a collection of memories
(many could not be included here, as links to old webpages has expired)

Sidst, jeg så Ralph, var i påsken 2006. Vi havde aftalt at følges ad ud til en danseforestilling som vi begge var inviterede til. Jeg ringede på Ralph´s gadedør ˆ og han kom ned. Vi gik til busstoppestedet og tog så bussen sammen ud til Dansescenen.
 
Dér i bussen mærkede jeg en energi som snoede sig opefter (omkring et par centimeter) sådan ca. midt i ryggen – ligesom indeni rygsøjlen. Jeg blev forvirret, kiggede på Ralph som havde sit sædvanlige, smilende glimt i sine øjne. Derefter faldt mit blik på Ralph´s fingerring ˆ der havde form af en slange som snoede sig nogle gange omkring fingeren. Jeg så på Ralph igen og han smilede endnu mere.
 
Ja, kære Ralph ˆ jeg savner dig
 
Håber at du har det godt, dér hvor du er nu ˆ husk at blive ved med at kigge forbi her på jordplanet en gang imellem.
 
Kærlig hilsen

Karina Randi Christensen, Dance Studio Compagny

–

I met Ralph in spring 2003 in Martha Gardner’s Dansevaerkstedet.
Both strangers in Denmark and both related to German Tanztheater we
liked each other straight away. Ralph enjoyed using funny German phrases
and sharing his sharp humor.
I got to know him better when he asked me to help straighten out his
fundus, which proofed to be more than a week’s job. Clothes and costumes
from around 50 choreographies where piled on top of each other and every
second one had a story to it (famous the pink T-Shirt that said ‘PLIE’
in large, black letters, a present from former students which repeated
his most frequently spoken word).
He made me try quite a deal of shirts and pants and after each visit I
was richer for a few things – older probably than myself and with more
style than any store could offer.
Inbetween we cooked together or enjoyed forbidden pizza and even
chocolate cake. He showed me a bunch of dancevideos cruising his own
history – Pina Bausch, Kresznic and Schlömer and started to give me bars
(using a chair) in his living room, where I used to camp later on
following visits.

Hardly a day passes without me wearing any of his clothes, out on the
street, in class, sleeping in them.

You won’t be forgotten, Ralph.
I wish I’d seen you again, oh boy.

(Maximilian Pothmann, Essen)

–

My name is Johannes Doehl and I had the great previlege to meet Ralph Grant in 1998/99, when I attended the one year dance course at Martha Gardners Dansevaerkstedet. He was my teacher for classical dance, but turned out to become so much more to me than that. Recognising my potential, he took me often aside to talk to me and advice me about how to develop not just my body, but more my spirit to become a dancer. He taught me to love me when I’m dancing to let people take part of that. Never to give up and to believe in the impossible. “If you can dream it, you can do it”, he once quoted Walt Disney to me and he was more than right. By his guidance through that breif period I was lucky enough to have with him, I grew beyond anything I had ever thought possible. After I graduated from Dansevaerkstedet, I danced with Maurice Béjart in Lausanne and Nacho Duato in Madrid, both great companies, and I know that Ralph’s tutoring took part in me achieving these great aims.
  
I must confess that when I first met Ralph that he frightend me a bit and appear rather harsh and at times grumpy. At times he would asked me in his very direct way, what I thought I was doing there… Him picking on me discouraged me at first until he took me aside one day to explaine himself, because he sensed that I took his remarks the wrong way. Once I understood him being hard on me only to bring out the best in me working with Ralph became a pleasure that I’ve treasured ever since.
  
I shall remember Ralph for the rest of days, because even today, that I don’t dance anymore, he is there unconsciously guiding through me everyday life. His wisdom is one of the few things that has always kept me going. I wish I had had more of a chance to know him, but life as much as he send me off to find new Horizones.

I thank him for that and shall meet him one day in heaven! God bless you, Ralph!

–

Ralph Grant, the American dancer, teacher and painter whose stylish,
unconventional and powerful vision of life and art inspired many, died last
week in Copenhagen. He was in his early sixties. Born in New York he studied
dance, fashion and art. Dance prevailed and he began a career at the elite
level of classical ballet in Europe and America. From the mid 70’s he began
living and working in Denmark and marked a transition from dancer to
choreographer. Scores of dancers experienced his voice, manner and approach.
His choreography was classical, highly skilled and yet clearly in the
territory of the avant-garde. In a time when much dance was little more than
aesthetic gymnastics (has this changed?) his choreographies stood apart as
fresh, uncompromising and passionately driven. As a teacher he touched many.
If one looks at the more successful Danish choreographers and certainly the
ones that are capable of working internationally it is almost without
exception that you will find Ralph on their curriculum vitae. His manner was
excellently tempered for the instilling of both passion and technique as he
saw what others did not. His was a talent that was never caught in the
ordinary. A fabulous person, much loved and now much missed. Rest in peace,
in our memory and in our art.

Stuart Lynch

–

I was more than sad when I heard that Ralph passed away. What can I say, I
am part American and part German and I was born in ‘63 in Gemany. I got to know him
through mutual friends. Whenever we met, in a club, a café and often on
the street, we talked and listened to each other. He would say “Jacob,
lets go have a cup of something at a café” and so we did. Sometimes a year
would pass by but he always remembered what we talked about the last time
we met and asked me what has happened since then.
 
A great person has passed away – Ralph, as I unfortunately did not get to
know better than I did – but still I feel that I knew him. He was a warm,
very honest, responsible and a professional person in every aspect of his
life. A man with no enemies and a lot of friends.
 
We talked a lot about life and the meaning of it, relationships and love
and travelling. This may sound strange but he was sort of a teacher to me
(a mentor, if you will).
 
I am one of the many that will miss him dearly. May he rest in peace and
get a good life wherever he chooses to be reborn in his next life.
 
Jacob Nicu
If any question more than welcome to contact me at +45 606 777 66

–

Kære Alle.
Jeg var på arbejde i dansens navn i dag, da jeg af min bedste ven fik at
vide, at Ralph Grant er død – hvad kan man sige – der er et stort tomrum
og et minde om en fyr, som med hård og bestemt tone guidede mig igennem
den moderne dans og balletten og jeg fik mange spydige kommentarer om
min person som fremtidig danser – men trods det, så er det dansen jeg
lever af i dag med Ralph i baghovedet som en af mine store mentorer, og
ham som i dag driver mig frem med min undervisning i de forskellige
dansestilarter – modern, ballet, jazz, standard, latin, hip hop, funck,
a and b, salsa, disco, rock n roll, jitterbug og swing, linedance,
flamenco, argentinsk tango, mine forstilinger for og med danseværkstedet
og de ting, som jeg ellers har danset og undervist i også med Gaarden
dancestudio og DDD. som har formet mig som danser igennem tiderne. Ralph
sagde engang til mig “som danser er man en kamæleon, man må beherske
mange stilarter og mestre dem alle til fulde, såvel som skuespillet og
sangens vugge, hvis man skal bestride de danske og udenlandske scener i
dag” – alt dette hører i dag sammen – og man må mestre det til fulde for
at blive en stor danser som Rudolph Nurejev”, og det har jeg kæmpet for
og i mit indre, der bor en danser – en som elsker at bevæge sig til
musik og udtrykke følelser, skuespil, glæde og sorg med min krop, samt
nydelsen ved at se, at mine elever får noget med fra min undervisning
som de kan bruge – se, det skylder jeg mange mennersker (danseres)
indflydlese, og jeg har dem alle med mig i min daglige undervisning
Ralph, Martha, Annette Gaarden, danseskoleindehavere i DDD – OG JEG
KUNNE BLIVE VED.

En stille tak skal lyde til Ralph for den person jeg er idag og for det,
jeg har opnået igennem dansen via ham.

Danser, instruktør, koreograf og DDD-medlem Morten Stefanou