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One of the most interesting press releases to have emanated from Northern Ballet recently was the announcement of the appointment of Kenneth Tindall as artistic director digital and choreographer in residence (see Northern Ballet appoints Kenneth Tindall to Artistic Staff 31 May 2018). Many congratulations to Kenneth!  It could not have happened to a nicer fellow. And congratulations also to Northern Ballet.  A very savvy decision.  I am sure that Kenneth will do an excellent job.

Kenneth is, of course, very well established.  Two young dancers who are beginning to rise in their careers are Thomas van Damme and Yuanyuan Zhang of the Dutch National Ballet. Thomas and Yuanyuan have their own YouTube channel called "The Ballet Couple".  I first wrote about them last September in The Ballet Couple. Since then, Yuanyuan has been promoted to grand sujet and Thomas from élève to the corps. 

Every week they offer some tips about dancing.  Last Friday, for instance they discussed the ideal age to take up and the time to retire from ballet.  On when to start ballet they said that it is possible to begin at any age unless you want to dance professionally. For adult ballet students - particularly for those of us who have taken it up or resumed it very late in life - that is very encouraging. But it is also good to know that you don't have to start too early even if you want to go on stage.

As for when to retire Thomas and Yuanyuan said that it is very much a personal matter and they discussed some of the factors that dancers consider. When I asked Yuanyuan about her long term ambitions five years ago she said that she said her immediate aim was to get into the main but company but in the future she could see herself as a ballet master.

In other clips Yuanyuan talks about pointe shoes and there is a lovely film on the opening night gala.

However, it is not all about ballet.

On Tuesday for example they suggested using a pint class as a loud speaker. It does work Thomas.  It's the same principle as a megaphone. I am a bit more dubious about hanging a second hanger from the aluminium ring pull of a drinks can. I can think up all sorts of problems like collapsing wardrobe rails and scrunched up clothes. Probably cheaper and easier to buy Probably cheaper and easier to get another wardrobe or at least a clothes rail from Ikea. I preferred the previous film about an elegant way of opening a packet of corn chips and I guess it would also work for crisps.

There are also some charming videos about celebrating a national holiday, food that dancers really eat, opening a package of Chinese goodies and a really soppy one "Yes together until we die."

Junior Company - Five Tremendous Years

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In Ernst Meisner’s Work with the Dutch National Ballet 2 Dec 2014, Ernst Meisner. the Artistic Coordinator of the Dutch National Company Junior Company, told me how that company came to be formed:

“It has been a wish of Artistic Director Ted Brandsen for a long time to have a Junior Company to bridge the gap between school and company. While Christopher Powney was Director at the National Ballet Academy and placing the school on the international map, it seemed the right time to start such a young group. I was involved in setting the Junior Company up and it has been great to have the chance to develop the way we like this venture to go together with Ted and Christopher (now Jean-Yves Esquerre) during the years. We had a great start last year, with seven of the first group actually having joined the main company now."

I was lucky enough to attend the first performance of that company at the  Stadsschouwburg theatre in Amsterdam  which I reviewed in The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet - Stadsshouwburg Amsterdam 24 Nov 2013 25 Nov 2013.  On 15 April 2018 I am returning to the Stadsshouwburg to celebrate that company's fifth anniversary with a special performance of In the Future by the current members of the Junior Company.

According to the Dutch National Ballet's website, In the Future will be a triple bill consisting of the Napoli Suite (Pas de Six and Tarantella) by August Bournonville, Fingers in the Air, a new work by Juanjo Arques and In the Future by Hans van Manen.  it is described as "an attractive, yet daring programme for twelve dancers."  It differs from previous galas that I have seen where up to 8 new works were presented in a single evening.

Because I had been married for many years to a Sierra Leonean national who loved ballet as much as I do and knew a lot more about it, I was thrilled to learn about a young American dancer of Sierra Leonean origin.  She was already carving an enviable reputation for herself by winning the Youth America Grand Prix. her film First Position and early reviews of her performances in New York and her guest appearances in South Africa (see Michaela DePrince 4 April 2013).  When I learned that she had moved to Amsterdam my heart leapt (see No Holds Barred  4 Oct 2013).  I bought a ticket for the Junior Company's first show and booked a flight to Amsterdam.

When I eventually saw DePrince I described her as "quite simply the most exciting dancer I have seen for quite a while" but she was not the only dancer who impressed me that night. So, too, did Sho Yamada who partnered DePrince in Diana and Actaeon and all the other brilliant young people whom I saw on 24 Nov 2013 and subsequently.  On my last visit to Amsterdam just over a month ago I was overjoyed to see Yamada and Riho Sakamoto top the bill in Don Quixote (see A Day of Superlatives - Dutch National Ballet's Don Quixote 1 March 2018).

I have got to know several of those dancers.  When the outstanding young dancer and choreographer, Cristiano Principato, brought friends and colleagues from the Dutch National Ballet and other major companies to Trecate, a small town in Piedmont to raise funds for the charity Casa Alessia, I attended and reviewed their show (see From Italy with Love  1 July 2015).  The next year Principato arranged an even more ambitious programme of new choreography in Amsterdam called New Moves I was there for that too. One of the dancers who accompanied Principato to Italy was Thomas van Damme. Van Damme.  Van Damme also showed enormous talent as a choreographer in  New Moves 2017 but he also shows extraordinary talent as a film maker (see The Ballet Couple 8 Sept 2016). In that regard he reminds me so much of our own Kenneth Tindall.

If you can't make the Staddshouwburg next Sunday you get another chance to see it on 28 June 2018 at the Korzo Theatre in the Hague, The International Court, the International Criminal Court and a branch of the European Patent Office are also to be found there though only a lawyer would be interested in that kind of thing.  One of my ballet teachers danced there in The Lion King but he has now returned to Manchester.

If you miss In the Future  I recommend the opening night gala on the 8 Sept 2018 which is followed by a party a which you can meet the dancers and choreographers, Giselle, Christopher Wheeldon's Cinderella and Rudi van Dantzig;s Swan Lake.  There is now a direct train to Amsterdam from St Pancras and yesterday The Guardian published the Top 10 affordable hotels, hostels and B&Bs in Amsterdam.   

The Ballet Couple

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There is a great overlap between film and dance. It started long before The Red Shoes.  Pavlova experimented with the camera as you can see from her clip of The Dying Swan In Leeds of All Places - Ashton Pavlova and Magic  18 Sept 2013.  So, too, did Nijinsky as you can see from Hommage au Faun 9 July 2013.

When I interviewed Kenny Tindall in "A Many Sided Genius" - Tindall on Casanova 4 March 2017 we talked about the cinema which he refers to as "church". Tindal compared the work of a choreographer to that of the director of a film:

"The roles were similar and maybe even converging as techniques and technology that had been developed for the cinema were increasingly used in ballet. I recalled the filming of The Architect to which project I had contributed (see Tindall's Architect - How to Get a Piece of the Action - Literally! 7 June 2014). I asked whether another film might result from Casanova. Tindall’s eyes sparkled. No concrete plans as yet, he said, but would it not be splendid to film Act I in Venice and Act II in Paris."

I was reminded of my conversation with Tindall when I saw New Moves on 24 June 2017.   As I said in my review:

"The most dramatic work of the evening was Thomas van Damme's Convergence which he created for Skyler Martin and Clara Superfine to music by Gorecki. Superfine is yet another dancer whose career I follow closely (see Thank You Ernst 17 March 2016). Through superb use of lighting reminiscent of cinema, he seemed to force the dancers together. They seemed to approach each other but not as lovers, more like predator and prey. It seemed like a gripping narrative though the programme notes suggest something gentler:

"1. Independent development of similar characters often associate with similarity of habits or environment.
2. Moving toward union or uniformity."

As he has mastered the technique of building suspense, I look forward to seeing whether van Damme will use that technique in his future work."

I have not had to wait very long. He used the same technique in Girls Night with Riho Sakamoto and Yuanyuan Zhang,  This is one of a number of short films that Thomas van Damme has made with Youanyuan Zhang as The Ballet Couple.  They have their own YouTube Channel, Facebook page and Twitter stream.  They describe themselves as:

"Professional ballet dancers in love enjoying life and youtube. 

Follow us in our life with our special jobs and crazy adventures! 

Tell us about your adventures and experiences with dance or other. 

Love, 

Yuanyuan & Thomas"

You have already seen enough of them to appreciate their talents.  Just imagine their potential.

New Moves 2017

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Dutch National Ballet New Moves Music Theatre, Amsterdam, 26 June 2017 20:15

I have been following the Dutch National Ballet for several years now and have seen some great shows such as Ted Brandsen's Mata Hari and Coppelia (see Brandsen's Masterpiece 14 Feb 2016 and Brandsen's Coppelia  12 Dec 2016) and Natalia Makarova's La Bayadère (see Dutch National Ballet's La Bayadere 14 Nov 2016), but never have I admired that company more than I did last night. New Moves is a gala of work by some of the company's most talented young choreographers.  All of those pieces were good and several were outstanding.  I cannot think of any other company that stages galas like New Moves every year and I struggle to think of another that would be capable of doing so.

New Moves is intended to close the Amsterdam ballet season just as the gala in September, which I attended in 2015 and 2016, opens it (see The best evening I have ever spent at the ballet 13 Sept 2015 and Dutch National Ballet's Opening Night Gala - Improving on Excellence 6 Sept 2016). As on opening night, there was "a swinging afterparty in the foyers of the theatre" where it would have been possible to meet the choreographers and dancers.

The programme began with Clotilde Tran-Phat's In Limbo.  This was a work for 8 dancers choreographed to a score by Nicholas Robert Thayer. The title and programme notes suggest that the choreographer was inspired by the following words of Dante:

"Heaven, to keep its beauty, cast them out, but even Hell itself would not receive them for fear the damned might glory over them" (The Divine Comedy, Hell Canto 8).

All but one of the dancers appeared in what seemed to be surgical gowns. That other dancer was in a tight fitting skin coloured costume.  It ended with all the dancers in similar costumes and some words spoken in English which I believe to be those of John E Visitc. Having read the programme notes after seeing the piece and having once read Dante I guess the white gowns perhaps represented spirits trapped in a region from which they could not escape. It complemented the last work of the evening which was also about a sort of limbo.

Chanquito van Hoewe was the only choreographer with two works in the show.  He is a talented singer-songwriter as well as an accomplished dancer and choreographer and he took to the stage with a guitar in his second piece.  A woman just behind me in the auditorium whooped with a piercing ululation the moment he picked up the instrument.  The first of his works was a solo for Daniel Robert Silva whom readers will remember was my outstanding young male dancer for 2016 (see The Terpsichore Titles: Outstanding Young Dancers of 2016 28 Dec 2016). It was called Echoes Through Time and the programme notes indicate why:

"As we all take our journey on this planet of life
Life will always seem to change
Life will always die
Life will always be born
Life shall always seem to be cruel
Life shall always and forever be beautiful
As life travels through the echoes of time in our own minds."

It was danced beautifully by Silva. As he took his applause he appeared at one point quite overawed by the audience's response. He thrust his head no his hands as though he was about to burst into tears.

Bruno da Rocha-Pereira, who, like Silva, is from Brazil danced Pages without End (which he had created in collaboration with Robin van Zutphen) with yet another compatriot. Priscylla Gallo. This was a beautiful duet to the music of Max Richter When she came back. Gallo is one of several hugely talented artists who began their careers in the Junior Company and whom I follow closely. It was one of my favourite performances of the evening.

The only ballet to require a dramaturge was Bastiaan Stoop's Brighter than Gold.  It was also one of the few works for which the choreographer had commissioned costumes from a designer rather than relying on the company's wardrobe. Thr dramaturge, in this case, was Fabienne de Vegt and the designer Dieter de Cock. The work was a solo for Nathan Chaney dressed in a hoodie. Above him was a single light bulb which was explained as follows in the programme notes:

"In an abandoned window
Light vs darkness and vice versa a never ending battle.
Like the endless times she told me to leave, knowing I would stay. Left alone, the same own non-goodbye ...... Choosing between nothing and emptiness, either way, just me. My energy and my prode hoping that door will one day open once again."

The music, Jon Hopkins's atmospheric Abandon Window, seems to have been the inspiration for the work.

Van Hoeve's second work, Hopeless Romantics, was a solo for the talented Canadian dancer Theo Duff Grant whom I first saw in Ballet Bubbles last year.  Van Hoeve sang his own composition Shame on Me.  In the programme notes, van Hoeve stated that he had created a new wave ballet for the "hopeless romantics" such as the characters in Swan Lake and Tristan and Isolde and perhaps even members of the audience. It was a very popular piece and earned deafening applause.

The first half was rounded off with Christopher Pawlicki-Sinclair Voyagers which drew its inspiration from the NASA probes through interstellar space carrying images of life on earth. This was an upbeat piece for eight dancers to Peter Gregson's Held and Time.  The audience loved it and so did I.

During the interval, I met Remco van Grevenstein who had very kindly reviewed the company's Onegin for me earlier this year (see (see Onegin 2 April 2017) and another of my Dutch Facebook friends who teaches ballet in IJsselstein some 30 miles south of Amsterdam. My teacher friend was accompanied by two of her students.  I asked whether I could attend one of their adult ballet classes next time I am in the Netherlands and was told that I could.  I warned my friend that I was hopeless at pirouettes but I enjoy jumping to which one of the students offered to jump with me. One of my teachers refers to her teachers and students as a "family". I think that is right but I would go so far as to say that there is such a thing as a "worldwide adult ballet family".

Sebastian Galtier had created Step Addition to the music of René Aubry's Steppe for the Noverre workshop in Stuttgart some tears ago and had brought it back to Amsterdam to see how a Dutch audience would take to it. Danced beautifully by Daniel Carmargo, one of the company's principals, and  Nancy Burer, one of my favourite young dancers, it went down a treat with the crowd.  He said in the programme notes that he hoped that the audience reaction would give him inspiration to do some more.  He should now have all the inspiration that he needs so we can look forward to more work from him.

As well as coordinating the whole event (see Principato moves to a Bigger Stage 30 May 2017), Cristiano Principato created, and danced in, my favourite work of the evening.  He based his work on the music of Herny Purcell, our first great composer. This was a work for four dancers and his casting was impeccable.  He chose Silva to accompany him in the first and last movements and Khayla Fitzpatrick and Fabio Rinieri to dance the others.  Della Lo' Milano dressed Principato and Silva in 18th-century century wigs and jackets. They turned and travelled in complete unison.  Fitzpatrick appeared in a mask which Rinieri lifted. In his programme notes Principato remarked:

"this ballet wants to explore the essence of being an artist and performer. It shows how we 'wear' a different identity on stage and how demanding it is to completely become another character and forget whatever has been going on in our personal life, the moment we take out mask off."

I was reminded of the scene in Kenneth Tindall's Casanova where Casanova meets Bellino. The removal of the masks charts the development of trust as I described in Casanova Unmasked on 16 Feb 2017. Like Tindall, Principato shows what some critics call musicality. I prefer to use the term "sensitivity to music". Principato's teacher Ernst Meisner shows that quality in all his work as does Tindall.  It is odd that Purcell's work is not used more often as it works well in ballet. José Limón used Purcell's music in The Moor's Pavane which Birmingham Royal Ballet dance so well (see Birmingham Royal Ballet brings Shakespeare to York 18 May 2016).

The most dramatic work of the evening was Thomas van Damme's Convergence which he created for Skyler Martin and Clara Superfine to music by Gorecki. Superfine is yet another dancer whose career I follow closely (see Thank You Ernst 17 March 2016). Through superb use of lighting reminiscent of cinema, he seemed to force the dancers together. They seemed to approach each other but not as lovers, more like predator and prey. It seemed like a gripping narrative though the programme notes suggest something gentler:

"1. Independent development of similar characters often associate with similarity of habits or environment.
2. Moving toward union or uniformity."

As he has mastered the technique of building suspense, I look forward to seeing whether van Damme will use that technique in his future work.

Passing Shadows by the company's principal, Remi Wörtmeyer, was another gripping work though more for the choreography than the staging. There was an explosion of applause before the curtain began to fall as Wörtmeyer spun his fellow Australian Juliet Burnett of the Flanders Ballet inches from the floor. This was a work for four dancers to Rachmaninov's Cello Somata in G Minor Op 19 Slow. This was a work for four dancers the other two being Jingjing Mao and Clemens Fröhlich. Wörtmeyer is credited with painting the sets and designing the costumes though they were sourced from the company's wardrobe and props departments.

The finale was Milena Siderova's Withdrawn.  Siderova had created Full Moon for Bart Engelen who is now with the Norwegian Ballet. In that work, Engelen struggled with a pillow to the Dance of the Knights from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet which impressed me greatly when I first saw it (see The Dutch National Ballet Junior Company's best Performance yet 8 Feb 2015). I expected much from her next work and I think that we got it. Withdrawn was a work for 10 dancers to the music of Emilie Satt's Butterfly. It appears to have been inspired by a passage from Carol Becker's essay Thinking in Place, Art, Action and Cultural Protection of a dystopian future in which human social interaction is replaced by the interaction of electronic devices. Each of the dancers carried a torch which I guess was reminiscent of the screen of a mobile phone. They seemed to wander in a sort of limber rather like the lost souls in surgical gowns in Tran-Phat's In Limbo that launched the show.

The audience rose as one as soon as the curtain rose and we stayed on our feet through all the curtain calls. There were bouquets for all the dancers, the men as well as the women. And such original bouquets too. They seemed to be arranged around gladioli. We clapped until our palms were sore and cheered until we became hoarse and rightly so for we had seen something wonderful.

I would dearly have loved to have congratulated Principato and his team of dancers and choreographers in person at the party that followed the show. I know from the opening night galas of 2015 and 2016 that the company knows how to celebrate and the company had given me a voucher for the bar. But I had a plane to catch in the morning and it was already late. In order to be sure that I would make my flight, I had booked into an hotel near the airport.  I found to my cost after last September's opening night gala that the underground and suburban railway services in Amsterdam close down very much earlier than those in London and that taxis fleece their fares mercilessly at night. Even Uber is expensive after dark. I could not afford to be caught out a second time.

Throwing a party for the audience on special occasions is a lovely idea for it cements the relationship between the company and its patrons. The Dutch National Ballet seems to cherish its patrons and they, in turn, support the company.  Too often in England, I often get the feeling that the audience is almost an irrelevance.  I suspect that may be because companies here rely so much on Arts Council England for their funding. It is different in Wales, or at least in Newport, where I detect a similar bond between Ballet Cymru and its audience to the one that subsists between the Dutch public and their National Ballet. That may be one of the reasons why I warm so much to the national ballet companies west of Offa's Dyke and east of the North Sea.

Brandsen's Coppelia

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Dutch National Ballet Coppelia, Music Theatre, Amsterdam 11 Dec 2016, 14:00

With Mata Hari Ted Brandsen showed he was a master of tragedy (see Brandsen's Masterpiece 14 Feb 2016). With Coppelia he shows his mastery of comedy. I can't remember when I last laughed so much in a ballet or left a theatre more elated.  It is without question the best dance show around this Christmas. While I recommend the three Nutcrackers or Hansel and Gretel from our four leading companies, Sir Matthew Bourne's The Red Shoes and Northern Ballet's Beauty and the Beast, if there is only time or money for one ballet this Christmas, this is the one to see.  Though I had a horrendous journey from Amsterdam last night thanks to a lorry running into an aeroplane, easyJet's appalling customer service, immigration officers forcing us to use their useless and annoying e-passport machines when we eventually landed at Ringway and a 2 hour wait for a train home, the pleasure I got from that show more than made up for it.

I am usually pretty scathing about updates of well-loved ballets as readers of this blog well know. I don't like bikes on stage in Swan Lake.  I bristle at shillelagh-wielding wilis. As I said in Manchester City Ballet's Coppelia 10 Dec 2016, Coppelia already addresses contemporary themes like coming to terms with artificial intelligence, low-level youth crime and elder abuse so why update it? With all these thoughts in mind, I was a little apprehensive as I entered the Music Theatre auditorium yesterday afternoon.  I need not have been. Brandsen had made some changes to the story and he had set the scene int the present, but those changes were changes for a reason rather than change for change sake.

Brandsen has changed the names of the lead characters from Franz and Swanhilde to Frans and Zwaantje. He has given them jobs in a gym and a juice bar respectively.  He has turned Dr Coppelius into a businessman with a chain of beauty clinics. He has introduced a lot of new characters including a demonic PA to Dr Coppelius called Anna Marx, a girl geek friend for Zwaantje called Emma, lots of relations, celebrities and two adorable dogs danced by children. On the other hand, he has retired Dawn, Prayer and Work as well as the duke and Burgermeister, He has given the last act a new sub-plot with Coppelia turning up in a wedding dress forcing Frans to choose between her and Zwaantje.  Probably the best way to appreciate those changes is to watch the animation even though it is in Dutch. In all other respects, Brandsen has left the story unchanged and he has kept the score in its entirety.

Yesterday, the role of Zwaantje was danced by Anna Ol and Frans by Artur Shesterikov. Both are consummate virtuosos. Ol thrilled us with her fouettés, posés and chaînés. Shesterikov with his soaring and seemingly effortless leaps.  They are also accomplished actors. Shesterikov held his head in his hands when he knew that Zwaantje had caught him making advances to Coppelia, a gesture known to every single woman in the audience who has caught her man doing something that he ought not to be doing and eliciting a ripple of knowing female laughter. More laughter from the audience as she dodged his embraces until she forgave him. Clearly too quickly because Frans allowed himself to be enticed into the clinic by Dr Coppelius and his assistant.

In Brandsen's version, Dr Coppelius was a major role which was danced yesterday by the soloist, Edo Wijnen. He was no eccentric old alchemist pottering about in his workshop but a powerful and unscrupulous businessman. He was energetic and guileful and very sinister. His assistant in his scheming was Weng Ting Guan who was as scary as her boss. It was she who produced a bottle laced with a drug that knocked Frans out cold. She wired him up to a machine which was to extract whatever it was that made him human and inject it into Coppelia.

Coppelia was danced by Nancy Burer whom I had first noticed when she danced Embers with Thomas van Damme on the opening night of the Junior Company's 2015 tour (see The Dutch National Ballet Junior Company's best Performance yet 8 Feb 2015). She had rather more to do in Brandsen's Coppelia than in most other productions who simply require their doll to sit and look beautiful and, occasionally, make short, jerky arm and leg movements. Brandsen made her into a seductress and a rather dangerous one. I think I saw more than a little of Mata Hari in Burer's depiction of Coppelia, resplendent in her strawberry blonde bouffant wig. There is, incidentally, a very amusing little video of Coppelia playing hide and seek with the security guard on the company's YouTube channel called Coppelia v The Night Watch with some lovely views of the Stopera or Music Theatre.

Van Damme, incidentally, also had a character role as a "glam rock star" or one of the dolls in the numbered boxes in the clinic. It was good to see him and other young dancers I follow such as Cristiano Principato, Emilie Tassinari, Giovanni Princic, Melissa Chapski and many others. There were opportunities for lots of fine young dancers such as Ahmad Joudah who danced the clergymen and indeed the students from the National Ballet Academy two of whom, Aafka Wolles and Wisse Scheele, danced the poodle and dalmatian. The final scene of the ballet with each of the characters taking a farewell bow the corps turning and the children doing balances brought each and every member audience (me included) to their feet. Standing ovations, which used to be rare when I first started watching ballet in the 1960s, have become increasingly common. More and more frequently I have to ask myself: "why?"  I didn't yesterday.  It was obvious. The audience's accolade  was well and truly earned by everyone in the cast.

I should say a word for the creatives. Sieb Posthuma's set designs were exquisite. In addition to theatre design he had been an illustrator of children's books and the intention was to create the illusion of walking into a story book.  Copies of that book were on sale in the foyer for just over 15 euros. I thought long and hard about buying a copy for Vlad the Lad but there was a lot of text in Dutch. The poor little boy is already expected to master his mother's Krio and his dad's Ga as well as major modern European languages and possibly the classics. François-Noël Cherpin did a magnificent job with the costumes. And who should be conducting the orchestra but our own dear Koen Kessels.

Anna Ol and Artur Shesterikov

(c) 2016 Jane Lambert
All rights reserved

After the show, Ol and Shesterikov sat at a desk at the top of the stairs and signed programmes and merchandise for a lot of excited little boys and girls and their equally excited Mums and Dads. Signing after a matinee is a charming practice of the Dutch National Ballet which I wish dance companies in this country would follow. It would do more to bounce kids into regular exercise than anything else I know.

Like most of my compatriots who follow ballet, my home is Covent Garden. There is nothing quite like the House on a ballet night. But, increasingly, I am finding a welcoming second home in the Dutch National Ballet's Music Theatre and I am beginning to know and love the Dutch National Ballet as I do the Royal Ballet.

From Italy with Love

Cristiano Principato and Friends, Gala for Alessia, Silvio Pellico Theatre, Trecare, 28 June 2016

Trecate is a small town in Piedmont about 25 miles to the west of Milan and 4 miles to the east of Novara. Its Wikipedia entry could hardly be briefer:

"Trecate is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Novara in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 90 kilometres (56 mi) northeast of Turin and about 9 kilometres (6 mi) east of Novara.
It harbors a major refinery complex for fuels and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), serving northern and central Italy.
It is served by Trecate railway station."

Tramping round the town centre on Monday night looking for somewhere to eat I was reminded of the small Northern mill towns such as Rawtenstall in Lancashire or Birstall in the West Riding. There is a parish church, a town hall, a market square, a small park, a few bars and ice cream parlours and an old fashioned cinema which doubles as a theatre. That's just about it.

Cristiano Prinipato, one of the most promising young dancers and choreographers of the Dutch National Ballet, comes from Novara.  In order to raise funds for a local charity called Casa Alessia he persuaded 11 of his chums from the Dutch National Ballet, La Scala Ballet, Vienna State Ballet and Jas Art Ballet to perform with him in the cinema cum theatre. From the Dutch National Ballet he brought Emilie Tassinari, Giovanni Princic, Thomas van Damme, Yuanyuan Zhang and Priscylla Gallo. From La Scala he brought Giulia Lunardi, Edoardo Caporaletti and Gaia Andreano, from Vienna Elena Bottaro and from Jas Art Federico Ginetti and Filippo Valmorbida.

Each of those young artists gave his or her time for free and travelled quite considerable distances in the case of the artists from the Dutch National and the Vienna State Ballets. They had very little time to rehearse together since several of them flew in on the day of the performance. Cristiano had to make most of the arrangements even down to the lighting design from Amsterdam. He did all that on top of his full time job as dancer and choreographer with the Dutch National Ballet and he has only recently celebrated his 21st birthday.

When I featured Cristiano just after he joined the Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet (see Meet Cristiano Principato of the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company 3 Dec 2014) I wrote:

"Cristiano's immediate ambitions are to work hard this year, to learn what he can from his teachers, to enjoy every performance and generally to become a very good dancer. He hopes to make a career with the Dutch National Ballet. In the long term his dream is to direct a major company where he can create new ballets. He has loved choreography ever since he was a child.
His passions outside ballet are travelling, reading (especially contemporary fiction), cinema, pop music, good food and the company of good friends.
Here is a another young man who knows where he is going and I shall follow his career with interest."

On Tuesday night this remarkable young man showed his potential to fulfil all those ambitions.

The Gala for Alessia was not dissimilar to the programme that the Junior Company takes on tour around the Netherlands every week. It consisted of 17 pieces that spanned just about everything from Bournonville to Brandsen. Cristiano contributed two of his own works to the programme: the opening solo Tempo and Palladio which his company had premiered a few days earlier in New Moves.  Valmorbida contributed Acqua to the show. He and Ginetti also offered their Giorni d'Orfantotrofio to the show. Other new works iwere Ted Brandsen's Replay and Ernst Meisner's Elegy and Embers. The rest of the programme consisted of extracts from Don Quixote, Swan Lake, Coppelia, La Sylphide, Flower Festival and The Sleeping Beauty.

I don't know how much ballet comes to Trecate or even Novara but it is unlikely to be very much. There is, of course, plenty of ballet at La Scala and other theatres in Milan but Milan is an hour's train journey away and La Scala is even more expensive than Covent Garden.  It is likely that for some members of the audience Tuesday's gala was their first experience of ballet.  If that was the case I cannot think of a better introduction than Cristiano's programme.

The evening began with Cristiano's Tempo which he danced himself. He is a tall, athletic and has a particularly expressive face. Clearly he loves music and expresses it in every fibre of his being. The music he chose for the piece was interesting. Its composer was Emilie Simon and the piece was rich in texture. I could be wrong but one of her instruments sounded like a didgeridoo which I have heard only once before in a classical arrangement. It was a great start to the show.

Giovanni Princip continued the momentum with Eric Gauthier's Ballet 101. He is another tall, athletic and altogether impressive dancer. I had seen him dance Ballet 101 before in Ballet Bubbles at the Meervaart in Amsterdam (see Giovanni Princic in Ballet 101 20 Feb 2016). I told him then that his performance was the best that I had ever seen. Tuesday's performance was even better. Much of the fun of the piece comes from the dialogue with such phrases as "Let's keep this classical" as the dancer raises his fists in 28th position and "Oh ho your 40th position looks a lot like your 25th" followed by creaking as he bends his knee. English is not spoken as much in Trecate as it is in Amsterdam so some of the jokes may have been lost but they still enjoyed the piece.

Cristiano followed with Emilie Tassinari in Ted Brandsen's Replay.  Emilie is another dancer to watch. She is super talented and very focused (see Meet Emilie Tassinari of the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company 6 Dec 2014). On stage she is very strong, very fast but also very delicate with superb technique and a mastery of detail. I have been one of her fans ever since I first saw her in Amsterdam in February 2015. I was even more impressed when I saw her in Cinderella later that year and more still when I saw her at the Meervaart in February. She is an excellent partner for Cristiano and when they dance together they are magnificent

The next piece was an extract from Petipa's Don Quixote which was danced by Gaia Andreano. It is a delightful variation but not easy to dance. In performing this solo, she showed charm as well as virtuosity. It was the first time I had seen Andreano and I am sure I shall hear a lot more about her even if I cannot see her very often. I cannot remember the last time La Scala Ballet visited London or even whether it has ever come to this country.

 Next came the seduction scene from the black act of Swan Lake danced by Giulia Lunardi and Edoardo Caporaletti. This is a ballet I have seen many times and I know the choreography very well. Nevertheless I learned something new from these dancers. Caporaletti danced the pas de deux in a way that suggested second thoughts. Perhaps he was beginning to cotton on that Odile was not Odette. Sensing those thoughts Luardi drew him back in line with a sharp slap on the shoulder. I should be interested to know whether this was the dancers' own interpretation or whether it is in La Scala's production. Had I been able to stay longer in Italy I could have found out for myself as La Scala danced Swan Lake last night.

Giovanni and Emilie followed with a very different portrayal of Siegfried and Odette-Odile from the white act. In this pas de deux Emilie showed her mastery of detail and her delicacy and Giovanni demonstrated his sensitivity. It is a lovely piece and one of which I never tire. There cannot have been many dry eyes in the house after that performance.

Two fine solo performances by the principals of Jas Art Ballet followed Swan Lake. Filippo Malborbida was a great Franz in an extract from Coppelia and Federico Ginetti an equally impressive James in his variation from La Sylphide. I was so impressed by their performances that I googled their company. I could not find a website but I discovered a Facebook page which stated:

"Productions for Theatres and Private Fashion and Commercial Events - Music Video Clips and TV under direction of Sabrina Brazzo International Etoile Dancer,"

Now Sabrina Brazzo is a name that I did know. A distinguished ballerina contemporaneous with our own Darcey Bussell  she can choose the very best young dancers in Italy for her company. Clearly Ginetti and Valmorbida are among the best.

The first half finished with Palladio which I believe I previewed on 4 June 2016. In the video about the ballet Cristiano explains that it is about a young girl who breaks her heart but recovers and moves on. It explores her sadness but then her strength as she creates new relationships.  Cristiano cast all the Amsterdam dancers in this piece including himself. This is a very sophisticated work and quite a remarkable piece for one so young. Though completely original I could see the influence of Meisner - but not just Meisner for I was also reminded of Jerome Robbins. Balanchine and Jose Limon's The Moor's Pavane. Most choreographers' early works are quickly forgotten but I don't think this will be one of them. I think it will be performed time and again, I might add that I think it will be popular in England as Cristiano's choreography is well suited for dancers trained in the English style.

After the interval there was a film about the brief life of Alessia Mairati, her vision and mission, her premature death in an air crash, the charity that her father, Giovanni Mairati, had founded in her honour, the work that it has done in different parts of the world and its resettlement project for former child soldiers in Burundi. Following the film Mr Mairati mounted the stage to thunderous applause and gave a short interview to the compere. Tickets for the show were free but envelopes were provided with the programme for anonymous donations. The pile of envelopes was pretty high by the time I left the theatre and if any my readers around the world wish to add to the kitty there is a giving page on the charity's website.

The rest of the show was themed on Africa and Alessia. The starting point was the pas de deux from The Pharaoh's Daughter which I found particularly interesting as that ballet is rarely performed in this country and I have never seen it before. It is a typical Petipa formula with entree, adagio, variations and coda which Cristiano danced impressively with Elena Bottaro. For me this was one of the high points of the evening. I should very much like to see the rest of the ballet and shall look out for it somewhere in Europe. It is in the Bolshoi's repertoire but it is not one of the works that they are bringing to London this month.

The commentator explained that Alessia loved flowers which was the cue for Bournonville's Flower Festival danced exquisitely by Thomas van Damme and Priscylla Gallo. I have seen Thomas more often than any of the dancers and he is another of my favourites. He is tall and graceful with a commanding presence but he is also a dance actor who can tell a story better than most. Priscylla I have seen only once before but her qualities shone through at once. Clearly another superstar in the making she reminded me of her compatriot Roberta Marquez. Together Thomas and Prisyilla were exquisite.

The commentator listed some of the challenges to Africa. The existential threat of drought caused by climate change was expressed in Valmorbida's solo Acqua which he danced himself. How can one express that concept in movement? Ketil Bjornstad's onomatopoeic music helped as did the fluidity of  Valmorbida's choreography and dancing.  A most impressive work.

War is another existential challenge to Africa and many of the conflicts that have arisen there in modern times have been been over minerals and in particular diamonds. That thought resonated with me as my late spouse came from Sierra Leone, a country that was devastated by a particularly savage civil war. It would also have resonated with members of the Dutch National Ballet since one of their company's most popular dancers was a victim of that same civil war. The connection with diamonds was expressed by Gaia Andreano in her Diamond solo from The Sleeping Beauty. It is a beautiful dance which Andreano performed well but in the context also full or irony.

The disruption of war was confronted in Meisner's Elegy which was perhaps the most moving ballet of the evening. Both English National Ballet and the New Zealand Ballet have staged commemorations of the centenary of the First World War and Ballet Black commissioned Christopher Marney to create War Letters which has recently been revived by Ballet Central,. Nothing is more poignant than Meisner's work. A duet by Cristiano in airman's blue and Emilie in a simple blue floral dress. The parting was as palpable as Romeo's and the fear and anxiety symbolized by Emilie's push to her lover. My regard for Meisner, which was already high, soared even higher. So too was my regard for his dancers who translated his steps into movement.

War leaves children fatherless and in many cases motherless too.   Much of Casa Alessia's work is for children and especially orphans. But orphanages can be loveless and often brutal places as Michaela DePrince reminds us in Hope in a Ballet Shoe. The shock and pain of sudden bereavement and absence of love was addressed by Ginetti and Valmorbida in Giorni d'Orfanotrofio or Orphanage Days which they created and danced to the music of Yann Tiersen.

But sometimes there can be happy endings such as where the sleeping princess in the forest is awoken by her beau or a child in an orphanage grasping a photo of a ballerina becomes a dancer with one of the finest companies of Europe and rises meteorically through its ranks. Thomas and Yuanyuan danced the awakening scene from The Sleeping Beauuty. I have seen Sibley in that role and more recently Aliya Tanykpayeva. Neither of them danced it more convincingly than Yuanyuan.

Last year Meisner was my joint choreographer of the year for creating Embers.  It moves me in a special way. I have now seen it four times and I love it a little more each time I see it.  Thomas and Nancy Burer introduced me to the work and they dance it beautifully. I experienced it in a different way when Cristiano and Priscylla danced the piece on Tuesday night. Never has it seemed more beautiful.

The emblem of the Casa Alessia is the sunflower. Members of the charity wear sunflower yellow t-shirts.  When the dancers appeared for their standing ovation each of the women artists received the most beautiful sunflower bouquet. But as I clapped and cheered from my seat a lady appeared with the same bouquet and presented it to me. A card that was attached to the cards read "Mrs Lambert Grazie di Cuore". It was signed on behalf of Mr Mairati, the dancers and the Friends of Alessia.   It was one of the most beautiful gifts I have ever received. It was not possible to bring the flowers back to Holmfirth but I found a home for them with a family in Italy who will enjoy them as much as I do.  I have however brought back their essence in the card and photo and these I shall never forget.

A Million Congratulations!

Michaela DePrince in "A Million Kisses to my Skin"

Author Angela Sterling
(c) 2015 Dutch National Ballet, all rights reserved
Licensed with the kind permission of the company

I am very grateful to David Dawson for sharing this announcement from Dance Europe:

Promotions at Dutch National Ballet

"Dutch National Ballet has announced the following promotions for the 2016-17 season: Jared Wright - 2nd soloist; Michaela DePrince - grand sujet; Matthew Pawlicki - grand sujet; Floor Eimers - coryphée; Krista Ettlinger - coryphée; Sem Sjouke - coryphée; Jessica Xuan - coryphée; Martin ten Kortenaar - coryphée; Oscar Valdes - coryphée; Riho Sakamoto, Yuanyuan Zhang and Cristiano Principato to corps de ballet. From the Junior Company to the main Company: Emilie G. Tassinari, Clara Superfine, Thomas Van Damme, Daniel Robert Silva, Joseph Massarelli and Giovanni Princic become élèves."

I have been following Michaela DePrince ever since 4 April 2013. It was she who led me to the Junior Company where I saw her dance for the first time (see The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet - Stadsshouwburg Amsterdam 24 Nov 2013 25 Nov 2013). Here's what I wrote about her:

"I had come to Amsterdam to see Michaela DePrince about whom I have written a lot. She appeared as Diana in Diana & Actaeon a ballet originally choreographed by Agrippina Vaganova for the Kirov in 1935. Soviet ballet was athletic and spectacular requiring enormous virtuosity. I had seen something of DePrince's virtuosity in her YouTube videos but she is even more impressive in real life. She is quite simply the most exciting dancer I have seen for quite a while."

Last year she gave a masterclass at Danceworks and Lesley  Osman sent me some lovely photos and a first hand account from Ciara Sturrock who took part (see Michaela's Masterclass 8 July 2015). She is coming back to Danceworks on 18 July 2016 (see Another Masterclass 2 May 2016). Last year at the opening gala I bumped into DePrince as I was leaving the Stopera.  As I said in The best evening I have ever spent at the ballet 12 Sept 2015, "I left the Stopera thinking how that exceptionally talented young dancer was as gracious off stage as she is magnificent upon it." The photo above shows DePrince in Dawson's A Million Kisses to my Skin.  Instead of a million kisses I send Michaela DePrince a million congratulations.

Last June I returned to Amsterdam to see Cool Britannia which included yet another of Dawson's works, Empire Noire (see Going Dutch 29 June 2015). DePrince was dancing in that work but so too was another outstanding young dancer, Floor Elmers. I was most impressed by her performance and have been following her career ever since.  A million congratulations to Floor as well.

In December 2014 I wrote a series of articles on members of the Junior Company (see Meet Ernst Meisner and his talented young dancers 6 Dec 2014). They included Martin ten Kortenaar, Riho Sakamoto, Yuanyuan Zhang, Cristiano Principato and Emilie G. Tassinari. I congratulation each and every one of them too and wish them well.

This year on my birthday I  saw Clara Superfine, Thomas Van Damme, Daniel Robert Silva, Joseph Massarelli and Giovanni Princic in Ballet Bubbles 16 Feb 2016. It was the best birthday treat ever. I thank them profusely and wish each and every one of them every success in their careers.

Finally, I congratulate all those artists listed above whom I have not mentioned.   Each and every one of them deserves an enormous bouquet of flowers.

The Beautiful Dancers at the Gala for Alessia

More on the Gala for Alessia.  

The brilliant young dancer and choreographer, Cristiano Principato, whose photo appears in the top left hand corner, has persuaded 11 of his chums to come to Trecate in North West Italy to dance in a gala to raise funds for the Casa Alessia to carry out reconstruction work in Burundi (see Principato's Project 7 April 2016).

Casa Alessia is a charity established in memory of a remarkable young student called Alessia Mairati who had intended to work for those less fortunate than herself. Alas, she died in an air crash before she could do any of that work but her father set up the charity to do some of the work that she would have carried out. It is a very sad but also very beautiful story (see Some More Information on Alessia 30 April 2016).

Every year a fund raising concert takes place in Novara in which Cristiano had always hoped to participate. He could not do so while he was at ballet school but he can now. He has brought all those excellent young dancers from the Dutch National Ballet, La Scala ballet, the Vienna State Ballet and Jas Arts Ballet to the Silvio Pellico Theatre in Trecate for a splendid show.

The programme will begin with Tempo which Cristiano has choreographed for himself and will include extracts from Swan Lake, Coppelia, The Sleeping Beauty and The Pharaoh's Daughter which we don't see very often in England. There will be another work from Cristiano called Paladio which he has created for the Dutch National Ballet and will end with Ernst Meisner's beautiful short work Embers which is one of the best I have ever seen.

Where us Trecate? I hear you say. It is about 15 miles south of Milan's Malpensa airport which is well served with flights from all major British airports as well as Budapest (if Mel or Ryosuke are interested), Oslo and Stuttgart. Trecate is just outside Novara on the railway line and near the motorway between Turin and Milan. Although it is very close to the airport it is rather awkward to reach by public transport which is why Holiday Taxis, easyJet's partners in Milan, had the cheek to quote me an exorbitant £120 for the 30 mile round trip. Don't pay it folks! The chaps in Burundi need your money rather more. Put at least some of that dosh in the collection when Cristiano passes round the hat at the end of the show. There is a bus from Malpensa airport to Novara which stops at Novara railway station from where there are frequent trains to Trecate (see How to get to the Gala for Alessia 4 May 2016).

By bringing the ballet to Trecate Cristiano will give his dad an opportunity to see him dance. Mr Principato senior has been unable to travel long distances for medical reasons. He has only read about his son's triumphs in Amsterdam, London and other places up to now. On 28 June he will see not only his son but some other fine dancers who like Cristiano will be big box office in a few years time.

The Silvio Pellico Theatre is at 24 Piazza Cattaneo in Trecate and the Macri restaurant is at number 20 where I shall be in the chair from 19:00.

Principato's Project

Cristiano Principato

Photo Robin DePuy

(c) Dutch National Ballet 2014

Reproduced with kind permission of the Dutch 

National Ballet

Cristiano Principato is an Élève (which translates roughly as "pupil", "apprentice" or "trainee") of the Dutch National Ballet. I wrote a feature on him in December 2014 shortly after he had joined the Junior Company That man can dance. He was trained at La Scala Ballet School, spent a year with the Dutch National Ballet's Junior Company and joined the main company last year. He has already performed at Covent Garden (see
Junior Company in London - even more polished but as fresh and exuberant as ever 7 June 2015) and at the Coliseum (see Wheeldon's Cinderella 13 July 2013) and I am sure we shall be hearing a lot more about him as time goes on.

Cristiano's latest project is a gala at the Silvio Pelico Theatre in Trecate on 28 June 2016 in aid of Casa Alessia's initiative in Bujumbura to give former child soldiers an opportunity to recover their childhood, to gain an education and learn a useful trade. Casa Alessia is an Italian charity which tackles need in Italy and overseas. According to the charity's website:

"Since 2008 a village of some 48 dwellings has been built at Masango in Burundi under the guidance of a Father Bepi.
The project was intended to enable former child solders regain their childhood. Father Bepi has taught them a trade while the charity has provided a roof over their heads to ensure a promising future.
Co-operative enterprises have been established around the village which brings relief to the poorest people."

Readers will know that this is just the sort of initiative that is close to my heart. My late spouse came from Sierra Leone which also suffered a vicious civil war in which children were kidnapped, drugged and forced to fight and commit the vilest atrocities. Michaela DePrince, who is also in the Dutch National Ballet, has described some of those appalling events graphically in Hope in a Ballet Shoe. My other connection with Africa is my late spouse's goddaughter who escaped the civil war to live with us. She is now the nearest I have to a daughter and her little boy the nearest I have to a grandson. I visited that country in 2007 and saw some of the devastation for myself (see Sierra Leone 18 April 2007 NIPC Law).

Because of my connection with Africa I have supported initiatives like Anno Africa's work in one of the toughest neighbourhoods of Nairobi (see What can be achieved by a good teacher 3 March 2013) and the Gala for Ghana 4 Feb 2014 which brought together some of the biggest names in dance including Elena Glurdjidze, Ed Watson and Lauren Cuthbertson who has just dazzled London with her Giselle (see Cuthbertson's Giselle 3 April 2016).

Cristiano's gala in Trecate promises to be just as riveting. He has enlisted some of his colleagues from the Dutch National Ballet such as Emilie Tassinari, Giovanni Princic, Yuanyuan Zhang, Thomas van Damme and Priscylla Gallo as well as dancers from elsewhere. Those dancers are some of the best of their generation and I have no doubt that at least some of them will be at least as great as Watson, Cuthbertson and Glurdjidze in 10 to 15 years time. There is a great video about the gala with some footage of Casa Alessia's work in Burundi circulating on Facebook.

Now if anybody wants to see these fine young dancers Trecate is about 6 miles from Novara which happens to be Cristiano's home town. For those who are interested in history a famous battle took place against the French 1513. There is a magnificent basilica with a dome that is almost 400 feet high, a neo-classical cathedral and the Broletto or forum. The town is not too far from the Alps. The nearest international airport is probably Turin which is about 60 miles away and served by BA and several budget airlines with direct flights to the UK

I should like to wish Cristiano and everybody involved in this show chukkas for the performance and everyone in Casa Alessiia every success with their valuable work.

Wie Lange Noch

Thomas van Damme and Emilie Tassinari

Photo Michel Schnater
Copyright 2016 Dutch National Ballet
Reproduction licensed with kind permission of the company
All rights reserved

Dutch National Ballet Junior Company, Meervaart Theatre, 14 Feb 2016


One of the most thrilling parts of the Dutch National Ballet's Junior Company's Ballet Bubbles programme on 14 Feb 2016 was Krzysztof Pastor's Wie Lange Noch to the music of Kurt Weill. Pastor is probably best known in this country for his Romeo and Juliet for Scottish Ballet which I reviewed in Scottish Ballet's Timeless Romeo and Juliet 18 May 2014.

This work featured two of my favourite young dancers: Thomas van Damme who had delighted me the previous year with his performance of Ernst Meisner's Embers with Nancy Burer in 2015 (see Junior Company's New Season 6 Feb 2015) earning Meisner my personal choreographer of the year award for 2015 (see Highlights of 2015 29 Dec 2015) and Emilie Tassinari who had impressed me and many others in Cinderella at the Coliseum (see Wheeldon's Cinderella 13 July 2015). Those two have really blossomed since I first met them just over a year ago and I am sure that they can both look forward to a glittering future.

So, too, can Joseph Massarelli and Daniel Robert Silva who appear below.

Joseph Massarelli and Daniel Robert Silva, 

Photo Michel Schnater, Copyright 2016 Dutch National Ballet. Reproduction licensed with kind permission of the company,All rights reserved

Those chaps were also in that piece. As they have only just joined the company this was the first time I had seen them. I am very impressed and will follow their careers with interest.

You will find my review of the show in Ballet Bubbles on 16 Feb 2016.

Fuse

Belle Beasley with Thomas van Damme and Antonio Martinez in Fuse

Photo Michel Schnater
Copyright 2016 Dutch National Ballet
All rights reserved

Reproduction licensed by the company

Another great photo from the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company's matinee performance at the Meervaart Theatre on 14 Feb 2016 which I reviewed in Ballet Bubbles on 16 Feb 2016. This photo shows Belle Beasley with Thomas van Damme and Antonio Martinez Cegarra in Charlotte Edmonds's Fuse.

Two other bits of news about the Junior Company.

Tomorrow they will perform Fresas ("Strawberries"), a new ballet by Juanjo Arques on Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights in 's-Hertogenbosch which was the artist's home town.

The above triptych hangs in the Prado in the choreographer's capital city. A neat link between the Netherlands and Spain.

The other news is that it Bart Engelen's birthday. Bart wowed the Linbury last year with his solo performance of Full Moon (see Junior Company in London - even more polished but as fresh and exuberant as ever 7 June 2015).

Bart is now with the Norwegian National Ballet.  I am sure I speak for everyone who saw him in London in wishing him a happy birthday and continued success in his career.

Ballet Bubbles

Dutch National Ballet Junior Company, Ballet Bubbles, Meervaart Theatre, Amsterdam, 14 Feb 2016

Mata Hari is a hard act to follow (see Brandsen's Masterpiece 14 Feb 2016). Mindful of the words of Voltaire's wise Italian that "le mieux est l’ennemi du bien" I feared that anything following it would be an anticlimax. That was what happened after the opening gala in September (see The best evening I have ever spent at the ballet 13 Sept 2015).  After seeing some of the best dancers in the world on the same stage the same evening I was temporarily spoilt for anything else.

In fact, the Junior Company's matinee performance of Ballet Bubbles which I saw at the end of a weekend that included a preview of the 2016 to 2017 opera and ballet season with interludes of heavenly singing and dancing and a tour of the home of the company which allowed access to company class and a walk on the Stopera's stage for Friends of the Dutch National Ballet as well as Mata Hari was the pièce de résistance. It was in its own way every bit as good as Mata Hari. The ability of the Dutch National Ballet to stage two outstanding but very different shows at the same time is an astounding achievement.  I struggle to think of another company in the world that could have done the same.

Of course, I should not have been so apprehensive. The week before, the Junior Company had premièred Ernst Meisner's joyful No Time Before Time at the finals of the 2016 Lausanne International Ballet Competition and nobody gets to dance there in any capacity unless they are special. Meisner's work was the finale of a brilliant performance which included work by David Dawson, Krzysztof Pastor, Hans van Manen as well as Charlotte Edmonds. In an opening address just before the start of the performance (which was in Dutch - not a language that I have ever studied - so I may well have got it wrong) I believe that Meisner explained that the Junior Company offers opportunities not only for the world's most promising young dancers but also for young technicians and choreographers such as Edmonds.

The performance was staged not in the Stadsschouwburg where the last two seasons' tours had started (see The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet - Stadsshouwburg Amsterdam 24 Nov 2013 25 Nov 2013 and The Dutch National Ballet Junior Company's best Performance yet 8 Feb 2015) but in the Theater de Meervaart near an artificial lake called the Sloterplas in the western suburbs of Amsterdam. Although nobody in my hotel nor even the Stopera seemed to know where it was, the Meervaart proved to be a good venue, particularly for a matinee performance where there were lots of children. There was plenty of space to sit and chat before and after the performance.  In the interval the management served drinks to the audience: red and white wine or fruit juice to the adults and every kind of sugary fizz to the children. A delightful gesture which I appreciated as I had had no time for lunch or dinner the day before nor any kind of meal on Sunday until after I had landed in England.

The show began with a short talk by Meisner who spoke about the company and the works that were to be performed. As in previous years each piece was preceded by a film in which a dancer set out his or her thoughts in his or her language of choice. 

In the first film Emilie Tassinari introduced the pas de six from Arthur Saint-Léon's La Vivandière which was originally staged in London in 1844 with Fanny Cerrito as La Vivandière and Saint-Léon himself as Hans. This is a gorgeous romantic ballet which is a type of dance in which Tassinari excels and seems to enjoy. In the previous year she had danced a divertissement from Napoli delightfully. In La Vivandière she danced the role that had been created by Cerrito which includes some spectacular grands jetés and tours en l'air that prompted a barrage of bravo from the audience. Saint-Leon's steps were traced impressively by the young Canadian dancer Theo Duff-Grant. They were accompanied equally impressively by Lisanne Kottenhagen, Melissa Chapski, Clara Superfine and Hannah Williams.

The next piece was Eric Gauthier's Ballet 101. It is one of my all time favourites and one that I would love to do.  In fact Mel has kindly offered to coach me.  It requires enormous strength and agility but it is also very witty.  Last year it was performed by Xander Parish at the 45th anniversary gala of Northern Ballet (see Sapphire 15 March 2015). I had previously seen Daniel Montero dance it for the Junior Company in 2013. I am collecting material for a book to be called "Will I like Ballet?" in which I shall refer to this piece throughout the work. On Sunday the piece was danced by Giovanni Princip who was nothing short of magnificent.

Next came Edmonds's Fuse which was arranged to Armand Amar's Dam in China and Paddy Fields. There is a lot of energy in this work with its compelling beat which was translated into movement by Thomas van Damme, Antonio Martinez Cegarra and Belle Beasley. Amar's music cannot have been easy to  choreograph or dance but it was interpreted imaginatively by the choreographer and executed beautifully by her dancers. This was the first time I had seen Edmonds's work and I look forward to more.

The first act was rounded off by Dawson's 5.  5 is only the second of his works that I have seen, the other being Empire Noir in Cool Britannia (see Going Dutch 29 June 2015). That work had been fast and furious and that was also true of 5. The music, Adolphe Adam's Giselle, albeit with some reworking, was familiar but the movement was not. It was exciting and the crowd loved it.  The female roles were danced by Chapski, Superfine and  Tassinari and the male ones by Joseph Massarelli and Daniel Robert Silva. Dawson has been commissioned by Scottish Ballet to produce a new Swan Lake. If his reworking of Giselle is anything can go by Liverpool can look forward to swans on steroids when Scottish Ballet comes to town.

The first ballet after the interval was Pastor's arrangement of Kurt Weil's Silbersee and Wie Lange Noch. Pastor is another of the Dutch National Ballet's resident choreographers whose work has been performed by Scottish Ballet. I was very impressed with his Romeo and Juliet when it came to Sadler's Wells in 2014 (see Scottish Ballet's Timeless Romeo and Juliet 18 May 2014).  Silbersee was a duet by Silva and Massirelli and Wie Lnnge Noch a pas de deux by Tassinari and van Damme. A beautiful and haunting work with many layers of meaning.

No performance by the Junior Company would be complete without a work by van Manen. In previous years the great man has come on stage to take a bow and the applause has exploded. Trois Gnossiennes with music by Erik Satie is of particular interest to British balletomanes because of its similarity to Ashton's Monotones. The music is sublime and so is van Manen's choreography executed sensitively by Chapski and Princic.

The last work was Meisner's No Time Before Time and it was my favourite by a mile. Starting with a solo by Silva who is joined gradually by the rest of the company in long, swooping stretches each giving the impression of a great bird in flight. The score by the Romanian composer and violinist Alexander Balanescu lifted the audience and enhanced the impression of flight. It must have been such fun to choreograph and even more fun to dance. The piece builds up. There is a lovely duet. Then some exuberant jumps. A pas de quatre.  More exits and entrances. A pas de trois. Finally two dancers remain on stage and the music cuts. For those of us who were fortunate enough to be at the Meervaart it felt as though we were dancing too.  I don't think I have ever seen a happier audience.

There was no rush for the exits after the show. The bars remained open and the audience stayed to chat. I caught Meisner after the show.  "Had this been London the stage would have been knee deep in flowers" I said to him. Having danced with the Royal Ballet he would have seen flower throws. I also met several of the dancers after the show some of whom I met for the first time and several of whom I already knew.  In the next few weeks I shall gather material for a feature on the Junior Company which I hope will do them even more justice than last time.

The Junior Company is now starting a tour of the Netherlands beginning at Oss near the Belgian border on the 18 Feb 2016 and finishing in the Hague on the 28 May 2016. Coming from a small village in the North of England 200 miles from London I applaud this initiative. I only wish they could have included a trip to the UK this year as they have done in previous years. But the Netherlands is not far and no part of that country is hard to reach. A performance by 12 of the most promising young dancers in the world would richly reward the jounrey.