Ingrid Lorentzen is the prima ballerina of the Norwegian
National Ballet, and this interview with her was made in
November 2000 right after she'd been promoted to a soloist.
The interview is translated from Norwegian by me.

"When I passed 160 cm, I cried my heart out. I had read in an English book about ballet that 'dancers must not grow too tall'".
Ingrid Lorentzen laughs. The fact that she is 174 cm on pointe hasn't prevented her from being a dancer. She joined the Norwegian National Ballet in 1997, and last week she was promoted a soloist. "That was great," she says and smiles. "But I think that it's the roles that count."
This automn it has been plenty of roles for Lorentzen. She dances the role of Eva Linde in "Genanse og Verdighet", as well as Mdm. Tourvel in "Farlige Forbindelser". Last Saturday three ballets by Glenn Tetley opened. The reviews has been mostly overwhelming. When the curtains fall for the Tetley performances next Saturday, it's two weeks to Lorentzen's next opening; the Nutcracker. Between the big productions there has been time to do smaller projects.
"I took one week of vacation this summer, but that's all. My body is tired, but I have less injuries now than when I was a young dancer."
Lorentzen leads us through the labyrinthic corridors in the opera building. It's narrow, it's dark and the yellow painting peel off the walls. In eight years the singers and dancers will move to the new opera building in Bj�rvika. Lorentzen thinks that's a long time. "Dancers retire when they are 41, so I won't be too old. The question is if you are good enough. I believe that I will dance my last performance in Bj�rvika, if I'm lucky."
Aged 28, Lorentzen can look back on a ten years long dance career. Already when she was two years old she was fascinated by dance, and when she had finished secondary school, she took the consequences of her interest in dance. She went to Statens Balletth�gskole for a year before moving to Stockholm. In Sweden she combined school with dance. The other students in her class had danced six days a week since they were ten years old. Every year the classes grew smaller.
"I had a hard time there. My personality didn't fit in at all. I had a teacher with psychological problems. She gave me the feeling that I was just a stupid talent. But I'm glad I went there. It gave me the physical foundation that keeps me going now. And the experience with a tough teacher was maybe valuable too. The life behind stage is not as glamorous as people like to believe. Most of the older dancers are generous people. But some of them consider the young ones as rivals and try to bring them down," she says. "This is especially hard for the girls. The male dancers have much more space. I have given that much thought lately."
Usually she doesn't like journalists who want to talk about weight and body. Now she's so annoyed that she can't keep it back. The dark-haired, elegant woman is tired by instructors who think that it's their right as humans to comment on other people's bodies. "I've found a new method. When someone says anything about my body, I act like I'm lost for words and say 'really!'"