Not Long Now

The 12 wonderful young dancers of the Dutch National Ballet Junior Company will be here in just over a week. I saw them in Amsterdam on 6 Feb 2015 and they were excellent. They will perform at the Linbury on 5 and 6 June 2015.   You can get an idea of what to expect from my review The Dutch National Ballet Junior Company's best Performance yet 8 Feb 2015, the video that I have embedded above and their video We are the Junior Company.  

Last December I ran a feature on the Company (see Meet Ernst Meisner and his talented young dancers 6 Dec 2014).  In Ernst Meisner’s Work with the Dutch National Ballet 2 Dec 2014 Ernst Meisner explained

“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."

He continued:

"Of course it is great to have the connection with the main company and this is also hugely important, as our young dancers also work with the main company in the large productions. This year they are part of Swan Lake and Cinderella. Apart from that they perform their own program in which they dance soloist roles and get a lot of experience. It gives our ballet masters, artistic staff and Ted Brandsen a chance to see the young dancers tackle bigger roles and give them a lot of stage experience which they wouldn’t get if they had just been in the corps de ballet. It was great seeing the dancers grow during the season and see how they gained confidence!”

I replied that “I noticed a considerable difference between the Junior Company’s opening night in November 2013 and their performance at the Linbury in May 2014 after they had spent several months touring the Netherlands and Spain.”

Since I saw them in February the dancers will have had 4 months to mature, to get used to working with each other and to hone their technique. They have toured the Netherlands with the show that they will perform in London. Members of the Junior Company just collaborated with ISH to create Narnia, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe where hip hop meets ballet.  Several have danced with the main company.  Some have even danced with the company abroad. We can expect great things of them when they come to London.

According to the Royal Opera House's website there are still a few tickets for sale for both nights. You can access the site by clicking this link.  Ernst Meisner be the London Ballet Circle's guest on 20 July 2015 so there will be a chance to discuss this project and show with him in person.