Stig Olin credited as playing...
Balettmästare
- Ballet Master: You only see your life clearly once, when all protective walls have crumbled. You stand there, naked and cold, seeing yourself just the way you are. Once only.
- Ballet Master: We want to be happy, get something out of life. We have our memories, don't we? We want to start all over. All lies, Marie. Gibberish and nonsense. You dance. Period. That's your rule. Stick to it, or you'll get in trouble. Take a look in the mirror. You look ridiculous. So do I, for that matter.
- Marie: Yet there you sit in that clown costume you don't dare take off.
- Ballet Master: What about your own costume?
- Marie: It's true. It's like it's branded onto my body.
- Ballet Master: Think I don't understand, Marie? You don't dare take your makeup off, and you don't dare put it on. You don't dare leave, yet you don't dare stay.
- Ballet Master: Empty theatres at night are strange. Strange and a bit ghostly. Dwarfs with humps and big heads watch you from every corner.
- Marie: Yes...
- Ballet Master: They've always been there. They grow in numbers as the theatre gets older. Their eyes are luminous.
- Ballet Master: Young man, I could transform you into a sugar lump. So beware!
- David Nyström: Old man, I could spirit away your talent, your secret, your good name and social standing. I happen to be a journalist!
- Ballet Master: Great master, you are the mightiest. Your humble slave awaits orders.
- David Nyström: Get lost!
- Ballet Master: I'm leaving, slowly. And I won't listen behind the door, I have manners.
- Ballet Master: I came into the ballet hall this morning. It was big and empty. There you were in your black leotard, bending and twisting arms and legs. Slowly, quietly, you didn't notice me. It was as if you'd been drawn with five black lines. And I thought... for 20 years she's been standing like that, morning, noon and night. For 20 years. Eight years left, then she's finished. Out... Bye-bye!
- Marie: What about yourself?
- Ballet Master: I'm the ballet-master. I create. I grow old and esteemed, no burden to anyone. You'll be pensioned off.