A Magical Being
Pernille Garde:
"Sorella - A Portrait"
November 24, 2017
It is seldom that a ballet dancer is celebrated by a ballet on her life in her own lifetime. Finnish/Danish ballerina Sorella Englund is among the selected few. After working with Sorella Englund, choreographer and director Pernille Garde got the inspiration to create a ballet on one of our most iconic dancer’s life. Garde has her background in the modern dance world, and her ballet uses many – and perhaps too many – standards from the modern scene, like random flashbacks and having four dancers, including a male dancer, portraying Sorella Englund.
“Sorella - A Portrait” is co-produced by Pernille Garde and The Royal Theatre, and the joint custardy may be part of the reason why the ballet comes across as a mix of two house styles. The two RDB dancers, principal Susanne Grinder and Esther Lee Wilkinson, herself a fine choreographer, succeed in bringing Sorella Englund’s style and expressions to the stage, whereas Tiziana Fracchiolla and Bo Madvig do not even try to mirror Englund’s look or style.
In Susanne Grinder, the performance has the luxury of the dancer who can best embody Englund’s look and style. These last seasons, Grinder has been underused and have only had very few ballerina roles. With this performance, she shows that she is still an ace; the company could and should play.
The ballet puts more emphasize on Englund’s childhood in a tragedy stricken artistic family in her original homeland, Finland. We do get outtake of Eske Holm’s “Firebird”, “La Sylphide and her groundbreaking interpretation of Madge.
However, the ballet stays almost clear of her real tragedy and triumph. Sorella Englund suffered a serious heart attack at the top of her career. No longer able to dance the full ballerina repertoire, she reemerged as an outstanding character dancer with her groundbreaking interpretation as Madge in “La Sylphide” and several other leading roles. When Artistic Director, Frank Andersen fired Sorella Englund in a cost-cutting exercise, her colleagues protested wildly, and she was reinstated.
International Star
However, Sorella Englund decided to spread her wings a bit further and in addition to performing, staging and teaching at the RDB, she took on assignments in modern ballet and guesting and teaching internationally. I have interviewed several foreign members of the RDB, who states that it was Sorella Englund is teaching and coaching that made them apply for the RDB.
In his production of “Sleeping Beauty”, Christopher Wheeldon created Carabosse as a leading role for Sorella Englund.
“Sorella” creates its best moments is in the segments where films of Sorella Englund is projected on stage while Susanne Grinder performs the role in question. That gives us the strongest image and memory.
Sorella Englund is still active. Together with Charlotte Khader, a former RDB Dancer now is the leader of one of the RDB satellite schools, she runs a ballet programmer for handicapped children. Seeing Sorella Englund communicating with children who does not have a language, confirms that she is indeed a magical being.
Photos:
1. Bo Madvig & Susanne Grinder by Signe Krogh
2. Susanne Grinder by Signe Krogh
3. Sorella Englund directing "Giselle" with Nehemiah Kish and Caroline Cavallo by Gregers Heering
Copyright(c) Royal Danish Ballet and Pernille Garde
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