Marc Ribaud

Marc Ribaud, the former artistic director of the Ballet de l’Opéra du Nice, is appointed artistic director of the Royal Swedish Ballet from July 2008. Ribaud served as guest ballet master with the Royal Swedish Ballet during a period last year. So he has had the opportunity to form his own impression of the company he is now going to direct. One of his goals is to enhance it’s popularity, as he phrases it: “I would like the audience to be so happy and proud of the dancers that they could die. I want them to become so excited as to create a wave of interest.

” In this ambition Ribaud is in perfect accordance with what seems to be the first priority of the Swedish Royal Opera house – to become more accessible to the ordinary Swedes. Ribaud is a choreographer but he is clear about it that his primary task in Stock­holm will be to serve as artistic director. During his years as artistic director for a classical company he has come to realise the importance of continuity to be able to preserve tradition but also to revisit – update – the classics. “My absolutely best experience as a dancer was to dance the gypsy in Mats Ek’s ‘Carmen’,” he said. It is no mistaking that the legendary ...