Sweden's Gothenburg Ballet premiered Nimrud in April, an original creation by its resident choreographer Per Jonsson, which turned out to be the triumph of the season, not only for its creator but for the company as well.
The Gothenburg company was only formed in 1967, the first ballet troupe to be established outside the country's capital city. Ballet master Ulf Gadd, appointed in 1976, has shaped is company to be the perfect instrument for expressing his own highly personal style of dance theater. He has also encouraged young Swedish choreographers like Patrik Sorling and Per Jonsson to be highly inventive. Gadd's achievements are considered unparalleled in recent years on the Swedish stage.
Nimrud, the sixth work choreographed by Per Jonsson since 1981, is a mature, complex creation sparkling with wit and imagination. Since his debut, Jonsson has been considered a choreographer of exceptional talent. With Nimrud he has exceeded all expectations. Aided by composer Sven-David Sandstrom, Jonsson has created what, according to dance critics, is a modern minor classic. The half-hour score of Nimrud is the first full-orchestra ballet score commissioned and performed live in Sweden in nearly twenty years.
A Golden Cloud
The overture plays before the curtain goes up to reveal a golden cloud suspended in midair. At the far right, an inclining horse is connected to three cables running diagonally across the backcloth. Ten feet up, projecting from the wings on stage right, a man lies on a trampoline, visible from the waist up.
In the foreground, a child reclines on the stage; in the background, another child in the same position slides off the stage. Between them, at center stage, is a small white rat. A tall blonde ballerina performs a solo. The rat and the people suddenly vanish from the stage, which remains empty for a few beats before the ballet begins in earnest.
The scene of the actual opening is remarkable, creating the feeling that anything can happen. The ballerina's dance is a link to a past the audience cannot know - to what it will be experiencing in the theater that evening.
There is no story line to Nimrud, although there is a wealth of constant activity on stage. Two little boys wearing big hats introduce eight adults, who form a semicircle (which is, incidentally, the final movement of Jonsson-Sandstrom's previous ballet, The Smiling Dog). We see on stage a group of women talking with their hands, a rapid duet of two men, then a wedding - in fifteen seconds flat - bride and groom both wearing trains and golden crowns. Glittering confetti falls from above, a little girl throws rice, and the happy couple sweep off stage.
A whirling chaos of action is succeeded by a mock funeral of a woman with a crocodile head, surrounded by children struggling with heavy, oversized flowers. A man dressed in black enters. The crocodile woman rises from her bier to be greeted by two similar creatures. A little boy hops up on the horse and lights a constellation. A girl with a white flag runs on stage. She gestures to four men, who are carrying armfuls of flowers flying all over the stage. The ensuing confusion ends in the
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