Overseas tours – Ny Norsk Ballett

Through Louise Browne’s husband’s contacts in Yorkshire, England, the Ny Norsk Ballett was invited to perform from the 12^th to the 17^th September, 1949, at the Doncaster Arts Centre, England.

England was and is, a first class dance nation, so it was a bit like carrying coals to Newcastle. For such a young and inexperienced company, this tour could have been a total fiasco. The company was scarcely two years old and passing through financial and artistic “growing pains”. However, their unique dancing style and original choreographies inspired by Norwegian folk stories, were fresh and well received in the week-long tour.

One of the dancers, Sylvia Nielsen, originally from England, was conveniently married to a pilot. He flew the ensemble in a charted Fred Olsen plane to Yorkshire. Their large chests of costumes needed to be sent by boat to York, well ahead of the tour, as they were too heavy for the plane.  (Danseinformasjon, 1997)

The ensemble’s choreographies were mostly inspired by Norwegian and English folk-dances and also included mimed dances. The principal ballet on the program was Louise Browne’s Henry VIII. It portrayed the tragedy of Henry’s domestic life in a series of six cameos each devoted to his relationships with each of his six wives. Henny Műrer danced the role of Anne Boleyn, Bergliot Clausen as Kathryn Howard, and Gerd Kjøaas as Katherine Parr. During the first few years of the company, Kjølaas danced in her company’s productions. The ballets were danced to early English composers such as William Croft, Richard Farnby and John Dowland.

Henry Haagensen was to dance the role of the Page and Courtier when the company returned for their second nine weeks tour to Yorkshire in 1950. By their third England tour later that year, Haagensen had left the ensemble, having returned to Narvik to establish his ballet school. Louise Browne’s Henry VIII, was to be her most important ballet for the ensemble. (Dancing Times, 1949)

Riksteateret also sent Ny Norsk Ballett on a tour of Norway in 1951. This included a visit to Narvik. In Kjølaas’s book Dans, ropte livet, she mentioned an earlier visit to Fjellheim, in Narvik in 1933. Spellbound by the backdrop of the midnight sun, a local journalist proposed to her, and continued to do so for a period of 10 years after her Narvik performance. (Kjølaas, 1998) In a portrait intervue of Henry in 1978 he explained that the 1951 tour, lasted forty five days, and was far from luxurious, having been fed on “meatballs and sause” the entire trip.  (Mikalsen K. , 1978)

Performances

Henry danced in many of the ensemble’s choreographies including, Fanitullen in Bygdøy in the summer of 1950. (P107 Kjølaas, 1998) This ballet was based on a dramatic Norwegian poem from 1849 by Jørgen Moe (1813-1882), about drunken debåtery that ends with a tragic murder.

Henry also performed in Gerd Kjølaas’s Tyrihans at the open air museum at Bygdøy. Tyrihans is a joyful ballet adapted from a Norwegian fairy tale using Norwegian folk dances to well-known folk melodies arranged by Stein Andersen, who accompanied the ensemble on the piano. Henry also danced the monk in another of Kjølaas’s choreographies, Mot Ballade.

Christmas 1950, Henry danced in the role of Prince in Cinderella (Askepott). 

Margot Fonteyn and Robert Helpmann

When Henry spoke about this period in his life he said that the greatest experience was when Kjølaas and Browne invited two internationally reowned dancers, Margot Fonteyn and Robert Helpmann, for a guest appearance with the Ny Norsk Ballett in Oslo, 30^th January 1950, at the Det Nye Teater. Fonteyn was a British ballerina absoluta with the Royal Ballet where she had many famous roles, and a long career, partnered first by Nureyev, and later by many others, often Helpmann.

(Sir) Robert Helpmann (b.1909 – 1986), was a famous Australian dancer, actor, choreographer, producer and director. An exceptional range of talents launched him into a career in drama and ballet. Robert resembled Henry in many ways. Both danced from an early age, and had grown up in a provincial community, where their lifestyle did not fit in with the accepted norm of the day. Both dreamed of becoming a professional entertainer from an early age. They were ambitious, flamboyant, and out to make an impression. Neither had great classical technique, however they had enough to dance with sureness and precision. Henry was rather star-struck meeting these two world famous artists. Many of Henry’s pupils recall the stories he told about the time he danced with these two world class performers.

Louise returned to London in 1950 and began her long and fruitful association with the Royal Academy of Dancing (RAD). In 1955 she moved to York, where the Ny Norsk Ballett had performed in 1949 and 1950, and established the York Scholarship Centre for the training of promising young dancers for entry to the major ballet schools. She served on the dance panel of the Arts Council of Great Britain. In 1971 Louise was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award and in 1978 the Order of the British Empire for her services to Ballet. (York Dance Scholars, 2019)

When Loiuse Browne returned to England, Gerd Kjølaas was left to run the Ny Norsk Ballett on her own.

Nasjonalballetten

In the autumn of 1952 the ensemble was in a deep financial crisis. Kjølaas was sick and overworked. Because their governmental grants depended on full time activity, any pause in ensemble’s performances meant a loss of this subsidy and hence worsened an otherwise dire financial situation. Kjølaas approached Gunnar Brunvoll in the Den Norske Opera (DNO/Norwegian Opera) for help. With exceptional diplomacy, Brunvoll arranged a meeting between Gerd Kjølaas and her long term rival and critic, Rita Tori. Despite their differences, they accepted the proposition to establish the Den Norske Ballett (Norwegian National Ballet), a name suggested by Tori, under the auspisies of DNO. It was a credit to them both that they joined forces ensuring the future of a professional dance company in Norway. In the autumn of 1953 the Den Norske Ballett merged with DNO. 

Henry, sadly, had a short career as a professional dancer. After only six years in Oslo he injured his back in 1950, and returned to Narvik later that year, where he took over Bjørhus’s Ballet School. (Svendsen, 2002 P287)

Henry performed in

• Don Camillo og Peppone (13. aug 1955 – Det Norske Teatret) – Skuespiller (Karabiniere)
• Sirkus Mikkelikski (17. des 1954 – Det Norske Teatret) – Skuespiller (Bamse Kvit)
• Askepott/Tyrihans/Henry VII/Mot ballade/A Tudor Garden/Bryllupsbilder/Spansk fantasi/Lysnatt/Gamle selskapsdanser (19. feb 1951 – Ny Norsk Ballett) – Danser (Kjøkkengutt / Hoffkavaler i Askepott / Pasje / Hoffmann i Henry VIII / Mass, tjener i Tyrihans / Gutt / Munk i Mot ballade / i Gamle selskapsdanser)

Sources

Danseinformasjon. (1997, 12 11). Intervjuobjekt: Gerd Kjølaas (f. 1909 / d. 2000). Hentet fra Dansearkivet: https://www.danseinfo.no/dansearkivet/intervjuer/2885-gerd-kjolaas
Dancing Times. (1949, 10 01). Norwegian Ballet in England. The Dancing Times, ss. 19-20.
Hansteen, V. (1989). Historien om norsk ballett. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.
Kjølaas, G. (1998). Dans, ropte livet. Skillingsfors: Tone Westad .
Mikalsen, K. (1978, 12 16). Ballett-trinn gjennom 25år med Henry Haagensen. Fremover, ss. 16-17.
Svendsen, O. (2002). Narviks Historie Bind 2 1950 – 2002. Narvik: Stiftelsen Narvik’s historieverk 2002.
York Dance Scholars. (2019, 03 05). Hentet fra Louise Browne: https://www.yorkshireballetscholarshipcentre.com/about-us/louise-browne/

This page is written by Fiona Jane Ellingsen and based on extensive research in local Narvik newspapers, films on NRK, Henry Haagensens personal archives and research in works about dance in Norway.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
Cover photo is available from Gerd Kjølaas book, Dans, ropte livet. Credit: Oslo airport departure for the first three weeks tour to England 1949.
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