Duet from “A Cup of Coffee”, Mats Ek’s acclaimed choreography of Anders Hillborg’s Cello Concerto, has made national debuts with Norwegian National Ballet and at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in April 2025, following the premiere of the full-length work at the Royal Swedish Ballet in February. The 5-minute excerpt concluded Dialogues II, an hour-long programme of duets featuring works by Akram Khan, Samantha Lynch, and Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar.
The duet – surreal and witty by turns – is built around a trolley, the titular coffee set and an elaborate tablecloth: the 70-year-old Ana Laguna tries to set the table but is continually thwarted by her partner, as he pulls everything to the floor; finally she pours the coffee directly into his mouth and stirs it with a spoon. The 30-minute ballet from which the duet is taken explores the tensions between couples at different stages of their lives.
A Cup of Coffee, which represents a major collaboration between leading Swedish practitioners of their respective art forms, was celebrated by critics. Hillborg’s concerto was written for Nicolas Altstaedt and premiered in October 2020 with the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Fabien Gabel. Like Hillborg’s recent Viola Concerto for Lawrence Power and Piano Concerto No.2 for Emanuel Ax, the 27-minute work is cast in one unbroken movement. It is characterised by the intimacy of its scoring - much of the piece is written for strings alone, with dazzling virtuosity eschewed in favour of long, yearning cantabile lines, giving the work a soulful and reflective quality.