Bruhn's response to music

Commenting on his very particular response to music, Bruhn says it is a response that must be felt individually. "You've got to hear the music for the first time every time you dance to it. If you hear the same thing every time, then you never feel the need to go back for more. The idea is that if you hear more, then you find more of yourself in the music. For me, music is a constant rediscovery. Once I know a role technically and know the outline of the character, then I always go back to the music, because that's my guide. That's when I know how much I can stretch a certain set of steps within so many bars. Of course, you must begin and finish in time with the music, but within that span you must literally 'walk' on the music. You must breathe it and live it and make it a part of your very being. Without that, all is lost!"


Erik Bruhn, Danseur Noble by John Gruen. 1979. Page 25-6.

Erik Bruhn on musical phrasing

Also, I had a facility for musical phrasing. Dancers who are just 'square' will never squeeze the dynamics out of the music and build up to any sort of climax. My fun in having survived the same daily classes for ten years at the school was that I could play with the phrasing of any given step.

. . . . Later on I had a vocabulary I could choose from when doing a certain role. I would experiment with the musical phrasing and, in that way, I could color the steps as well as the character I was portraying. I could actually make the steps fit the character.

Erik Bruhn, Danseur Noble by John Gruen. 1979. Page 24.

Erik Bruhn and the responsibility of talent

Having to live up to such a wealth of talent has not been easy for Erik Bruhn, though lavish, and burdensome, praise has never been denied him.

He recalls how members of the Royal Danish Ballet would stand amazed at his feats in the Royal Danish Ballet School classroom. "People from the professional company would come and watch me do certain things," says Bruhn. "Of course we were all trained in the Bournonville technique, but I had a facility for turning and I could do certain things within the framework of the music that somehow intensified my movements. This all came very naturally to me, and I had no idea why. At any rate, the press got wind of my ability and someone came to interview me. For some reason I told the interviewer that I planned to stop dancing -- right then, at fifteen. You see, I became frightened of my capacities, and frightened of the responsibility of the talent I was apparently born with. Of course, I continued dancing, but that initial fear has never left me."

Erik Bruhn, Danseur Noble by John Gruen 1979. Pages 1-2.