writing ex-dancer
Op vrijdag 20 september leidde Grammy-genomineerd componist Miho Hazama in de Conservatoriumzaal in Amare de big band van het Koninklijk Conservatorium. En hoe. Dancer in nowhere Een sprongetje. Een plié op een been. Een relevé op de tenen. Een plié op twee benen. Het hoofd opzij en als een klok ritmisch naar de andere kant en terug. Een halve arabesque…
Vrijdag 28 juni sloot Het Nationale Ballet in Amsterdam het seizoen feestelijk af met een gala. Het gezelschap van zo’n 80 dansers neemt daarin vooral relaties onder de loep. Van de 12 werken zie je maar liefst 9 duetten. Een liefdesbrief, een relatie in troubled waters, een wapenstilstand, een anticlimax, een conflict, een huwelijksdansfestijn, een levensreis, een onbereikbaar geluk, een…
You can see it right from the first portrait prominently displayed on the front screen during the prologue. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky looks towards the audience like a czar of ballet music, exactly as choreographer Rudi van Dantzig and master designer Toer van Schayk intended. Here is a man who struggled with his identity, his desires and the obligations that his...
Dansers zijn buitengewone wezens. Neem Vlad Detiuchenko en Veronika Rakitina. Vorig jaar gevlucht van Kyiv naar Den Haag, dansen ze nu allebei in de voorstelling van voorheen prima ballerina van Het Nationale Ballet Igone de Jongh. Ze reizen ermee van Den Helder tot Eindhoven, en organiseren eigenhandig de voorstelling op 21 maart a.s. Benefiet Oekraïne: Light in Darkness. Ik zocht de…
Amare hosted for the first time the final performances of one of the new residents of The Hague's cultural colossus: the dance department of the Royal Conservatoire. What stands out. The pandemic over Last year, in the old conservatory, a maximum of 50 visitors could attend the final performance, with mouth caps on and with two chairs away from each other. The new dance theatre in Amare...
Op dinsdag 31 mei is in het oude Koninklijk Conservatorium in Den Haag het nieuwe balletgezelschap The United Ukrainian Ballet gepresenteerd aan het publiek. Oekraïense dansers die naar Nederland zijn gevlucht hebben onder leiding van ballerina Igone de Jongh in dit gezelschap een nieuw onderkomen gevonden. Toen ik voor de presentatie het conservatorium inliep, kon ik meteen een huilend Oekraïens meisje…
Hope for liberation during a dark period of war threat and political oppression; a masterpiece by Beethoven sublimely expressed in dance by Toer van Schayk. Everything gets into an uproar Creating an abstract and layered classical ballet for a large ensemble of a top company to a Beethoven symphony: few can do it and Toer is one of them. His ballet stems...
Male ballet dancers have heroes. Ever since ballet training. A few of them are timeless, like Vaslav Nijinsky, Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov. After that, tastes vary, depending on which period you danced in and which style particularly suits you: Anthony Dowell, Peter Martins, Carlos Acosta, or more recently Sergei Polunin and Daniil Simkin. Last week, one of my dance heroes passed away: Patrick...
If every ballet is about discipline, it is certainly something that applies to Hans van Manen's ballets. Discipline in the music, in the beat, in the simplicity. How ballet creates order in movement, measures space, establishes relationships: you will find it all in the works of Holland's most renowned dance maker. The six parts of the programme Variations...
It is remarkable to see two productions bringing together dance and faith in a short time. Dancer Marijn Rademaker (former soloist Het Nationale Ballet) portrays the suffering of the apostle in Di Lasso's Tears of Petrus by Nederlands Kamerkoor and Dance Company Nanine Linning, dancer and recently assistant artistic director of The Dutch Don't Dance Division Kiran Bonnema portrays the change in the life of the still-young patriarch Jacob in EO's National New Year's Blessing.
Can you experience magic at home the way the Dutch National Ballet promises with its online stream of the Christmas Gala? If the comments during the stream are to be believed: yes.
Every dancer is nostalgic. Heroes or icons of the dance world are given a special and honourable stage place in the inspiration of young dancers, of choreographers and also of the public. So too Koert Stuyf and Ellen Edinoff, and their Contemporary Dance Foundation.
The Garden is a new dance film by Sem, now also a dancer with the Dutch National Ballet, which premiered last week. The choreography is by British dancer Pascal Johnson, with five dancers dancing on the roof of artist Jean Dubuffet's famous artwork Jardin d'émail in the sculpture garden of the Kröller-Möller Museum. That in itself is special enough, however, it is the optimism of the dance film that impresses.
Since everyone advised him to just give it a try, he signed up with almost a thousand amateur painters to learn the ancient craft of painting in six months and under the watchful eye of Pieter Roelofs, head of Painting and Sculpture at the Rijksmuseum, among others.
Since Saturday 10 October, you can watch the Dutch National Ballet's ballet Live online for 2.95 euros. I did it. It was worth it.
From small dance schools to large dance companies, the Dutch dance world is daring to expose itself on a stage again. Dance lovers can get back into the studios or theatres, or both, thanks to protocols, and bookings are being made enthusiastically as many performances are already sold out. After all, nothing beats dance art in the flesh. In the words of dance dramaturge Jochem Naafs: 'If you...
Albania's National Theatre, recently declared a protected monument by Europa Nostra, was unexpectedly destroyed on Sunday, 17 May, after two years of protests. Early in the morning, when it was still dark, the bulldozers came. A sudden wave of policemen wearing mouth caps chased activists and artists out of the theatre and formed a cordon around the audience....
The Advisory Multi-Year Policy Plan Arts and Culture 2021-2024 for The Hague was presented online on Friday 24 April. What stands out for dance in this City of Dance? Inclusion and diversity What at least stands out is that in the plan, the word 'inclusion' appears 110 times and 'diversity' 96 times. Then you know what time it is. Yet the Advisory Committee also gives...
'The world around us is changing, after this period we will speak about a period BC and AC'. Words from a wise dance maker from the Hofstad, referring to the period before and after the Coronavirus. However, you can also relate it to the news from the Hague dance world. What is the news? Sol Léon and Paul Lightfoot decided that...
An artists' protest in Albania deserves extra attention. Especially as EU accession negotiations resume. Indeed, the protest action is impressive and offers a view of EU accession from an interesting perspective. That of a people who are committed to democratic values, who value their own history and culture, who do not want to give way to...
How many female choreographers do you know who create a full-length ballet for a top classical ballet company? - I thought. Before going to Frida, I get word that a Latin American young woman has been hospitalised. Loss of a lot of blood, and unborn child. The happy-go-lucky girl I know weakly raises a thumb from the hospital bed on WhatsApp....
So this: 'It is not easy to compete with YouTube, Netflix and other entertainment giants lying at our fingertips...' Wise words from Jiří Kylián in the foreword to the programme booklet of A Christmas Carol. The renowned choreographer sees The Dutch Don't Dance Division putting on something magical at the Zuiderstrand Theatre with their latest production: with limited resources in this multimedia...
Canadian Emily Molnar is the new artistic director of Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT1) from season 2020/2021. Looking at her track record, she has everything going for her: a loyal ten years as artistic director of Canadian BC (British Columbia) Ballet, a good reputation as a choreographer, acclaimed as a visionary, innovator and coach and she has a...
Amsterdam wordt weer verwend met Julidans, een internationaal festival volgeladen met indrukwekkende dans. Op de tweede festivalavond is Kind te zien van Peeping Tom. Het werk van dit Brusselse gezelschap is een fenomeen en ik ben er een fan van. Al sinds de danstrilogie bij NDT1: The missing door (2013), The lost room (2015), The hidden floor (2017) (recensies onder…
The nominations for the 2019 Swans have been announced. Here is my annual prediction of who will win one. Spoiler alert. This year, it will be a cautious prediction. Even though in past years I wasn't far wrong (sometimes completely right) in guessing the winners, now when it comes to the dancers, you have to choose from superlatives: 'let them be on a...
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