Belinda
/ 14. september 2009 12:37
Mats Ek and Cullberg Ballet were responsible for many of the greatest dancers and choreographic works of the 20th century. I was lucky enough to meet and talk to one of these dancers last week…
About four years ago, I went to Lund to watch a performance of Cullberg Ballet. This was the first time that I had seen this company live on stage. After about five minutes into the first piece, my eyes found someone on the stage, and could not let go of watching him. I was spellbound by his presence, his physicality and the ease with which he attacked the movements. I found out after the show that this dancer was Rafael Sady, an Israeli dancer who had been in the company since 1992. A while after that, I heard that he had retired, and have often wondered since what had happened to this extraordinary dancer.
Last week when I went to take class on Thursday morning, I stood at the barre and looked across the studio, and there he was! Rafael was performing in “Cicadarmix” in our very own theatre! So, I took this as my cue to catch up with him and ask him a few questions about his career with Cullberg Ballet, and some of his thoughts about dance.
Rafael was born on a Kibbutz in the South of Israel, and studied at the Bat Dor School for three years before joining the Bat Dor Company where he stayed for two years. After this, he moved to Switzerland where he joined the Geneva Ballet. He danced for this company for seven years, where he met and worked with many of the great choreographers. It was here that he met Mats Ek, when he danced in his piece entitled “Cain and Abel”. Rafael enjoyed very much working with Mats, and decided to give him a call. Mats immediately offered Rafael a job with Cullberg Ballet, and so in 1992 he packed bags and moved to Sweden. It was that next season that would be Mats Ek’s last season as director of the company, and so during that year, the company performed many of his pieces. Rafael was extremely happy to have this opportunity to be in so many of his works.
After this, when it changed directorship, the company started to work with many different choreographers. Rafael mentions a few being Jiri Kilian, Ohad Naharin, Phillip Taylor, Carolyn Carlsson amongst others. One regret he has is that he never worked with William Forsythe who had been in the company a few years before he arrived. During these years, Rafael had many dance partners and danced with many of the ‘Cullberg Greats’! Our very own ex rehearsal director Monica Mangarelli, partnered him in ‘Solo for 2’, one of Mats’ famous choreographies. During his time in the company, there were another five Israelis in the company, which meant that although he was so far away from home, he felt some connection through these colleagues. The company toured so much in this time, and he has great memories of visiting many exotic places. Although touring made it hard to keep a steady social life going, he felt like a real ambassador for Sweden, and has no regrets at all.
If you can imagine how many ballets he must have danced in during his time at the company, and how many choreographers and dancers that must have passed through his life, it’s amazing that he can so clearly describe his favorite pieces and roles. Among these are Mats Ek’s ‘Sleeping Beauty’ in which he danced the role of Carabosse, ‘Giselle’ where he danced Hilarion and ‘Carmen’ where he danced Don Jose. He also enjoyed very much ‘Solo for 2’ and ‘Fluke’. One of his fondest experiences was dancing in Swan Lake, in which many group sections brought the whole cast on stage for almost two hours. He says that this was such a strong feeling, and everything around that performance was also so special, such as the preparation which involved having wigs and make up put on to them. He also enjoyed very much Jiri Kylian’s ‘Forgotten Land’ and choreographies by Christopher Bruce. When he was still at Geneva Ballet, Rafael met Ohad Naharin, who he immediately clicked and felt at ease with. He really enjoyed his style and felt it so natural for his body. He worked with him a few times over the years, and his particular favorite piece is ‘Vara’ which he put together for Cullberg Ballet. Generally, Rafael notes that looking back, it was not the leading roles that he necessarily enjoyed the most, and it was not that he needed to do solos to have better experiences, but that being a part of that ensemble, meant the most to him.
During his years at Cullberg, it was very important for Rafael to concentrate on the one language of Mats Ek. He wanted to really go into this style and master it, which in the beginning was a challenge, but eventually started to feel like home, and brought him so many years of pleasure. Mats in return still trusts Rafael very much, and often calls him to restage his works with various companies. This he enjoys doing very much, but does find it a bit weird not being the one going on to the stage!
These days, Rafael still lives in Stockholm where he is now involved in Interior design for magazines and photography. He is able to use his creativity for this, and feels a strong connection to dance through the visual aspects and the linear images. He works with dance sometimes, and manages to fit these professions in parallel to each other. He feels that he needs to be careful that he does not dance too much, as he wants to move forward in his life. Rafael admits, that after one has experienced dance, it is hard to match that feeling, and that it’s not easy to find the same satisfaction. But, he is finding different satisfactions now that make him happy.
I often wonder how someone who has dedicated their life to dance will feel when their career comes to an end and they can look back and ponder over it. After a thirty year career in dance, Rafael feels that the people he met along the way and the places that he visited must be the highpoint of it all, but that it all feels like a journey on which he went, which while it moved along, he went with the flow, but it’s only when you jump off the train that you can slowly start to look back and realize and absorb it all. He feels so lucky and so thankful for his career which went so well, and which brought him and us the audience so much.
I felt so touched to speak in depth to someone that touched me so much on the stage. After I spoke to Rafael, I watched the performance of Cicadarmix, and was once again touched by his gift! As a dancer, you perform for an audience, but you are always very much ‘in to’ yourself and have no idea what people feel or experience when they see you. I can only hope that I can give even a small amount of what he gave to audiences all over the world for so many years. Thank you Rafael for your dance, for your passion, and for your time talking to me!
