2002: Artistic Director of the Royal Swedish Ballet
I first met Madeleine Onne at Jacob’s Pillow in August of 1997 where her newly-founded touring ensemble, Stockholm 59° North, had just finished its debut performance. This fledgling troupe, culled from the ranks of the Royal Swedish Ballet, has clearly led to bigger things: she was recently appointed Artistic Director of the main company.

Do you think running Stockholm 59° North helped prepare you to be a director?
I don’t think I would have gotten this position if I hadn’t proven myself first.

I had thirteen of the best dancers. People think they’re difficult to deal with, that because they are principals there will be too much competition between them. And sometimes there is, when they’re in the theatre, but I tried to encourage the idea that we were building this together. I didn’t try to play the big boss, so it worked very well. We never had any problems; when we were out traveling, we got lots of positive comments not only because the dancers were so good, but because they were so nice and polite. People were amazed by this.

I started Stockholm 59° North with empty hands. Today I already have some newly-made ballets in the ensemble’s repertory, fantastic reviews, and I started a non-profit organization which now has a good bit of money in its account which I’ll be passing on to the next director. That’s a very good start and I think the board saw this success. I don’t think the board knew a thing about the financial situation.

I did all the parts of running a ballet company, from buying supplies to mending costumes to organizing the trips, dealing with all the music and choreography rights, working with the choreographers that I knew to get pieces. I’ve done every part of it. I have a very good picture of how everything works. As director of the main company, I’m not going to sit on my high horse, snap my fingers and think that everything’s going to be done easily. I realize how much work there is on every level.

Even though I know everyone, I’ve already started to make appointments to go to the different departments. I go to them and say "I think I know something about how you work, since I’ve been here for 33 years, but I’m sure I don’t know everything, so please tell me." And they are thrilled that I’m interested; I think this will make things run more easily. I’ve already noticed this because I’m very late with the triple bill for the spring, since I was appointed so late, and everyone is so understanding, so helpful. It’s a very good start.

Some of these people have seen me since I was nine, so these old men are patting me on the head saying "Oh wow, Madeleine, you’re a big girl now."

Is this triple bill in the spring the first we’ll see of your programming?
Yes. The fall will consist of works that Petter [Jacobson, the departing director] scheduled, more or less down to the casting.

Do you plan to tour?
I’d love to, but the problem is money. The budget at our theatre, as well as many other theatres in Europe, is such that it cannot cost us anything. I need to find someone who can take us out and put the cost on the presenter—and that’s hard when you’re a big company.

If I’m going to attract the choreographers I want to attract, they’re going to have to see the company, and they have to see that the company moves around. It’s not interesting to them to go so far north and choreograph a piece that no one outside of Stockholm will see.

So of course we have to tour. It’s good for visibility, but it’s also good for the dancers. They come together in a different way. And that’s why I started Stockholm 59° North. I love touring.

Unfortunately it takes a few years to get things going. Because there’s nothing in the pipeline, I’ll be lucky if I can get a tour scheduled for my third year.

As you take the helm, what kinds of things can audiences expect to see?
My motto is "a broad repertory for a broad audience." There is so much we should cover. We have everything from the 1700s up to today. We have to prepare for all those parts, which is almost impossible, plus money-wise it’s a nightmare.

So I have to look at it over a three-year period and see to it that, over that amount of time, I attend to all of it.

I also believe, in Sweden, there is only one company that can do the huge productions. That’s us. There’s also Gothenburg that can do classical ballets, but they only have forty dancers, so of course you can’t get the same look.

How many dancers does the Royal Swedish Ballet have?
Seventy-two.

Then you have the Cullberg Ballet and then loads of smaller companies who do modern work. I’ve learned that you need to find your own ladder and try to climb to the top—never try to climb someone else’s ladder. Our ladder is that we have the best technique in Sweden. People should be able to watch our dancers for only a few minutes and be able to say "That’s the Royal Swedish Ballet. It couldn’t be anyone else."

I want there to be new creations, but I don’t want the dancers “crawling on the floor “. I want them to use the technique they’ve been trained for since they were nine.

That’s what I’d like to do with the company: both old things and new things, but with classical ballet as a base—because the other companies can do the other kinds of works.

We’ve done some works by newer Swedish choreographers, and they’re very interesting, but they don’t use all the qualities and technique that these dancers have. Which means the dancers are not stimulated and they’re losing their technique—the works need to be of a certain level.

But we can’t just do the classics: we would become just a museum. But we also shouldn’t do what everyone else is doing. We have to develop our ladder and find work which can only be done by these dancers.

Do you aim to promote the company by creating stars?
I think people want stars. I look at myself, I’ll go to the theatre or movies to see stars. I look for names that I recognize. I would go to see a movie with Tom Cruise or Jack Nicholson, or a movie that was directed by Steven Speilberg. It may not be any good, but I would go see it because it’s a name I’m comfortable with.

I think it’s the same with the theatre. That’s why I want the dancers to be seen on television. It seems today that if you haven’t seen someone on TV, they don’t exist.

But I don’t think "create stars" is the right way to put it. They are stars already, they’re extremely good. I’m not going to create stars, I’m going to try to open the eyes of the media to see the stars that are already there. I have really good dancers.

Do you have any rising stars?
Yes, there are a number of young dancers who look like they’re going to become very good. I won’t name any names.

But, for the repertory I want to do in the future, I will need more good dancers so I’m going to hold an audition. I might try to hold it in London or Paris so it will be easier for people to come. I have to have good, strong dancers to create a very good corps so we can do all the fun things I want to do. So, all you good dancers out there, get ready to come to Sweden.

Learn more about the Royal Swedish Ballet at their Web site.

Learn more about Stockholm 59° North at their Web site.

Read the 1999 interview with Madeleine Onne when she was Artistic Director of Stockholm 59° North.