Stockholm, January 18 - April 27 2008




Two strong women
Two temperaments
Two pioneers of 20th century Swedish dance

Birgit Cullberg and Birgit Åkesson were born the same year, 1908, but represent two separate dance trends: Cullberg dramatic, narrative dance, and Åkesson non-figurative, “pure” dance. Both were rooted in the modern dance of the German inter-war years: Cullberg in the dance theatre of Kurt Jooss, and Åkesson in the expressionism of Mary Wigman. But whereas Cullberg embraced Jooss’s political and social commitment, Åkesson rebelled against Wigman’s emotive pressure, blazing a trail of her own and developing a style of movement that was entirely her own, more akin to the modernism of contemporary painting and music than that of dance. Cullberg too developed a dramatic ballet style of her own, based on powerful psychological empathy.

The exhibition brings together these two centenarians, who were indeed one another’s opposites but still, as female pioneers, had much in common.


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Dansmuseet
Gustav Adolfs torg 22–24
SE-111 52 Stockholm, Sweden
info@dansmuseet.se
www.dansmuseet.se