FOTO: IDA-MARIE FISKAA
English version and video below.
Siden Cecilie Lassen var helt lille, har balletten fyldt det meste af hendes liv. I en alder af kun syv år bliver hun optaget på det Kongelige Teaters Balletskole, og siden da har hun danset for hele verden, indtil hun i 2010 får en alvorlig hofteskade som gør, at hun må vinke farvel til det liv, hun hidtil har kendt.
Det er onsdag formiddag og solen skinner ind ad vinduet i lejligheden vi befinder os i. Vi er på besøg hos balletdanser Cecilie Lassen, som med glæde og varme i stemmen byder os velkommen. Hun er nygift og hun stråler. Vi sætter os til rette i hendes hyggelige stue og hun begynder passioneret at fortælle sin historie.
”Da jeg var fire år gammel, var jeg for første gang på det Kongelige Teater og se en balletforestilling sammen med min mor. Jeg var fuldstændig tryllebundet over hvad jeg havde set, og da forestillingen var slut, løb jeg væk inde på teatret og gemte mig under et plyssæde og ville ønske jeg kunne blive der,” fortæller hun.
Det skulle snart vise sig, at Cecilie ville få rig mulighed for at tilbringe mere tid på Det Kongelige Teater, for i en alder af syv, stik imod hendes forældres forventning, bliver hun optaget på Det Kongelige Teaters Balletskole. En drøm hun havde haft, siden hun for første gang hørte om den skole, hvor man både fik almindelig skoleundervisning og samtidigt havde mulighed for at danse ballet.
Cecilie Lassen har en lang og beundringsværdig balletkarriere bag sig med roller som Olga i ”Onegin”, eleven i ”Enetime” og Megumi i ”Bellafigura”, men livet som ballerina har ikke altid været en dans på roser. Som 24-årig oplever hun at gå ned med stress og en dyb depression, hvilket resulterer i sammenlagt 1 års sygeorlov samt et møde med den øverste chef for hele teatret. Et angstfremkaldende møde, som Cecilie ikke var meget for at tage til, men som skulle vise sig at hende modet tilbage, da han udviser stor empati for hendes situation og ser hende med disse ord: ”Folk der er passionerede og brænder for noget, kan jo brænde op og brænde ud, og det er der ingen skam i. Vi kan alle sammen gå i stykker.”
Med blod på tanden danser Cecilie igen derudaf og da hun som 29-årig får hovedrollen i Bournonvilles stykke ”Napoli”, har det aldrig gået hende bedre. Men under en træning går det for alvor galt. Hun får en så alvorlig hofteskade, at hun aldrig kommer til at kunne danse igen. Med stor sorg må hun vinke farvel til det liv hun kendte og starte på et nyt.
Siden da har hun været vidt omkring som bl.a. model, koreograf, art director, smagsdommer på DR” og designet tøjkollektioner for WonHundred. Senest har hun været aktuel som den kvindelige hovedrolle i filmen ”De standhaftige” og netop nu er hun i gang med TV2’s program ”Danmark har talent”, hvor hun er dommer for tredje gang. Men vigtigst af alt har hun fundet Silas, sit livs kærlighed.
Men selvom Cecilie har haft travlt og der sker gode ting i hendes liv, vil hun for altid savne balletten. ”Jeg har det stadigvæk sådan, at når jeg vågner om morgen, så tror jeg i det første splitsekund, at jeg skal op og træne. Men det er okay at savne og sørge – for mig er den sorg et udtryk for kærlighed, som jo netop verificerer, at jeg var det rigtige sted i 23 år. Det var det rigtige for mig at kæmpe mig tilbage fra depressioner og stress, fordi min kærlighed til og til dansen var størst af alt. Så den sorg, jeg indimellem føler, er et rent udtryk for kærlighed, om end den viser sig gennem gråd – men det skal der også være plads til,” fortæller hun.
ENGLISH VERSION:
Translated by: Ellen Lindqvist.
Ever since Cecilie was very young, ballet has filled most of her life. At the age of seven she got accepted to the Danish Royal Ballet School and since then she’s been dancing for the whole world, until she in 2010 got such a bad hip injury that she could no longer dance and therefore had to say goodbye to the life she had known so far.
It is Wednesday morning and the sun shines through the window of the apartment we are located in. We are visiting the ballet dancer Cecilie Lassen who with joy and warmth in her voice has welcomed us. She is newly married and she shines. We all settle in her well-decorated living room and with huge passion she starts telling her story.
“When I was four years old I was with my mother at The Danish Royal Theatre to see a ballet performance. I was completely mesmerized by what I saw and when the performance was over I ran away at the theatre to hide under a plush seat, wishing I could just stay there forever”, she recalls. It should soon appear that Cecilie would get the opportunity to spend more time there, as she at the age of seven, dead against her parents’ expectations, got accepted to the Danish Royal Ballet School. Something she’d been dreaming of ever since she for the first time heard about the school where you could get both ordinary education and at the same time dance ballet.
Cecilie Lassen has an admirable ballet carrier with roles such as Olga in “Onegin”, the student in “Enetime” and Megumi in “Bellafigura”, but life as a ballerina hasn’t always been a bed on roses. At the age of twenty-four she suffers from stress and depression which results in one year of sick leave as well as a meeting with the top boss of the entire theatre. An anxiety-provoking meeting, but a meeting that would prove to give her the courage back, as her boss shows her empathy and sees her with these words: “People who are passionate and really want to do something can all fall apart, but that’s no shame. We can all fall apart.”
With blood on her teeth, Cecilie starts dancing again and when she as a 29-year-old gets the main role in Bournonville’s play “Napoli”, she has never done better. But without a proper warm-up it soon turns out that she had gotten such a bad hip injury that she will never be able to dance again. With huge sorrow she’s forced to say goodbye to the life she had known and begin a new one.
Since then she’s been doing a lot such as working as a model, choreographer, art director, TV host at DR2 and designed clothes collection with WonHundred. Latest she’s played the main female role in the Danish film “De standhaftige” and right now she’s being a judge for the third time at TV2’s TV show “Danmark har talent”. But most important she has found Silas, the love of her life.
But even though Cecilie has been busy and good things have happened in her life, she will always miss the ballet. “I still have this feeling that when I wake up in the morning, for the first split second I believe that I have to practice. But it is okay to miss and grieve – to me, that grief is an expression of love, which verifies that I was in the right place for 23 years. It was the right thing for me to fight and get back from depressions and stress, because greatest of all was my love to the dance and the place. So the grief that I sometimes feel is a pure expression of love, though it appears through tears – but there must be room for that”, she tells.
Instagram: cecilielassen
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