How can a usually very ordinary, amiable theatre director suddenly come out with the notice That a few orchestras can go away and the National Ballet should be outsourced? We wondered so and headed to the car park at the Concertgebouw yesterday.
The fact that it is difficult to get a job after graduation is also well known in the dance world. Therefore, partly at the government's insistence, companies are putting in on talent development. They also hope to A better connection with schools. Jun dancers are now more likely to be on the front line of ballet: the theatre, and that is good news for audiences. Because the energy is fresh and the level has shot up considerably.
It would have been so nice: The National Ballet together with The National Opera at The National Theatre, like you have in the capital of any self-respecting country. But so that didn't happen. The home of our National Opera and Ballet clubs is now called 'Nationale Opera en Ballet'. The National Theatre made sure of that, which, like the Nederlands Dans Theater, is not in our capital Amsterdam, but in its residence in The Hague.
A joint press conference by two companies. In the post-Zijlstra era, that often does not bode well. A merger then seems obvious, especially when it involves the two largest opera companies in our country: De Nederlandse Opera and the Nationale Reisopera. Only now we have to turn that around: the Netherlands Opera will become the National Opera. And the building will be called National Opera and Ballet.
During the 16th edition of the Dutch Dance Days, several dance awards were presented: the 2013 Dutch Dance Days Prize, the Swans and the Dioraphte Dance Award. Respective winners are choreographer Giulio D'Anna, dancer Medhi Walerski, Club Guy & Roni for Midnight Rising, dancer Bonnie Doets of Scapino Ballet Rotterdam and Keren Levi with The Dry Piece.
The Dutch National Ballet is not sitting still. Building on its 50th anniversary, next spring AVRO will publish a reality series about the country's largest dance company. This as a sequel to Blood, sweat, and strings about the Concertgebouw Orchestra.
The bodies of Fokine, Van Manen and EGPC in the Dutch National Ballet's new programme 'Corps' are vastly different, though they all dance a form of ballet. It is the differences in stakes (decorative or expressive, stylised control or individual surrender, full of symbolism or stripped of it) and the key role for the ensemble that make the programme extremely interesting. Besides the fact that EGPC seems to be on its way to an artistic breakthrough.
Armando Navarro (Argentina, 1930 - Amsterdam 2013), former artistic director of Scapino Ballet, passed away last Sunday. Together with his wife Marian Sarstädt formed Navarro one of the Netherlands' best-known dance couples, alongside Han Ebbelaar and Alexandra Radius (Het Nationale Ballet) and Jiří Kylián and Sabine Kupferberg (Nederlands Dans Theater).
Holland Festival
Holland Festival
This month is all about the Holland Festival. Culture Press reports almost daily. What are we most looking forward to?
The concentration is enormous, the mastery great. The boys and girls standing here dancing can do something. The apparent ease with which these 12-year-olds demonstrate their dance moves shows at the same time how difficult ballet is. After all, the movements have to be performed perfectly, and splashily. Moreover, of this group, only a few will make it to the world's top: The National Ballet. Students of the...
'Pearls' is an exhibition with the limitlessness, fantasy and dreamlike vistas that come with a fairy tale. Associations with the pearl roll in all directions. Those who wander around in 'Pearls' forget for a moment everything to do with sober everyday reality. Pearls appear everywhere. The works of art accompanying this exhibition are scattered among the fixed...
There have been days when we had 1500 page views. You, 2500 of our most loyal visitors, came so far to provide 14000 views on dedodo.co.uk, and you stayed around for an average of three minutes. On average. We are proud of that. Apparently, we managed to attract and keep your attention. So those are good figures for an online festival day newspaper like De Dodo, which has to make do with no screaming, no marketing budget but an overdose of enthusiasm and professional innovativeness.
In the production Bill & Mr B, the Dutch National Ballet dives thematically into history with reprises of works by George Balanchine and William Forsythe. Balanchine's Symphony in Three Movements (1972) is considered the breeding ground for Forsythe, who then went 'the extra mile' with Steptext (1985) and The Second Detail (1991). From protocol to photocall: dance as a photo session. Movement - click,...
The message below has since been confirmed. But we like to cherish our firsts. Hence. Of course, the merger event in and around Amsterdam's Muziektheater, where ballet, opera and theatre will work in unison, also produced a game of musical chairs. Stijn Schoonderwoerd, for instance, announced a month or so ago that he was going to do something else, and so the Dutch National Ballet was looking...
The Dutch Dance Days are not yet a mad hive of dance, but for Maastricht they are increasingly a fun tourist attraction. Day trippers and weekend tourists come from all over the country to combine the delights of the South with those of the art of dance. For that matter, all of Maastricht seems to float on VVV leaflets. In this sphere of promotion, is there still room for...
The Dodo was busy, this third week of the Holland Festival. Thankfully, again with an exciting mix of beautiful, weird and extraordinary. As it should be, really. What makes the Holland Festival all the more exciting is that such extremes can sometimes take place within one programme, as with the National Ballet, or even within one performance, as with The Russians...
'Labyrinth' is the name of Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's choreography. Mazes intrigue because you can get lost in them and then insist on finding the exit. Along the way, a person then has all kinds of revealing experiences about himself. But Cherkaoui does not get to this passage. He immediately starts with symbolism. A dancer holds a wide band that goes from the stage house to...
This year, the Holland Festival brings the extraordinary French-Algerian co-production Nya, which combines achievements of modern and classical dance with hip-hop and, in addition, Ravel's Bolero sounds alongside Houria Aïchi's Algerian evergreens.
It was predictable. Now that the Culture Council has given the secretary of state a go-ahead for massive and very deep cuts in dance, the first press releases are appearing with the outraged reactions. The National Ballet and Nederlands Dans Theater are aggrieved: 'How
After the cry, now the official piece. With a fitting, tad Den Uyl/Van Agt-like title: 'Less where it can be done, better where it must be done.' But let's not laugh too hard. It is quite brave what they have done. Gitta Luyten, Marianne Versteegh, Joke Hubert, Henk Scholten, Siebe Weide and Ben Holvast, together as bosses of arts umbrellas and cultural sector institutes also...
We already thought something was wrong when Mark Rutte, in his much applauded show of strength in Buitenhof, spoke of 'all those empty halls with 10 people in the front row'. Ok, he hadn't been there himself for years, but according to his State Secretary Halbe Zijlstra, at least in The Hague, the emptiness was glaring, Rutte knew....
The Hague is quite complicated for those who do not visit it on a daily basis. I was there last Monday, as a spectator at the discussion of the culture and media budget, and it has taken me until now to fully understand what is going on. For that understanding, being there live was essential. After all, to understand a social system like the Lower House, you not only have to listen to what is being said, and see who is speaking, much more important are the 'listening shots': the body language and actions of those who are not speaking.
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