The Nordic folklore behind the Joffrey Ballet’s ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’

As the days stretch toward the summer solstice — the longest day of the year — Cal Performances is presenting the Joffrey Ballet’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, an original production by acclaimed Swedish choreographer Alexander Ekman that dives headlong into the surreal, sun-drenched rituals of the Scandinavian north. 

The ballet, which opens today and runs through Sunday, April 19, draws on Nordic folklore rather than Shakespeare’s Elizabethan comedy. It replaces the familiar fairies and Athenian lovers of the 16th-century play with a surreal, earthy celebration of the summer solstice, featuring a stage covered in real hay and a focus on authentic Swedish Midsummer traditions.

To help us navigate the haystacks, maypoles and midnight magic, we spoke with Linda Rugg, a UC Berkeley professor emerita of Scandinavian studies and former Associate Vice Chancellor for Research. After 25 years of exploring the intersection of Nordic literature, film and folklore, Rugg unpacks why the longest day of the year remains a deep, ancient necessity and how the ballet captures the thin veil between the human and the supernatural.

UC Berkeley News: Midsummer is the centerpiece of the Joffrey Ballet’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. Why does the summer solstice hold such a profound place in Scandinavian culture compared to other holidays?

Linda Rugg: The high points of the year in Scandinavia have been celebrated since pagan times at the winter and summer solstices. The winter solstice marks the shortest day of the year, and the summer solstice the longest.

In the far north, people are used to paying close attention to the shortening and lengthening of days over the course of the year because there is a dramatic difference between the winter and the summer. The sun does not set at all for weeks during the summer, while in the winter it is the other way around: Weeks pass with no sun. The impact is less dramatic as you head south, but there are still very long days in the summer near Stockholm, Oslo and Copenhagen, and very long nights in the winter. 

For this reason, rituals grew up around the longest night and the longest day, since they indicate that the process is about to reverse: At the winter solstice, in Christian times celebrated as St. Lucia’s Day or Christmas, the return of light is celebrated, while at Midsummer (the summer solstice), people revel in the year’s longest expanse of light, knowing that the darkness is about to return. 

England is also far enough north for the solstices to be important annual events, but Shakespeare’s play does not focus on themes related to St. John’s Day (the feast of St. John the Baptist), which is the Christianized version of the solstice in England. Instead he draws on classical sources. 

The ballet takes a surreal turn at night. In Nordic folk belief, what kinds of supernatural beings or magic are traditionally thought to emerge once the sun goes down or fails to set?

Like Halloween in some cultures, Midsummer Eve was believed to be a time when the veil that separates the present from the future, the living from the dead, the human from the magical, could be lifted. Tradition holds that trolls came out to dance on Midsummer’s Eve, that mermaids appeared on the shore, that all creatures could speak. Witches are abroad, and magic spells have potency.

We see dancers interacting with hay and flowers during the ballet. Could you explain the folk tradition of the seven wildflowers and the role nature plays in Midsummer rituals?

The forces of nature and prophecy are particularly strong on Midsummer’s Eve. It was believed that plants and other natural features carried supernatural power. People wove wreaths of flowers and grasses to wear on their heads; these acted as protection.

Similarly, farmers would cut a little hay at midnight on Midsummer’s Eve and put it aside until Christmas. This hay was believed to protect against sickness and evil spells, and if a farm animal ate it, wolves would not be able to attack. 

The most common tradition, still practiced today, is for an unmarried woman to pick seven kinds of wildflowers to place under her pillow when she finally goes to bed. Then she was guaranteed to dream of her future husband. But these flowers must be picked in silence, otherwise the magic won’t work.

How do elements like the flower-wrapped maypole and the Swedish tradition of communal singing inform the festive spirit of the production?

Dancing is an integral part of the Midsummer celebration. A tall pole decorated with flowery garlands forms the axis for the dance, and traditional folk music and dances are popular. Ekman picks up on this in his design and choreography, though the dance ultimately becomes surreal. 

In Sweden, there are also gatherings for allsång, or communal singing, so singing is a big part of the holiday as well. And in general, the holiday originally fell midway between planting and harvesting, so there was a strong affiliation with agriculture. The scenes in the ballet in the hay reflect this, as well as the folkloric belief that hay cut at Midsummer had magical properties.

The production uses striking imagery of water and swimming. Is there a specific Scandinavian belief regarding the healing or magical properties of water on this particular night?

Water, and in particular the dew that falls on Midsummer Eve, was said to be unusually healthful. Drinking water (particularly collected dew), swimming or rolling naked in the dew-covered grass were all ways to ensure health and strength. Certain well water was believed to be especially powerful, so drinking from wells was also part of the early ritual.

How does the psychological experience of the midnight sun — the lack of true darkness — traditionally influence social behavior and the madness associated with the holiday?

Essentially, many social inhibitions are removed, but that can have as much or more to do with the amount of alcohol traditionally consumed on the holiday than sunlight. The highest number of Swedish children have long been born around March 21 to March 22, nine months after the holiday. But the kind of madness depicted in Ari Aster’s 2019 film Midsommar is not generally on display.

In the U.S., summer is often seen as a season for leisure and vacation, but in Scandinavia, Midsummer feels more like a deep, ancient necessity. How does the Nordic concept of summer and its folk rituals differ from the way we typically experience the season in America?

Summer is a deeply longed-for season in the Nordic countries, both for the return of light and warmth and for the freedom from work that the arrival of Midsummer brings with it. Most people take a vacation just around or after Midsummer or depart for their summer cottages. It is fair to say that Scandinavians are, for the most part, sun worshippers.

The Joffrey Ballet will perform Alexander Ekman’s Midsummer Night’s Dream at Cal Performances from April 17-19. Buy tickets and learn more at calperformances.org.