it! We got fabulous reviews, again, together. Sweden was something else. I had because they’re beautiful dancers. And they gone into that opera house every day for al- were very nice people. I’ve always interviewed most forty years. It was terrible to clip the dancers (well, not always, but from then on). cord there. But Hong Kong was different, be- If they’re not going to fit into the group, I’m cause we built up something together. I’m still not going to hire them. This group was ex- in touch with them. And I am thinking of all tremely nice to each other, and supportive. the ballerina babies. I remember the first girl Also, my ballet masters were Chinese. “We coming to me crying. . . . She was pregnant, don’t scare the dancers,” I said. “We encour- and hysterical because she had to stop danc- age and respect them, but we also demand re- ing. I said, “Why are you stopping? Let’s look spect. They should feel safe in the studio, so at how long can you dance. What productions they dare to open up.” Because we’re all so vul- you can do when you are coming back.” It was nerable when we do these love pas de deux. unheard of. Now a lot of babies are popping Two ballet masters (one male, one female) be- up there. came my right and left hand, and it was fan- BR: What about Houston? tastic, because I don’t understand Chinese. Onne: I wanted a new challenge. I thought They would help me not to make too big mis- the Houston Ballet Academy was absolutely takes, or if I did, help me repair what I could. amazing. They’re connected to a theater. They After eight years I accepted something the have a creative artistic director, Stanton British ambassador had told me the first day: Welch. They produce good dancers. I can dance, You will never understand Hong Kong socie- but I don’t really know why I’ve been doing ty fully. And you start to question a lot about certain things. I was terrified. With adults, yourself when no one understands you. When they already have their training. With chil- a taxi won’t stop for you, it’s because you’re a dren, if you do it wrong, you would ruin their foreigner. When you don’t get a table, it’s be- whole lives. But in Houston they have such cause you’re a foreigner. They don’t want to good teachers – and a great , Clau- be rude, but they don’t speak English so it’s dio Muñoz, for the youth company. I figured I easier not to pick up a foreigner. Even though would take care of the older students and learn I could say my address! from the teachers how to handle the younger BR: Why did you leave Hong Kong Ballet? ones. Onne: It was time, after eight years. My son Then, this possibility arose to direct the (the younger of two) lived in a wonderful bub- Finnish National Ballet. I realized that my ble. The expats have their own little life. It’s mother (in Sweden) needed me. I’m an only amazing to go on your friends’ yacht. You have child. I always said I never wanted to move a helper who is constantly there, a maid who back to the North, but this company is also does everything, but that’s not real life. It was great, also a challenge. Coming from an opera time to leave, to give him the possibility to de- house, going to a ballet company in Hong velop in another culture. Kong, where we didn’t have a full-time BR: You’re not afraid of change. pianist, much less our own studios, stage, Onne: No. And I have a very supportive hus- orchestra . . . . Sharing my knowledge about band and family. My older son (from a previ- good makeup, good hair. Having two-and-a- ous marriage) studies in Copenhagen, speaks half days to prepare onstage for a full-length Hebrew, English, and Swedish. The little one world premiere, as opposed to the three speaks Mandarin, English, and Swedish. Of weeks we had in Sweden. Wouldn’t it be nice course I loved it there, but it was time. to go back to an opera house? Hear the opera BR: You must miss it sometimes. singers on the backstage loudspeakers? The Onne: The food I miss every day. [Laughs.] orchestra always tuning? Have the expertise I miss the dancers. We went through so much you have in a theater like Helsinki’s, with all winter 2018-2019 29 the different departments, where they’re so Onne: Absolutely. I think like I did in Hong good? Kong. How could I attract the audience? How BR: And it’s not Stockholm. could I attract both those who love ballet and Onne: Yes, it’s another place, and just as those who would never set foot in a house that dark! [Laughs.] But it’s not Stockholm, as you shows ballet? It’s the same here. We live in a say, and that’s good. It’s Finland, something time where we have to be international. But new. I only have positive experiences with the how can we be special? Finnish dancers, choreographers, personnel. Of course I need Finnish dancers. I need to In Sweden we have a lot of people from Fin- continue to work on the school, so we can pro- land. And I think Kenneth Greve [outgoing duce more Finnish dancers. Attract young peo- FNB artistic director, a Dane] has done an ple to go to the school. Present programs that amazing job. make people want to be part of them and so BR: No comment. I’m your neutral inter- join the school. I have to find something with viewer here. I’m wondering what you’re a Finnish connection, whether it’s the chore- thinking about the way this ballet company ographer, the music, the theme, the designer might draw on, reflect, have a relationship . . . . And touring. Why would international with, Finnish culture? In Hong Kong, for in- presenters fly over the Finnish Ballet unless stance, you did of the Red Chamber we have some special flavor? and other Asian things. You’ve also said, “Now BR: I hope you can get the company tour- is a time when a ballet company is interna- ing more. tional.” Yet here you are in a country that has Onne: They say it’s a problem with the mon- a language almost no one can penetrate. It is ey, of course. I’m sure it is, but we have to find in fact an ex-colony of Sweden, but with its the solution. I have to find sponsors. It’s a chal- own very odd, eccentric, culture. Its ballet lenge. I don’t take no for an answer. There must company will soon be one hundred years old. be a solution. That’s not a centuries-old Royal Swedish or BR: You could make a small touring com- , nor a much younger Amer- pany and call it 61 Degrees North. ican company. Does that history mean some- Onne: [Laughs.] The ballet world is so tough, thing to you? sometimes you have to be able to laugh.

Author’s Note Three months after I interviewed Madeleine new general director Gita Kadambi (who had Onne, the main newspaper in Finland, Helsin- just taken over on January 1) banned Greve gin Sanomat (March 3, 2018), raised questions from the theater (although his salary was con- about choreographic plagiarism by Finnish tinued through July 31, 2018) and promised National Ballet’s director Kenneth Greve. On renewed and vigorous workplace protection March 27, a more extensive article appeared for the performers. in the same newspaper, entitled “Kenneth Onne, whom I met again in New York in Greve’s Dark Side,” based on in-depth inter- April, was, of course, deeply concerned about views with seven dancers who described these allegations and the possible harm to Greve’s one-on-one “coaching” sessions with the dancers, but said in a subsequent e-mail young women that included leg-massaging, that she “wished (for now) to refrain from other touching, and inappropriate question- commenting on the past, out of courtesy to ing of a dancer’s anatomy and sexual habits. the organization and the people involved. Some earlier complaints, the newspaper re- The basis of my work ethic,” she stated firm- ported, had been ignored by the theater man- ly, “is teamwork, good communication, coop- agement. At the same time, the company’s eration, and mutual respect.” — E. K.

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