Missing Amsterdam!

Sadly, I can't be at the Meervaart to see the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company today but I can learn something about two of the dancers from a vlog ("video blog") put together by Timothy van Poucke from Woerden and Salome Leverashvili from Tblisi.

So far, I have found the following three videos:

• Vlog # 1 Q & A Time:  Tim and Salome introduce themselves while sitting on Pilates balls and ask each other questions. We learn, for example, that Salome identifies with flamingos because they are pink and skinny, that Tim once accomplished 10 pirouettes and Salome 7, that they both like cooking and Amsterdam is their favourite city.
• Vlog #2  Tim's Warm Up Routine: here Tim displays and demonstrates what look to me like instruments of torture which he uses to soften the muscles of his body. I actually inherited some of those bits of kit but had no idea what to do with them. Now I wish I didn't know.
• Vlog #3 Tim and Salome's Make-Up Session: Salome bravely lets Tim apply her stage make-up. "What is this?" she squeals at the end of the end of the session and awards Tim 4/10 for his efforts. But the truth of the matter is that she looks lovely and would still look lovely if she had been dragged through a hedge backwards.

Like everyone who has begun his or her career with the Junior Company, they are excellent young persons. Clearly, they know how to have fun but they are also very accomplished dancers. Under Ernst Meisner's leadership, they will evolve into superb young artists. 

I am particularly excited about Salome because she comes from the same country and trained in the same ballet school as Elena Glurdjidze whom I once had the good fortune to meet and whom I miss very much (see Elena Glurdjidze - So Lovely, So Gracious 11 Feb 2014).

As I said in Thinking of Amsterdam this morning, I plan to see the company while it is touring the Netherlands.  I look forward to seeing Tim, Salome and their fellow dancers on stage very soon and perhaps even making the acquaintance of some of them.

Thinking of Amsterdam

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A lot is happening in Amsterdam. Last weekend the Dutch National Ballet hosted the Positional Ballet International Ballet Conference which I previewed on 19 Jan 2017. The conference coincided with the premieres of Made in Amsterdam 1 and II which showcases the Dutch National Ballet's strengths. Today the Junior Company launches its tour of the Netherlands with Juniors Go Dutch at the Meervaart Theatre.

Team Terpsichore had intended to be there this weekend and we even bought return flights back in December but commitments here have prevented our departure.  I still hope to catch the Juniors at one of their other venues later in their tour and if I can't make Made in Amsterdam I should at least see Onegin. In the meantime, we wish the brilliant young dancers of the Junior Company chookas and toi, toi, toi for this weekend's performances and every success in their careers.

A film has been made of last week's conference and appears above.  There are voces populorum from directors of some of the world's leading companies including Ted Brandsen who indicated that this is the start of a worldwide conversation on the future of Ballet in which we all can share.

Ernst Meisner's New Recruits

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Every year the Dutch National Ballet scours the world for twelve of its most promising young dancers and invites them to Amsterdam for an intensive programme of training and performances. The artistic coordinator of that programme is Ernst Meisner who is well known to, and well liked by, British audiences (see Meet Ernst Meisner and his talented young dancers 6 Dec 2014). Many of his dancers have been recruited into the Dutch National Ballet and other leading companies and their careers have taken off like rockets. Michaela DePrince, for example, joined the Junior Company in 2013 and is already a grand sujet. Cristiano Principato joined the programme a year later and has contributed work to New Moves (see Palagio  4 June 2016).

Ernst has now recruited new dancers for the Junior Company which includes Hannah Williams who was born in Ashford. Hannah trained in the United States and the Netherlands which no doubt explains her transatlantic accent but that will not prevent ballet goers in the country from wishing her, and all the other members of the Junior Company, all the best.

Every year the company tours the Netherlands and occasionally one or two theatres abroad. Before the Linbury closed for renovation they danced two shows here each year.  I am desperately racking my brains trying to find the best way of tempting them back. The first opportunity to see the new dancers will be at the Meervaart Theatre in Amsterdam in Juniors Go Dutch on 18 and 19 Feb 2017. Tickets start at 15 euros and the theatre is only 23 minutes from Schiphol airport by the 69 bus. There are cheap and convenient flights from Southend, Manchester and just about every other corner of the UK. Despite the post-Brexit nose dive of sterling Amsterdam is still a lot cheaper than London and there is plenty to do apart from watching ballet when you get there (see Three Days in Amsterdam 12 Sept 2016).