Mats ek sylvie guillem biography

Maggie Foyer

Some people avoid the well-trodden path and carve a unique trajectory.

Sylvie Guillem: Life in Progress - the greatest dancer of our ...

So it is with Mats Ek, who makes his London debut as a dancer at the grand age of 69. Together with his wife, Ana Laguna, he will perform the duet, “Memory”, in the Elixir Festival at Sadler’s Wells. Dance longevity seems to be a family trait; in 1977 he choreographed “Soweto” in which his mother, Birgit Cullberg then aged 69, played a central role.

Several years back I saw Laguna and Ek perform “Memory” at the Dance Salad Festival in Houston.

At the dress rehearsal, youngsters from a local school were the invited audience and I asked their opinion of the programme. Most of their praise centred on the virtuosity and the costumes of the dance works, then one young man said in a rich Texan drawl, “And those two old folks! Man, they were so cool!” I thought it wonderful that a simple duet An étoile says goodbye: Sylvie Guillem’s Life in Progress KUQO