The Dancer Is Not An Object!

NOKO (NOrdiska KOreografier) is a Nordic cooperation project initiated by Frank Andersen, artistic director of the Danish Royal Ballet. The Swedish edition of NOKO is hosted by the Swedish Royal Ballet featuring choreographers Ina Christel Johannessen (Norway), Kim Brandstrup (Denmark), Susanna Leinonen (Finland) and Birgitta Egerbladh (Sweden). In “5 Is The Perfect Number,“ Ina Christel Johannessen focuses on the complementary function of the male in classical ballet.

Over and over again one of the men makes the “presentational gesture“ without the requisite ballerina – the six men are on their own – and the effect of the unfulfilled gesture is quite intriguing. Dressed in iconic male clothing, the men lustfully show off in big jumps, intricate movement sequences and duets what might be seen as an equivalent to Johannessen’s all-female ballet, “The Terror Of Identification,“ and it would be interesting to see the two ballets together. The piece ends with Christian Rambe suddenly confronting the audience eye to eye. Judging from the nervous (mostly male) laughter, the classical male dancer who becomes a subject can still be quite an unnerving experience.
The only time the ...