GIFT 2013 presents CULLBERG BALLET
High heels too (2013)
Choreography Benoît Lachambre
Music Hahn Rowe
Installation concept Laurent Goldring, made by Alexandra Bertaut and Laurent Goldring
Video Laurent Goldring 
Costume design Alexandra

Cullberg Ballet is in its fifth decade as a leading company on the front line of modern dance. The ensemble has performed in more than forty countries and is an important cultural ambassador for Sweden. Cullberg Ballet's extensive international tours give foreign audiences a taste of Swedish culture at its best. 

Over the past ten years Cullberg Ballet has performed as many times abroad as in Sweden, scoring popular successes in Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americas. In Sweden, the company's widespread performances bring the best of Swedish dance to the national audiences. Cullberg Ballet's dancers are the company's greatest assets. The composition of the company's dancers has been international from the start and many nationalities are represented also in today's Cullberg Ballet. The dancers' technical proficiency and strong stage personalities have always been Cullberg Ballet's main characteristics. Cullberg Ballet belongs to Riksteatern, Sweden's National Touring Theatre.

Since 1950, when her Miss Julie had its première, Birgit Cullberg has exerted strong influence over contemporary Swedish and foreign ballet. Over the years, Miss Julie has become one of the world's most widely danced works. During the 1960s, with her personal, passionate and often humorous style, Birgit Cullberg made an extensive career for herself outside Sweden. In 1967 she founded the present Cullberg Ballet under the head organisation Riksteatern, with eight handpicked international dancers, of who three were Swedes. 

In the 1970s Mats Ek entered the dance world and created, for the Cullberg Ballet, such powerful and socially committed works as Soweto and Bernarda. In the following decade, he concentrated on pioneering new versions of the old classics Giselle and Swan Lake. During the 1990s, Mats Ek's creations have included the Emmy awarded Carmen for the Cullberg Ballet. Birgit Cullberg (1967-85) and Mats Ek (1982-93) were the artistic directors of the Cullberg Ballet for a total of 26 years. With their outstanding works, they have set their personal stamp on the company, making it one of the world's foremost ensembles. When Mats Ek stepped down as artistic director of the Cullberg Ballet in 1993, Carolyn Carlson, who created the full-evening performance Sub Rosa for the ensemble, took over the position for a two-year period. 

On July 1, 2003, the Swedish choreographer Johan Inger took over the artistic management of the Cullberg Ballet. Johan Inger was born in Stockholm and educated at the Royal Swedish Ballet School and at the National Ballet School in Canada. In 1985 he started as a dancer at the Royal Swedish Ballet, where he in 1989 became a soloist. In 1990 he became a member of the Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) in Holland. 

Johan Inger's official breakthrough as a choreographer came in the autumn 1995 with a ballet for NDT2, for which he was awarded the Philip Morris′ Finest Selection. Since the breakthrough, Johan Inger regularly created new choreographies for NDT. For Walking Mad he received the Lucas Hoving award - the Dutch theatres' award for best production in 2001. 

As Artistic Director of the Cullberg Ballet Johan Inger built up a new repertory based on ballets by him and guest choreographers of his choice.In the summer of 2008 Johan Inger left the artistic directorship of Cullberg Ballet to continue as a freelance choreographer. Ensemble manager Anna Grip is appointed artistic director. Anna Grip joined Cullberg Ballet as ensemble manager in December 2006, and she was appointed acting artistic director since the Spring of 2008. She trained as a dancer at Balettakademien in Stockholm and continued her studies in N.Y. She has worked as a répétiteur and teacher at a number of dance companies and educational institutions, including the contemporary dance companies CCAP in Stockholm, Rosas in Brussels and Nye Carte Blanche in Bergen and at Helsinki City Theatre.